Use your ArcGIS organization's recycle bin

[Kylie]

Recycling isn't only good for the planet, it's also good for your org! In June 2024, a recycle bin was introduced to ArcGIS Online, and you should take advantage of it if you aren't already.

Organizations activated after June 2024 have the recycle bin enabled by default. Older organizations need to enable it.

Save your students grief from their accidental deletion of that one critical map the day the assignment was due - with the recycle bin enabled, they can restore it for 14 days after deletion. With the recycle bin enabled, users can choose on deleting if they want to permanently delete an item or send it to the recycle bin.

Enable the recycle bin

If you had your organization before June 2024, you need to enable the recycle bin as follows:

1. Log in to your ArcGIS organization as an administrator.
2. Click Organization > Settings > Items.
3. In the Recycle bin section, click Opt in to the recycle bin and click close to dismiss the recycling details.
   If instead you see Opt out of the recycle bin, the recycle bin is already enabled for your organization.

Now deleted items can be restored from the recycle bin for 14 days.

Restore an item from the recycle bin

Both admins and users can restore items from the recycle bin. Admins are able to restore items for the entire organization, while individual users can restore their own items. 

If you accidentally delete an item, either the owner of the item or an admin can restore it as follows:

1. Open the recycle bin for your own content or for your organization's content:
   • If you own the item, click Content at the top of the site, click My Content, and click Recycle bin under Folders. 
   • If you are an admin looking for the recycle bin of your organization, click Content at the top of the site, click My organization, and click Recycle bin under Content type.
2. Start restoring a single item or multiple items as follows:
   • If restoring a single item, click Restore beside the item you want to restore.
   • If restoring multiple items, click the check box beside each one and click Restore about the list of items.
3. If desired, choose or create a folder to restore the items to.
4. Click Restore.
   The items are now available in the org again, including in search.

Restored items don't retain any metadata and are only shared with the owner. 

Send an item to the recycle bin

To send an item to the recycle bin, just deleted it as you always have. If the recycle bin is enabled, by default the item goes to the recycle bin. You can choose to delete an item permanently and bypass the recycle bin; however, then it is gone and can't be restored.

Not all items are supported by the recycling bin. Unsupported items are permanently deleted. See Why don't all the items I delete go to the recycle bin? for details.

An important note on the recycle bin and storage credits

Items in the recycling bin still incur a storage credit cost. If you are deleting unnecessary items to reduce storage credit consumption, you need to permanently delete the items.

Best practice: Enable the recycle bin now

Save yourself and the users in your orgs some headaches - turn on the recycle bin. The first time an item is restored, someone will be thanking you.