What SharePoint Online can recover on its own
SharePoint has several ways to get content back, and each has a time limit or a catch. Microsoft’s shared responsibility model says you own your data in every type of cloud service.
| What’s lost | What SharePoint offers, and the limit | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A deleted file, folder, list or library | The site recycle bin, then the site collection recycle bin. 93 days from deletion, across both stages. Only a site collection admin can restore from the second stage. | Microsoft Support |
| A library of overwritten, encrypted or deleted files | Restore this library. The last 30 days, run by a site admin. It relies on version history, and it can’t restore files removed from the site collection recycle bin. | Microsoft Support |
| A library that was deleted outright | The recycle bin only. Restore this library can’t restore a library that was entirely deleted. | Microsoft Support |
| A whole site | Deleted sites, in the SharePoint admin centre. 93 days, restored by a SharePoint Administrator. For a site connected to a Microsoft 365 group, the group’s other resources are kept for only 30 days. | Microsoft Learn |
| An older version of a file | Version history. New libraries keep 500 versions of each file by default. Versions over a library’s limit are deleted permanently and skip the recycle bin. | Microsoft Learn, version limits |
| Content under a retention policy | The Preservation Hold library. A hidden system location that isn’t designed to be used interactively. You reach its content with compliance tools such as eDiscovery. | Microsoft Learn |
Once a window closes, the built-in tools can’t bring the content back. Our guide to Microsoft 365 retention vs backup lists the same kind of limits for Exchange Online, OneDrive and Teams.
Every SharePoint site, with its libraries, lists and permissions
Each SharePoint site is a protected object in your CloudVision dashboard. It’s checked against the same 24-hour backup SLA as your mailboxes, OneDrives and Teams. For every site, we back up:
- Team sites and communication sites, including their subsites.
- Document libraries and their files, including documents, images, video and OneNote notebooks.
- Lists.
- File permissions.
Earlier copies of changed files are kept for as long as your retention policy says, separately from SharePoint’s own version history. The SharePoint site behind every Team is backed up too. So are the Team’s channel conversations, files, OneNote notebook, Planner tasks and group mailbox.
Page libraries aren’t backed up. Site pages are, and you can download them from your backup, but they can’t be restored in place. Items that are only in the SharePoint recycle bin aren’t backed up either. Restore them to the site and the next backup includes them.
How a SharePoint restore works
Tell us what you need back and our UK team restores it from your backup, 24/7. We can restore:
- A whole site, a subsite, or individual files and folders, from any backup point within your retention period.
- To the original site or another site in your Microsoft 365 tenant, into the original folder or a new one. You choose how files with the same name are handled.
- As a download, if you’d rather have a copy of the files than restore them in place.
CloudVision can restore within minutes.
There are two limits to know about. A deleted site has to be recreated in SharePoint before we can restore into it, or we restore its content into another site. Some list columns can’t be restored exactly: calculated columns can’t be restored, and others, such as lookup columns, come back as plain text.
SharePoint cloud backup, stored in the UK
Your SharePoint backup is stored in the UK by default, outside Microsoft 365. If you need it elsewhere, you can choose Canada, the USA, Ireland, Germany, Singapore, Australia or Japan at onboarding. Backup data is encrypted at rest and in transit, and our backup data centres are ISO 27001 certified and SOC 2 Type 2 audited.
CloudVision is registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and handles your data under UK GDPR. We sign a data protection agreement with every customer.
Part of your managed Microsoft 365 backup
SharePoint is backed up as part of our managed Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) backup, alongside Exchange Online, OneDrive and Teams. Our engineers connect your Microsoft 365 tenant in minutes, run the first backups and confirm every SharePoint site is reporting in your dashboard. The first full backup takes longer for large tenants. Small teams get the same service, as our small business backup page explains. From then on, we run it end to end:
Why version history and retention aren’t a SharePoint backup
- Versions run out. Microsoft says versions “might also be exhausted” depending on the limit your admin sets (Microsoft 365 Backup FAQ). Versions removed by a limit or a trim job can’t be recovered from the recycle bin.
- Retention and holds are built for compliance. Retention policies keep copies in the Preservation Hold library for eDiscovery, and Microsoft says legal holds are optimised for export, not for mass restore. Retention policies don’t cover list items at all; those need retention labels.
- Microsoft’s own copies keep the service running. SharePoint writes every file to two data centre regions and keeps 14 days of metadata backups. Microsoft says a disaster recovery copy holds only the current state of your content.
- Recycle bins use your storage. Microsoft counts the site recycle bin towards your organisation’s total SharePoint storage and recommends emptying it regularly.
Microsoft 365 Backup for SharePoint sites
Microsoft also sells Microsoft 365 Backup, a pay-as-you-go service for SharePoint sites, OneDrive accounts and Exchange Online mailboxes. It costs $0.15 per GiB per month of protected data, and restores are free.
For SharePoint, you can go back to any 10-minute point in the last two weeks. After that, restore points are weekly. Each backup policy keeps backups for 3 months, 6 months, or between 1 and 10 years.
You restore a whole site to the same URL or a new one, or selected files and folders from the last 14 days. Backups stay inside the Microsoft 365 data trust boundary. Our guide Does Microsoft back up Microsoft 365? covers what it misses and what it costs.
SharePoint’s own tools, Microsoft 365 Backup and an independent backup
| Compared on | SharePoint’s built-in tools | Microsoft 365 Backup | Independent backup (CloudVision) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where the copy lives | Inside your Microsoft 365 tenant | Inside the Microsoft 365 data trust boundary | Outside Microsoft 365, in the UK by default |
| How far back | 30 to 93 days for deleted content; older versions until the version limit is reached | Up to 10 years, set on each backup policy | Configurable to your policy |
| How it’s charged | Part of SharePoint | $0.15 per GiB per month of protected data | Per user |
| Who runs restores | Your users and admins, within the window | Your admins, in the Microsoft 365 admin centre | CloudVision’s UK team, 24/7 |
| Daily record of what was backed up | None built in | An audit trail of backup actions | The CloudVision Daily Backup Report, site by site |
SharePoint Online backup: common questions
Does Microsoft back up SharePoint Online?
No, not one you can restore from. SharePoint writes every file to two data centre regions and keeps 14 days of metadata backups to keep the service running. Microsoft says a disaster recovery copy holds only the current state of your content. Under Microsoft’s shared responsibility model, your data stays your responsibility.
Is SharePoint version history a backup?
No. New document libraries keep 500 versions of each file by default, and versions over the limit are deleted permanently, without going to the recycle bin. Version history also lives in the same site as the file it protects.
Can I restore a whole SharePoint library?
Yes, for 30 days, with Restore this library. It can’t bring back a library that was deleted outright, or files removed from the site collection recycle bin. With CloudVision, our UK team restores the library’s files and folders, or the whole site, from any backup point within your retention period.
Can you restore a deleted SharePoint site?
Yes, into a site that exists. A deleted site has to be recreated in SharePoint before we can restore into it, or we restore its content into another site in your tenant. For 93 days after deletion, a SharePoint Administrator can also restore the deleted site itself from the SharePoint admin centre.
Are files in the SharePoint recycle bin backed up?
No. The recycle bin keeps deleted items for 93 days, but we back up the content in your sites, and the recycle bin isn’t included. Restore an item to its site and the next backup includes it. Files we’ve already backed up stay in your backup after they’re deleted in SharePoint, for as long as your retention policy says.
What does a managed SharePoint backup service do for us?
It runs your SharePoint backup for you. Our engineers connect your Microsoft 365 tenant, run the first backups and confirm every site is reporting. From then on, we check each site against a 24-hour backup SLA and fix anything that fails. You get the CloudVision Daily Backup Report every morning, and our UK team handles every restore, 24/7.
How much does SharePoint backup cost?
We don’t publish a price list, because every proposal is scoped to your organisation. After a free 15-minute demo or a free 30-day trial, you get a no-obligation proposal with no hidden fees. We price per user rather than per GB. For comparison, Microsoft 365 Backup charges $0.15 per GiB per month of protected data.
Microsoft documentation used on this page
This page is general information, not legal or insurance advice. Requirements and product limits change, so check the linked sources and your own policies, and take professional advice where needed. Sources last checked on 4 November 2026.
- Restore items in the recycle bin that were deleted from SharePoint or Teams (Microsoft Support)
- Restore a shared library (Microsoft Support)
- Restore deleted sites (Microsoft Learn)
- SharePoint and OneDrive data resiliency in Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Learn)
- Version history limits for document library and OneDrive (Microsoft Learn)
- Learn about retention for SharePoint and OneDrive (Microsoft Learn)
- SharePoint limits (Microsoft Learn)
- Overview of Microsoft 365 Backup (Microsoft Learn)
- Frequently asked questions about Microsoft 365 Backup (Microsoft Learn)
- Shared responsibility in the cloud (Microsoft Learn)