Learn how to restore deleted group in Office 365 using Windows PowerShell command and Exchange Admin Center (EAC) step by step with proper screenshots. You just need to login into your O365 account, go to admin center >> Exchange >> recipients >> Groups and then recover the deleted group without any hurdles.
Office 365 is the productivity suite that promotes collaboration among its users. To improve the collaborative experience of its users, MS Office 365 offers a feature named ‘Groups.’ With the help of Office 365 group, co-working and resource sharing have become easier for users. In an organization, people can create groups and add members in it, who are going to conduct similar type of activities. Now the problem arises if some groups get deleted accidentally or intentionally. This is the situation when Office 365 users face the need to recover deleted Office 365 groups and this post will show you how to do it. Before that, we will learn under which circumstances the deleted group restoration is possible in Office 365.
When can Users Recover Deleted Groups in Office 365
Before users proceed to restore any deleted Office 365 group, they should keep these points in mind.
According to Microsoft's Retention Policy, the deleted groups will be kept for recovery for 30 days. During this time period, the deleted Office 365 Groups will have soft-deleted status as the groups remain available for restoration during the mentioned time. After 30 days of deletion, it will become impossible to restore the Groups. Within the retention period, users will receive 403 forbidden message whenever they try to access those sites. After that, 404 not found message will appear on screen if users attempt to access the site.
From the above discussion, it is understandable that we need to perform the restoration process within the 30 days of deletion. In the next section, we will learn a step-by-step guide to restore a deleted Office 365 Group using two different methods.
How to Recover Deleted Office 365 Group
Manually, there are two approaches to restore any O365 Group that has been deleted. One is by using Exchange admin center and another is by using PowerShell.
Restore Microsoft Office 365 Deleted Groups Using EAC- First Login into Office 365 account and enter credentials.
- Open Office 365 account and go to the admin center.
- From the left side panel, click on Admin center to expand it. From the options, choose Exchange.
- Exchange admin center will open. Select Recipients from the left panel and then click on groups tab from the detailed pane.
- You will see a list of groups along with their status Active and soft deleted. If any of the groups you are looking for is not in the list, it has been hard deleted and cannot be recovered.
- By selecting any soft-deleted group, users will be able to see the date and time of its deletion on the right side of the screen.
- Select the deleted Office 365 group that you wish to restore and then click on Restore icon above, situated between Edit and Search icons.
- Now, click on Refresh icon to update the change. The restored group will be shown as Active.
Restore Deleted Office 365 Groups Using PowerShell
To perform the restoration with the help of PowerShell, it is compulsory to install the latest preview version of Azure ADM (Active Directory Module.) That is why, we will describe the installation process at first. Users must remember that it is not feasible to install both GA and Preview version at the same time on the same system.
Tips
It is always recommended to use the latest version of AzureADPreview or old AzureAD and delete the old versions.
- Installation Process of Azure Active Directory Module Preview Version for Windows PowerShell
Now, users are ready to restore deleted groups in Office 365 with PowerShell.
Restore Office 365 Deleted Groups
In order to conduct the following steps, users must have Office 365 global admin permission or permissions of organization management.
- Launch PowerShell window on your system to run the below command,
Connect-AzureAD
- Open Azure Active Directory PowerShell and enter your Office 365 credentials in the ‘Sign in to your Account’ page. Click on Sign in button.
- Run the below command. It will show all soft-deleted Office 365 groups that are still restorable.
Get-AzureADMSDeletedGroup
- Find out the object ID of deleted group or groups of your organization that you want to restore. If the group is not there, it may have been deleted permanently.
Important
Make sure that any new group has not been created on the same SMTP address of the deleted group or with the same alias. If yes, then only after deleting the new group the deleted group can be restored.
- If you have found the group(s), run this command,
Restore-AzureADMSDeletedDirectoryObject –Id <objectId>
- The duration of restoration process is usually a few minutes. However, it may take up to 24 hours in some rare cases. If you want to verify if the groups have been successfully restored or not, run this PowerShell command.
Get-AzureADGroup –ObjectId <objectId>
All successfully restored groups will appear in Outlook and OWA navigation panel again. Group members will also be able to access all restored contents, including Planner and SharePoint.
Conclusion
It is possible that Office 365 groups can get deleted accidentally. If users are aware of the restoration method, they should not worry about this matter. To help users tackle this delicate situation, this post provided a complete guideline to restore a deleted Office 365 Group. It is expected that users will be able to retrieve any deleted groups from the Office 365 suite.