SharePoint Online: Hide Recycle Bin from Quick Launch

Requirement: Hide Recycle bin from SharePoint Online Quick Launch.

hide recycle bin in sharepoint online

How to Hide the Recycle Bin in SharePoint Online?

The recycle bin link was not relevant for site visitors as they can’t delete from the site or restore from the Recycle bin, and we wanted to hide the recycle bin from the Quick Launch in SharePoint Online.

Case 1: Hide Recycle bin from quick launch in Classic SharePoint UI

If you are using classic experience sites in SharePoint Online sites, you can hide the recycle bin from the quick launch of a particular page with this CSS. Just edit the page, add a script editor web part, and place this CSS.

sharepoint online hide recycle bin from quick launch

CSS to hide recycle bin in SharePoint Online:

<style type="text/css">
#sideNavBox a[title="Recycle Bin"]
{
    display:none!important
}
</style>

This hides the recycle bin link from the quick launch navigation of a specific page. If you want to do it at the site level, you can either edit the master page and place the above CSS under:

<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderAdditionalPageHead" runat="server" />

Otherwise, you can use “Alternate CSS” from the Master page settings of the site.

Case 2: Remove Recycle bin from quick launch in Modern SharePoint Online Sites

If you have a modern site, you can remove the “Recycle bin” link from the quick launch (or any link in the left navigation) with the help of the “Navigation” option of the SharePoint publishing feature. First, make sure you have the publishing server feature enabled at both the Site collection and the site level.

  1. Go to Site Settings >> Click on Site Collection Features >> Activate the “SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure” feature. It takes a moment to activate the feature.
  2. Once activated, click on the “Site Features” link from site settings >> Activate the “SharePoint Server Publishing” feature.

Once the publishing feature is enabled, the recycle bin will be automatically removed from the quick launch! Similarly, you can hide any link such as “Site Contents” from the SharePoint Online quick launch bar by:

  1. Go to Site settings >> Click on “Navigation” under “Look and Feel”
  2. Now, you can select and delete any link from the current launch navigation.
  3. Click the OK button to save the changes to the navigation.
    sharepoint online remove recycle bin from quick launch
  4. That’s all! The changes will be saved, and you will be returned to the Site Settings page.
You can also add the link https://yourtenant.sharepoint.com/sites/your-site/_layouts/15/RecycleBin.aspx to the navigation and set audience targeting to show recycle bin only to specific user or group!

If you want to hide the recycle bin link by injecting CSS, use this (Maybe with a modern script editor or SPFx solution):

a[href$="AdminRecycleBin.aspx"] {
    display:none;
}

Salaudeen Rajack

Salaudeen Rajack - SharePoint Expert with Two decades of SharePoint Experience. Love to Share my knowledge and experience with the SharePoint community, through real-time articles!

5 thoughts on “SharePoint Online: Hide Recycle Bin from Quick Launch

  • I have a Teams Classic site and VERY MUCH value the Save Site as a Template feature. BE CAREFUL – enabling Publishing removes this ability.
    Is there another way to move this stupid recycle bin without removing core capability I need. Seems so silly to not have a simple “Remove” on the nav like all other items like Site Contents etc..

    Why not?

    Reply
  • It worked but made the quick launch open in AreaNavigation classic view always which kind of made the things a bit complicated to handle.
    If that can be avoided and quick launch opens in modern that would be good.

    Reply
  • I would not turn on the publish service just to remove the link. It loads a ton of junk to a modern site:
    https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/features-enabled-in-a-sharepoint-publishing-site-3ab3810c-3c2c-4361-9d0e-0cbe666ea0b0#__toc336865555

    Reply
  • In Communication sites, option 2 isn’t available, so I’m still looking for a solution.

    Reply
  • I was kind of looking for this! I was able to turn off quick launch navigation successfully, but Recycle Bin remained. But thanks to this, solved now! Thanks for sharing.

    Reply

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