A file deleted from somebody’s own storage goes to their recycle bin first, and restoring it from there is a single request.

Restoring puts it back where it was. The person is not told by Microsoft, though your own organisation gets a record of the restore.

The limits are the recycle bin’s own rather than Avvi’s: something deleted long enough ago, or emptied deliberately, is beyond what this reaches.

Before you begin

Have the person’s email address, and the file name or something close to it.

Ask when they deleted it. Recent is straightforward; months ago is a different conversation.

Check the file was theirs. A file deleted from a shared site is recovered there rather than from a person’s recycle bin.

Restore it

1. Open chat and check the client.
2. Ask what is in the person’s recycle bin. For example: what is in jane@example.com’s recycle bin?
3. Find the item in the list.
4. Ask Avvi to restore it, naming it.
5. Read the confirmation and confirm.

Avvi reports the restore, and the file returns to where it was deleted from.

Good to know

The listing is how you identify the item, and the restore works from that listing rather than from a name you supply blind. Listing first is part of the request rather than an optional check.

Telling the person yourself avoids a second ticket about a file mysteriously reappearing.

Verify it worked

Ask the person to look where the file used to be.

If they cannot see it, confirm with them which account and which folder they mean, because people commonly look in the wrong place.

If something doesn’t look right

If the recycle bin listing does not include the file, ask for more items before concluding. The listing is capped, so a busy recycle bin does not show everything at once.

After that, check the spelling and consider that it may have been in a shared location rather than their own.

If the person emptied their recycle bin, this route is closed and recovery is a Microsoft-side question about longer retention.

If the restore reports success and the person cannot find it, have them search by name rather than browsing.

To escalate, open a support conversation from the Help drawer with the client, the person, the file name and roughly when it was deleted.

FAQ

Q: How far back does the recycle bin go?

A: That is Microsoft’s retention rather than an Avvi limit. Recent deletions are reliably there.

Q: Can I recover a file from a shared site?

A: Not this way. Site recovery is done on the site.

Q: Will the person know?

A: Not from Microsoft. Tell them yourself.