Delete a Team, and Recover One

This article explains what deleting a Microsoft Team removes, including the Team's SharePoint site and every channel's files. It also explains the 30 day window for recovering a deleted Team and why archiving is usually the better choice for a Team whose work is finished.

Questions

• How do I delete a Microsoft Team?
• If I delete a Team, do the files go too?
• Someone deleted our Team. Can we get it back?
• How long do I have to recover a deleted Microsoft Team?
• Should I delete this Team or archive it?
• What should I check before deleting a Team?
• Who is allowed to delete a Microsoft Team?
• Our Team disappeared and nobody knows why. What happened?
• Can I still recover the files from a Team that was deleted months ago?
• As a Team owner, how do I close down a committee Team at the end of its work?

Environment

Deleting a Microsoft Team and recovering a deleted Microsoft Team are two different tasks with two different permission levels. Deleting a Team requires Team owner permissions, and recovering a deleted Team is not done from Microsoft Teams at all.

• Applies to owners of a Microsoft Team at Bowdoin. Deleting a Team requires Team owner permissions, and members of a Team cannot delete it.
• Archiving a Team, which keeps the content readable, also requires Team owner permissions.
• Recovering a deleted Team may require administrator action, so contact the Bowdoin College Service Desk rather than attempting a recovery yourself.
• Write down the Team's exact name before deleting it. A recovery request is much easier with the exact name.
• Supported on Bowdoin-issued computers running macOS Sequoia (15.x), macOS Tahoe (26.x), or newer, or Windows 11, and on the current version of iPadOS. Personal devices are best-effort only.
• Sign in at office365.bowdoin.edu for the web version of Microsoft Teams or SharePoint. Menu placement varies between versions of Microsoft Teams.
• Not in scope: deleting a single channel rather than a whole Team, which is covered by Add, Move, and Remove Channels After Your Team Is Running in the Related Articles section.

Resolution

What deleting a Team removes

Deleting a Team removes all of the following at once:

• The Team's SharePoint site and all of its files, in every channel.
• The separate SharePoint sites belonging to any private channels and shared channels.
• The Team's OneNote notebook.
• The Team's Planner plans.
• The Team's channel conversations and chat history.
• The Team's mailbox and calendar in Exchange.

The scope of a Team deletion is the point people miss. A Microsoft Team is not a chat app with files bolted on: the files are part of the Team. For an explanation of where a Team's files actually live, see Understand Microsoft Teams: Channels, Permissions, and File Structure in the Related Articles section.

Delete a Team

1. Open Microsoft Teams and select More options next to the Team name.
2. Select Delete team.
3. Read the confirmation dialog, then confirm the deletion.

The 30 day recovery window

Deleting a Team is reversible for a limited time. The Microsoft 365 group behind the Team is held in a soft-deleted state for 30 days and can be restored during that window. A restore brings back the group and its members, the SharePoint site and its files, the OneNote notebook, the Planner plans, the mailbox and calendar, and the Team itself.

A restore can take up to 24 hours to finish, and a restored Team may not appear in Microsoft Teams immediately after the restore completes.

What cannot be recovered

After 30 days, the Microsoft 365 group behind a deleted Team and all of its content are permanently deleted. There is no later stage, no backup to request, and no escalation that recovers a Team past 30 days.

Deleting a whole Team is different from deleting a file. A file or folder deleted from a Team's document library is recoverable for 93 days from the recycle bin, but a 93 day file recovery does not help after a Team deletion: once the whole SharePoint site is gone, so is its recycle bin. For the file recovery steps, see How to Recover Documents in OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint in the Related Articles section.

Archive the Team instead, in almost every case

For a department or a committee that is winding down, archiving is the right answer. Archiving stops activity in the Team but keeps the channels, files, and conversations readable, can make the SharePoint site read-only for members, and can be reversed at any time.

An archived Team costs nothing except a line in a list. A deleted Team costs a department its records. For the archiving steps, see Archive Teams and Folders in Microsoft Teams in the Related Articles section.

Do not use expiration as a quiet way of deleting a Team either. Letting a Team lapse deletes the Team with the same consequences and with less warning. For the renewal steps, see Your Team Is About to Expire in the Related Articles section.

Checklist to complete before deleting a Team

1. Move anything worth keeping. Use Move to so version history travels with the files. For the move procedure, see Move Files into a Microsoft Teams Channel in the Related Articles section.
2. Open every private channel and every shared channel. Their files live on separate SharePoint sites and are easy to forget.
3. Consult the College Archives about records. Some department content is a record and cannot be discarded on a department's own judgment. Ask before deleting.
4. Check for sharing with people outside Bowdoin. Deleting the Team breaks every link anyone outside Bowdoin holds. For the steps to produce the list, see List SharePoint or OneDrive Files Shared with External Users in the Related Articles section.
5. Tell the members of the Team. Post in the Team, give a date, and say where the files have gone.
6. Ask people to remove their shortcuts and stop syncing the Team's folders. Otherwise they see sync errors once the Team is gone. For the sync steps, see Sync Teams Channels and Shared Folders to Your Computer in the Related Articles section.
7. Write down the Team's exact name. The exact name is what a recovery request needs.

Additional Help

If you need further assistance, you have several options:

• Bowdoin Bot: Chat with Bowdoin Bot directly from any KB page for instant answers.
• Phone: Call the Bowdoin College Service Desk at (207) 725-3030.
• In person: Visit the Tech Hub in Smith Union during business hours.
• Submit a ticket: Request assistance through the Service Catalog.

Additional Resources

• Delete a team in Microsoft Teams
• Archive or delete a team in Microsoft Teams
• Restore a deleted Microsoft 365 group
• Restore items in the recycle bin that were deleted from SharePoint or Teams