Find lost or missing files
Find lost or missing files
- Search for your files on OneDrive online
If you need to search all files and folders, but you have Files On Demand enabled, or you're only syncing certain folders, you can do your search online.
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Sign in to OneDrive with your work or school account.
- Use Search OneDrive to look for your files.
- On the left side of the page, select Recycle bin.
- If you find the item you're looking for, select it and choose Restore at the top of the page. If you can't find the item in a long list, you may choose to Restore all items at the top of the page.
- OneDrive for work or school users can restore their entire OneDrive to a previous time. Go to your OneDrive online Settings to undo all the actions that occurred on both files and folders within the last 30 days.
- Search for your files on another Microsoft account
If you can't find files you deleted, check whether you're logged in to the correct Microsoft account—your files might be safely on another OneDrive, such as your personal OneDrive account. To check, sign out of your OneDrive and sign in again using the other account.
- If you still can't find your files
Your file might not have synced yet. Files saved with Office 2016 upload to OneDrive first, and then they sync with your local PC. If you’re having trouble syncing Office files, the Office Upload cache system may be interfering with OneDrive sync. Try turning off the related setting in OneDrive settings.
If you have an iOS device that has photos optimized for iCloud, the photos aren't stored on the device and can't be uploaded to OneDrive. To disable iCloud optimization on your iOS device, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos and clear Optimize Storage.
- Folder was removed from your OneDrive
If you get an email or notification saying "[Folder name] was removed from your OneDrive" it means that a shared folder was deleted.
Notes:
- You will not be able to restore or recover a folder shared with you.
- If you shared a folder with other people and they deleted its contents, you can find the contents in your recycle bin.
If files aren't found in a search or in the OneDrive Recycle bin, they usually can't be retrieved. To have your IT administrator or someone from support investigate, please provide the following information.
- The names of the files or folders you're trying to find. If the files are photos/videos, the date you took them.
- Approximately when you last accessed the files, and on which device (e.g., PC, Android, iPhone).
- Consent that we can search your file history for you.