SkyDrive Adds Recycle Bin -- THE Journal

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SkyDrive Adds Recycle Bin

By Leila Meyer
10/01/12

Microsoft has added a new Recycle Bin feature to its cloud-based file hosting service, SkyDrive.

Although SkyDrive keeps previous versions of user's Office documents automatically, until now, there has been no way to recover deleted files in SkyDrive, and Microsoft reported that users have been asking for the feature. When deleting files on SkyDrive, it would prompt the user to confirm the deletion, but there were still times when files could get deleted accidentally. One particular scenario is when a group of users are sharing the same file, and one user deletes it but other users still want to keep it.

With the new feature, SkyDrive no longer prompts users to confirm the deletion of files. Instead, it sends deleted files to the recycle bin and offers the opportunity to undo the deletion. SkyDrive stores deleted files in the recycle bin for at least three days but no longer than 30 days. If the content of a user's recycle bin exceeds 10 percent of the user's storage limit, SkyDrive will begin permanently deleting files from the recycle bin, starting with the oldest first, but only after they have been in the recycle bin for at least three days. Files that have been in the recycle bin for 30 days will be permanently deleted regardless of how full the recycle bin is.

Items in the recycle bin don't count against a user's storage limit.

The recycle bin displays the date when the file was deleted and can display the items in thumbnail or details view. User's can restore items from the recycle bin the same way they do on their Windows PC. They can open the recycle bin in SkyDrive, select the items, and restore them. SkyDrive restores the files to the location from which they were deleted.

The recycle bin is available now in SkyDrive.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

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