How to delete a SharePoint Team site [Restore deleted site in SharePoint Online]

In this SharePoint tutorial, I will show you how to delete a team site in SharePoint Online. Also, I will show you how to restore a deleted team site from the SharePoint Online admin center.

We can delete a team site from the SharePoint team site itself, and we can also delete a SharePoint team site from the SharePoint Online admin center.

We need to remember a few important points before deleting a team site in SharePoint Online.

• Site administrators and owners can delete an existing SharePoint Online Team site.
• Once we delete a SharePoint Team site, all the data like Subsites, content, lists, list items, and document library will be deleted from the respective sites.
• When the site owners or administrator deletes the SharePoint team site, it will be stored in the Deleted sites for 93 days; after 93 days of the retention period, it will be deleted automatically and permanently.
• So the site owners or site administrators can restore the team site before the retention period.

How to Delete a Team Site in SharePoint Online

There are two different ways we can delete an existing team site in SharePoint Online:

• Delete the SharePoint Team site from the same SharePoint site.
• Delete the SharePoint Team site from the SharePoint admin center.

Method-1: Delete the SharePoint Team site from the same SharePoint site

• Open a SharePoint Team site that you need to delete. And then Click on the settings icon -> Choose the Site information.

• From the Site information, Click on the Delete site option like below:

• If the Site is group-connected, it will show us a confirmation box asking to delete this group and its associated resources, like the one below. Here, click on Delete.

Then, the SharePoint Online team site will be deleted and moved to the recycle bin.

Method-2: Delete a Team Site from the SharePoint admin center

We can also delete a SharePoint Online site from the SharePoint Online admin center. To delete a team site from the SharePoint admin center, make sure you have SharePoint admin access and the following steps are:

• Open the SharePoint admin center.

https://<your tenant name>-admin.sharepoint.com/

• In the SharePoint admin center page, Expand the Sites on the left navigation menu -> Click on the Active sites , it displays all the active sites.
• From the list of Active sites, click on the site that you want to delete and then click on the Delete button from the command bar.

The SharePoint Online Team site will be deleted from the SharePoint admin center and moved to the recycle bin of the admin center. This is how to delete a Team site from the SharePoint admin center.

Restore a deleted Team site from the SharePoint admin center

As I already mentioned above, the site owners or site administrators can restore the deleted SharePoint Team site within 93 days; otherwise, it will be deleted automatically and permanently.

If we want to restore a deleted SharePoint team site, follow the below steps:

• Open the SharePoint admin center, Expand Sites -> click on the Deleted sites.

• It will display all those sites that have been deleted. From the Deleted sites, select one site that we want to restore.
• Then click the Restore button; later, our SharePoint Team site will be restored in Active sites.

This is how to restore a SharePoint Online Team site from the SharePoint admin center.

Conclusion

In this SharePoint Online tutorial, I have explained how to delete a SharePoint Online team site from the site itself and from the SharePoint Online admin center. Also, I have explained how to restore a deleted SharePoint Online team site from the admin center.

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