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Recycle Bin

List, restore, recycle, and permanently delete items in the SharePoint recycle bin.

Lifecycle

graph LR
    A[Live item] -->|recycle| B[First-stage recycle bin]
    B -->|restore| A
    B -->|move to second stage| C[Second-stage recycle bin]
    C -->|permanently delete| D[Gone]
    B -->|permanently delete| D

Prerequisites

Requirement Description Reference
Read access to the site Required to view the recycle bin SharePoint admin roles
Site Owner role Required to restore, move to second stage, and permanently delete items SharePoint admin roles

Examples

Operation File Required role API reference
Recycle a list item (send to recycle bin) recycle_item.py Edit items Recycle bin REST API
List recycle bin items (first or second stage) list_recycle_bin.py Read access Recycle bin REST API
Restore an item (or all) from the recycle bin restore_from_recycle_bin.py Site Owner Recycle bin REST API
Move items to the second-stage recycle bin move_to_second_stage.py Site Owner Recycle bin REST API
Permanently delete items (first or second stage) permanent_delete.py Site Owner Recycle bin REST API

Quick start

from office365.sharepoint.client_context import ClientContext

ctx = ClientContext("https://contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/team").with_client_certificate(
    "contoso.onmicrosoft.com", client_id="client_id", thumbprint="thumbprint", cert_path="./cert.pem"
)

# List first-stage recycle bin items
items = ctx.web.recycle_bin.get().execute_query()
for item in items:
    print(f"  {item.title}  (deleted: {item.deleted_date})")

# Restore the most recently deleted item
if len(items):
    items[0].restore().execute_query()

API reference