Introduction

In SharePoint Online, users can store their files in OneDrive for Business, which is a personal document library that is associated with their user account. Sometimes, users may accidentally delete their OneDrive site or get deleted when they leave the company, which can result in the loss of important files and data.

Fortunately, SharePoint Online administrators can restore deleted OneDrive sites using PowerShell and the PnP PowerShell module. In this blog post, we will discuss how to use the PowerShell script “Get-deleted-OneDrives.ps1” to restore a deleted OneDrive site.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, you will need to have the following:

• A SharePoint Online tenant administrator account
• PowerShell 7.2 or later installed on your computer
• The PnP PowerShell module installed on your computer

Script Overview

The “Get-deleted-OneDrives.ps1” script is a PowerShell script that uses the PnP PowerShell module to restore a deleted OneDrive site. Here’s an overview of what the script does:

1. Connects to SharePoint Online using the Connect-PnPOnline cmdlet.
2. Retrieves a list of all deleted OneDrive sites using the Get-PnPTenantDeletedSite cmdlet.
3. Filters the list of deleted OneDrive sites to find the site that matches the specified user name using the Where-Object cmdlet.
4. Restores the deleted OneDrive site using the Restore-PnPTenantSite cmdlet.
5. Checks if the site was successfully restored using the Get-PnPTenantSite cmdlet.
6. Disconnects from SharePoint Online using the Disconnect-PnPOnline cmdlet.

Let’s take a closer look at each step of the script.

Step 1: Connect to SharePoint Online

The first step of the script is to connect to SharePoint Online using the Connect-PnPOnline cmdlet. This cmdlet requires the URL of your SharePoint Online site and your credentials.

In the script, the URL of the SharePoint Online admin center is used as the site URL. The -interactive parameter is used to prompt the user for their credentials.

1

Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com" -interactive

Step 2: Retrieve a List of Deleted OneDrive Sites

The second step of the script is to retrieve a list of all deleted OneDrive sites using the Get-PnPTenantDeletedSite cmdlet. This cmdlet retrieves a list of all deleted sites in the SharePoint Online tenant, including OneDrive sites.

In the script, the -IncludeOnlyPersonalSite parameter is used to retrieve only deleted OneDrive sites.

1

$DeletedOneDrives = Get-PnPTenantDeletedSite -IncludeOnlyPersonalSite

Step 3: Filter the List of Deleted OneDrive Sites

The third step of the script is to filter the list of deleted OneDrive sites to find the site that matches the specified user name using the Where-Object cmdlet.

In the script, the Where-Object cmdlet is used to filter the $DeletedOneDrives array to find the OneDrive site that contains the specified user name in its URL. The -like operator is used to perform a case-insensitive match on the Url property of each object in the array.

1

$FoundOneDrive = $DeletedOneDrives | Where-Object { $_.Url -like '*oliver_menzel*' }

Step 4: Restore the Deleted OneDrive Site

The fourth step of the script is to restore the deleted OneDrive site using the Restore-PnPTenantSite cmdlet. This cmdlet requires the URL of the deleted site and the -Force parameter to confirm the restoration.

In the script, the URL of the OneDrive site that was found in step 3 is used as the URL parameter for the Restore-PnPTenantSite cmdlet.

1

Restore-PnPTenantSite -Url $FoundOneDrive.Url -Force

Step 5: Check if the Site was Restored

The fifth step of the script is to check if the OneDrive site was successfully restored using the Get-PnPTenantSite cmdlet. This cmdlet requires the URL of the site that was restored.

In the script, the URL of the OneDrive site that was found in step 3 is used as the URL parameter for the Get-PnPTenantSite cmdlet.

1

Get-PnPTenantSite -Url $FoundOneDrive.Url

Step 6: Disconnect from SharePoint Online

The final step of the script is to disconnect from SharePoint Online using the Disconnect-PnPOnline cmdlet.

1

Disconnect-PnPOnline

The whole script looks like this:

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15

# Connect to SharePoint Online using PnP PowerShell
Connect-PnPOnline -Url "https://yourtenant-admin.sharepoint.com" -interactive

# Get-PnPDeletedSite
$DeletedOneDrives = Get-PnPTenantDeletedSite -IncludeOnlyPersonalSite

#Find deleted OneDrive by user name in url
$FoundOneDrive = $DeletedOneDrives | Where-Object { $_.Url -like '*oliver_menzel*' }

#Restore deleted OneDrive
Restore-PnPTenantSite -Url $FoundOneDrive.Url -Force

#Check if Site was restored
Get-PnPTenantSite -Url $FoundOneDrive.Url
Disconnect-PnPOnline

Conclusion

In this blog post, we discussed how to use a PowerShell script to restore a deleted OneDrive site in SharePoint Online. We covered the prerequisites for running the script, the overview of the script, and the details of each step of the script.

By using this script, SharePoint Online administrators can quickly and easily restore deleted OneDrive sites and prevent the loss of important files and data.