Similar to how we can restore your OneDrive to an earlier time (see earlier lesson in this course), you can restore any specific SharePoint document library to an earlier time as well, undoing all changes made after the chosen restoration time.
This video is part of my FREE 30+ lesson self-paced online training course called Collaboration in Microsoft 365 (OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams). Enroll today at https://www.NateTheTrainer.com for the full learning experience including lesson discussions, quizzes, exams, and a completion certificate.
In this post, I’ll show how you can both delete and restore SharePoint Online sites.
Note: You must be a SharePoint administrator or a SharePoint site owner to be able to delete a site, and only SharePoint administrators can restore them.
How to delete a SharePoint site
If you’re a site owner, follow these steps to delete your site:
Click the settings wheel in the upper right corner
Select Site information
Select Delete site
Check the confirmation box and then click Delete
If you’re a SharePoint administrator, you can follow these steps to delete a site:
Go to the SharePoint admin center (app launcher > Admin > SharePoint)
Select Sites > Active sites from the left navigation menu
Search or browse and select the site to delete
Select Delete from the top ribbon menu
Select Delete again in the dialog prompt
A video demonstration of both of these methods is below:
How to restore a SharePoint site
Deleted sites can only be restored within the first 93 days since its deletion. Otherwise, after 93 days, the site is permanently deleted.
Here are the steps a SharePoint admin can follow to restore a previously deleted site:
Go to the SharePoint admin center
Select Sites > Deleted sites from the left-hand navigation menu
Select the specific site to restore
Select Restore from the top ribbon menu
A video demonstration of these steps can be found below:
Learn how to upload existing files to SharePoint, create new files, and manage and organize your files in SharePoint document libraries.
This video is part of my FREE 30+ lesson self-paced online training course called Collaboration in Microsoft 365 (OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams). Enroll today at https://www.NateTheTrainer.com for the full learning experience including lesson discussions, quizzes, exams, and a completion certificate.
Uploading and managing files in SharePoint document libraries is a lot like managing your own files in your OneDrive. If you’re unsure on anything regarding files in SharePoint, be sure to go back and review the OneDrive lessons on file management, sharing, etc. as they’re quite identical.
SharePoint does add additional features and functionality to your document management abilities such as adding custom columns, multiple views, conditional formatting, and more. We’ll talk about these topics later in this chapter.
In this video, you’ll learn how to create a new team site for group collaboration in SharePoint Online.
This video is part of my FREE 30+ lesson self-paced online training course called Collaboration in Microsoft 365 (OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams). Enroll today at https://www.NateTheTrainer.com for the full learning experience including lesson discussions, quizzes, exams, and a completion certificate.
“Team sites are intended for smaller, more focused groups working within a shared interest area. Team sites are built on Microsoft 365 groups and give members edit access by default making it easy to get up and running as a team collaborating on documents, lists, and more in no time. Common team site scenarios are project teams, committees, intra-departmental collaboration and news, etc.”
Creating a team site creates a Microsoft 365 group which comes with a number of other resources including a shared mailbox and calendar.
Any team created in Microsoft Teams will also create a SharePoint team site in the background to support its files.
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to find and navigate SharePoint Online and what the two main site types are and how they’re typically used. There are 11 more lessons in this chapter in my course that cover documents, lists, pages, news, and more in detail.
This video is part of my FREE 30+ lesson self-paced online training course called Collaboration in Microsoft 365 (OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams). Enroll today at https://www.NateTheTrainer.com for the full learning experience including lesson discussions, quizzes, exams, and a completion certificate.
SharePoint empowers you and your team to create team sites and communication sites. The core components of each site (regardless of type) are lists, libraries, and pages.
Team sites are intended for smaller, more focused groups working within a shared interest area. Team sites are built on Microsoft 365 groups and give members edit access by default making it easy to get up and running as a team collaborating on documents, lists, and more in no time. Common team site scenarios are project teams, committees, intra-departmental collaboration and news, etc.
Communication sites are generally focused on a broader audience and used for distributing resources or news to that larger group. Communication sites are not built on Microsoft 365 groups but can use existing Microsoft 365 groups as a basis for membership. Common communication site scenarios are company intranets, HR sites, IT support sites, Crisis communication, Talent and development, etc.
Use the SharePoint app bar to easily get from one site to another, or return to the SharePoint start page.
You can also use the search bar at the top of your window to navigate to other apps or sites, or to find resources, files, people, and more.
Learn how you can undo any changes made in your OneDrive for Business library by using the Restore feature. You’ll be able to restore your entire library in one action to a point in time you specify.
This video is part of my FREE 30+ lesson self-paced online training course called Collaboration in Microsoft 365 (OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams). Enroll today at https://www.NateTheTrainer.com for the full learning experience including lesson discussions, quizzes, exams, and a completion certificate.
If you’ve been working in OneDrive and something has gone wrong, you can restore your entire OneDrive (undo all changes across all your files and folders at once) by using the Restore your OneDrive feature. You can restore to a specific time such as yesterday, a week ago, or a custom date/time. Every edit, deletion, etc. that’s reversible will be reversed.
While the restore is in progress, your OneDrive will be in read-only mode (for existing content) but you can continue to access the content, create or upload new content, and access your Shared content as well.
Learn how you can request files from others by sending them a file request link where they can drop files without seeing anyone else’s. For this to work and to see the option, you must be allowed to share externally (some admins and orgs choose to disable this ability for security reasons).
This video is part of my FREE 30+ lesson self-paced online training course called Collaboration in Microsoft 365 (OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams). Enroll today at https://www.NateTheTrainer.com for the full learning experience including lesson discussions, quizzes, exams, and a completion certificate.
Requesting files from others is not the same as sharing a folder with others to which they’ll add and edit files.
When you share a folder normally (with edit permissions), users can add files but they can also see others’ files and edit anything in the folder.
When you request files, users can add files but they can’t see any files in the folder (including their own) and they can’t modify anything after uploading (including their own). It’s basically a file drop or an FTP replacement to allow secure file submissions.
You can delete whole files or just specific versions of files in OneDrive for Business. You can also restore those deleted files or specific versions from your OneDrive’s recycle bin.
This video is part of my FREE 30+ lesson self-paced online training course called Collaboration in Microsoft 365 (OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams). Enroll today at https://www.NateTheTrainer.com for the full learning experience including lesson discussions, quizzes, exams, and a completion certificate.
You can delete files, folders, and specific versions of files. These can all be restored from your Recycle Bin(s) to their original locations.
To delete a file, select it and hit enter on your keyboard or choose Delete from the file’s menu.
You can delete a specific version of a file by viewing a file’s version history, using the ellipsis menu for the specific version, and choosing Delete.
To restore a file, visit the Recycle bin (or Second-stage recycle bin), select the file(s) and choose Restore from the ribbon menu.
Items are available in the recycle bin(s) for 93 days from the date of deletion after which they’re permanently deleted. That 93 days is shared between both recycle bins. You can permanently delete items sooner by manually emptying the first- and second-stage recycle bins.
You can sync your OneDrive files to your desktop for easy access via File Explorer or for offline access. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to sync and understand sync status of files and folders in your libraries.
This video is part of my FREE 30+ lesson self-paced online training course called Collaboration in Microsoft 365 (OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams). Enroll today at https://www.NateTheTrainer.com for the full learning experience including lesson discussions, quizzes, exams, and a completion certificate.
A common misconception is that Sync is “Refresh” but it isn’t – just refresh your browser if something looks amiss. Sync is to access OneDrive via File Explorer on your machine to be able to work with files locally as opposed to through a browser.
First-time sync
The first time you set up sync, you’ll be walked through a wizard. But if you choose to sync SharePoint libraries in the future, you won’t have to do the wizard each time.
Sync statuses
Synced files aren’t available offline until you open one (making it available On this device) or you right-click a file and choose Always keep on this device (making it Always available). If a file is Online-only, you won’t be able to access it if you lose your internet connection.
How to use synced files
Simply double-click a file to open it in the desktop version of its app (i.e. Word, Excel, etc.). Since the file is cloud-based, Autosave will be active so you can close the application once you’re finished making changes and those changes will automatically be synced with the cloud (assuming you’re connected to the internet at the time).
In this lesson, you’ll learn how to find and use version history for files in OneDrive for Business. You can access version history multiple ways, and you can view, restore, or delete any particular version.
This video is part of my FREE 30+ lesson self-paced online training course called Collaboration in Microsoft 365 (OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams). Enroll today at https://www.NateTheTrainer.com for the full learning experience including lesson discussions, quizzes, exams, and a completion certificate.
You can get to a file’s version history in one of two places: either from the file’s menu (ellipsis or select and use the ribbon), or from within the document itself (click on the title in the title bar and choose Version History).
From outside the document (so using a file’s menu via the ellipsis or selection), Version history shows you last modifier, a timestamp, version number, and allows you to open each version independently in the desktop app (whether it is Word, Excel, or PowerPoint).
From inside the document (you’ve opened it), Version History shows you when there were multiple co-authors (so not just one of the last modifiers, but all involved), and you can quickly click from one version to the next to preview it without having to open and close each one.
Open, restore, or delete a version
From outside a document, you can open, restore, or delete a version using that version’s ellipsis. If you restore a version, it copies the selected version as the latest version and doesn’t not affect previous numbering. If you delete a version, it goes to the site recycle bin (where you may wish to delete it again).
From inside a document, you can switch between all versions within the active tab, restore a version, or save a version as a separate file. You can’t, however, delete a version from within the document. You must do this from OneDrive (ellipsis > Version history).
