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About this lesson

Learn how to delete items from lists and then restore them to their original location or permanently remove them from SharePoint. 

Quick reference

Deleting List Items

Items and records added to lists and libraries can be deleted.  When we delete an item from a SharePoint document library or list, it isn’t immediately removed from SharePoint. Deleted items go into the site Recycle Bin for a period of time. During that time, we can restore the items we deleted to their original location, or remove them to free up storage space.

When to use

We delete items in SharePoint whenever we are sure we no longer need them. 

Instructions

Deleting Items from the Calendar

The Calendar is still a list; it's just been formatted as a calendar. We can delete meetings, appointments, and events in a similar way to deleting other items. 

  • Go to the event calendar. 
  • Select a meeting or appointment in the calendar. 
  • Press the Delete key. 
  • Select Yes to send the item to the Recycle Bin. 

Delete Tasks from the Task List

  • Open the Task List.
  • Select the task to be deleted.  
  • Click the three dots. 
  • Click the three dots again. 
  • Click Delete item. 
  • Click OK to confirm. 

Restoring Items from the Recycle Bin

Deleted items go into the site Recycle Bin for a period of time. During that time, we can restore the items we deleted to their original location, or remove them permanantely. 

To Restore an Item
  • From the Quick Launch Menu, click Recycle Bin.
  • Select the item to be restored.  
  • Click Restore from the horizontal navigation menu. 

This restores the item back to its original location. 

Permanently Delete Items

Items can be permanently deleted from SharePoint by deleting them from the Recycle Bin. 

  • From the Quick Launch Menu, click Recycle Bin. 
  • Select the item or items to be permanently deleted. 
  • Click Delete all from the horizontal navigation menu. 

Hints & tips

  • If you don't see the Recycle Bin on the Quick Launch bar, click Settings and then click Site Content. The Recycle Bin is in the top right-hand corner. 
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  • 00:04 So far we've seen how to create a new list.
  • 00:07 We've seen how to add items to that list, and also edit, or modify them.
  • 00:13 But what about deleting items from lists?
  • 00:16 Now, in general wherever possible,
  • 00:17 particularly when it's something like a task list.
  • 00:20 I prefer to mark them as completed as opposed to deleting them out of the list.
  • 00:24 Just so that I have a record of the tasks that have been completed,
  • 00:28 I can refer back to it, if I need to.
  • 00:30 However, there will be some occasions where you do want to delete an item, and
  • 00:34 just completely get rid of it out of your list.
  • 00:38 So let me show you an example.
  • 00:40 For this, we're going to jump into our event calendar.
  • 00:43 Now, if you remember, I said previously, that despite the fact that this
  • 00:48 looks like a calendar, this is in fact just a standard list in SharePoint.
  • 00:53 It's just been formatted to look like a calendar.
  • 00:56 So what we're going to do,
  • 00:57 is we're going to delete an item from this calendar list.
  • 01:00 I'm going to show you where it goes, and how you can get it back.
  • 01:04 So you can see here, I have a few different calendar entries.
  • 01:07 And I'm going to delete this particular meeting.
  • 01:10 So the one that I have on the 16th,
  • 01:12 2 to 3:00PM at Project Team A Briefing, let's see on this item.
  • 01:17 And I'm just going to press the Delete key on my keyboard.
  • 01:21 It says, are you sure you want to send this item to the site Recycle Bin, and
  • 01:25 that is very important.
  • 01:27 Yes, I do.
  • 01:28 Let's click on OK.
  • 01:30 And it's going to remove that item from my calendar.
  • 01:33 So, where's it gone?
  • 01:34 Can I get it back, if I need to?
  • 01:36 Well, the answer is yes you can.
  • 01:38 Because what SharePoint does, is it moves deleted items to your Recycle Bin, and
  • 01:43 it holds them there for a period of time.
  • 01:46 And you can choose to permanently delete them from the Recycle Bin, or
  • 01:49 you can choose to restore them back to their original location.
  • 01:53 So if we jump back to the Quick Launch menu,
  • 01:56 you can see right at the bottom I have a menu item that says Recycle Bin.
  • 02:02 So if we click this, it's going to jump me into my bin, and
  • 02:04 it's going to show me everything that I've deleted.
  • 02:08 It's going to show me the date that I deleted it, who deleted it, who it,
  • 02:12 was created by, and the original location of that particular item.
  • 02:15 And I can see here right at the top of Project Team A Briefing,
  • 02:20 that is the item that I've just deleted.
  • 02:23 Now, if I wanted to, if I'm absolutely 100% sure that I don't want to
  • 02:27 restore any of these items, I could choose to empty my Recycle Bin.
  • 02:31 And you can see that I have a link for that just at the top of the screen.
  • 02:35 But we're not going to do that, we're going to pretend that I
  • 02:38 accidentally deleted this item from my calendar, and I want to restore it back.
  • 02:43 So, what we need to do here is select the item, and
  • 02:46 you'll notice I have a Delete or a Restore option.
  • 02:50 And if I click Restore, it's going to restore it back to its original location,
  • 02:55 which I can see here in the last column.
  • 02:58 So let's click on Restore, that item has now disappeared.
  • 03:02 And if I jump back into my event calendar,
  • 03:05 you can see that there is that item back in my calendar again.
  • 03:10 Now, this process is similar if you're deleting something else.
  • 03:14 So maybe one of the tasks that we added to the task list,
  • 03:16 we now want to remove permanently.
  • 03:19 So let's jump back to our training task list from the Quick Launch menu.
  • 03:24 I've got two tasks in here, one of them is completed, so
  • 03:27 maybe I just want to get rid of that entirely.
  • 03:30 What you can do is hover your mouse over the task, click the three dots.
  • 03:35 Click the three dots again, and we have an option here for delete item.
  • 03:41 Once again is going to check that you definitely want to move this item to
  • 03:45 the Recycle Bin, which I do, click on OK.
  • 03:48 And that task has now gone.
  • 03:50 If I want to restore it the same process, we jump back to our Recycle Bin.
  • 03:57 There is the item that I've just deleted at the top.
  • 03:59 And if I want to restore it, I simply select it, and
  • 04:03 click the Restore button to put that back into my training task list.

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