☕ SharePoint Tip #10 — Retention, Backup and Restore: nothing gets lost

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Good morning! Here is your 15-minute SharePoint tip for today.

Day 10 | Week 2 — Administration & Security

Retention Policies, Backup and Restore

How does SharePoint protect against data loss — accidental deletion, ransomware, or compliance requirements? Today’s tip covers everything that happens after content is created.

Version history (your first line of defence)

You already know about version history from Day 2. It’s worth repeating: version history is your most-used recovery tool. By default SharePoint keeps 500 versions per file. Users can restore any version themselves — no IT ticket needed.

The Recycle Bin (two stages)

When a user deletes a file:

  • Stage 1 — Site Recycle Bin: The file stays here for 93 days. The user or site owner can restore it.
  • Stage 2 — Site Collection Recycle Bin: After a user empties Stage 1, it moves here for another 93 days. Only site collection admins can restore from here.

After both stages, the file is permanently deleted — unless a retention policy is in place.

Microsoft Purview Retention Policies

A Retention Policy tells SharePoint: "Keep this content for X years, even if a user deletes it." This is critical for legal and regulatory compliance.

Common retention scenarios:

  • HR documents — retain for 7 years after employee leaves
  • Financial records — retain for 7 years (legal requirement in many countries)
  • Project files — retain for 5 years after project closes

Retention policies can also be set to delete content automatically after a period — useful for clearing out stale data.

Site-level restore

If something catastrophic happens to an entire site (mass deletion, ransomware), SharePoint keeps a backup of site collections for 14 days. IT admins can restore an entire site to any point in the last 14 days from the Admin Center — but this is a last resort.

Try it today (5 minutes)

Go to any SharePoint site → Site Contents → click Recycle bin in the left navigation. You’ll see everything deleted in the past 93 days, who deleted it, and when. This is enormously useful when users say "my file has disappeared."

As a Product Owner

Define your retention requirements in collaboration with Legal and Compliance before migration. Retrofitting retention policies is painful. Make retention a feature requirement in your migration epic, not an afterthought.

See you tomorrow at 6:00 AM with Tip #11 — Microsoft Teams and SharePoint: the full picture. Week 2 complete!