Onedrive recycle bin restore not working

Hi Chisei Gen,

I’m sorry that you’re dealing with this. Since your OneDrive storage is full, and items in the OneDrive Recycle Bin also count toward your storage, restore operations can remain stuck if the account is over quota. Microsoft also notes that personal OneDrive can become read-only when storage is exceeded.

You can consider trying these checking steps:

1, Search for the missing folder on OneDrive

• Use the search box on the OneDrive website to check whether the mods were moved instead of deleted.
• Microsoft recommends searching on the web first when files seem missing.

2, Confirm you are signed in to the correct Microsoft account

• If you use more than one Microsoft account, sign out and check the other account as well.
• Missing files are sometimes found under a different OneDrive account.

3, Check whether the files are in Personal Vault

• If Personal Vault is used, deleted items from it may not appear normally in search or recycle bin results until Personal Vault is unlocked.

4, Use Version History for any files that still exist but are incomplete

• If some mod files are still present but were changed or replaced, right-click a file in OneDrive and open Version history to restore an earlier version

If the files are visible in the Recycle Bin but still do not restore after the checks above, this may need an account-side review through Microsoft Support.

Please note that this is a user-to-user support forum. Moderators and contributors, including external Microsoft employees, are not allowed to directly interfere with Microsoft product features or access back-end systems. Our role is limited solely to providing technical guidance on reported incidents, requests, or ideas. 

I hope you’re able to recover the missing files soon. Let me know if you need further assistance, feel free to ask me by clicking "Add Comment" or "Add Answer" if you cannot add comment so your response will be visible. Thanks for your effort.

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The restore operation is failing because OneDrive storage is full and because the files are still only in the OneDrive recycle bin, not yet back in the main OneDrive area or on the PC.

Use these steps in order:

1. Free some OneDrive space
   • OneDrive cannot restore items from the recycle bin if there is not enough free quota to hold them.
   • Permanently delete files from the OneDrive recycle bin that are not needed:
     • Go to the OneDrive website.
     • Open Recycle bin.
     • Select items that are definitely not needed and choose Delete (not Restore).
   • Also delete any large, unneeded files from the main OneDrive so that total used space drops below the 5 GB limit.
2. Restore from the OneDrive recycle bin again
   • On the OneDrive website, open Recycle bin.
   • Select a small test set first (for example 3–5 Sims files) and click Restore.
   • Wait a few minutes and then check the main OneDrive view and the local OneDrive folder on the PC to confirm they reappear.
   • If that works, repeat with the rest of the Sims files.
3. If using a personal Microsoft account and a Microsoft 365 subscription
   • If a Microsoft 365 subscription is active, it is possible to roll back the entire OneDrive to a point before the cleanup:
     • Open the Restore your OneDrive page (from the documentation: Restore your OneDrive options).
     • Choose a restore date just before the accidental cleanup.
     • Confirm the restore.
   • Be aware: any files created after the chosen restore date will be moved into the OneDrive recycle bin and may need to be restored from there afterward.
4. Check the local PC recycle bin
   • If the Sims mods were deleted from the local OneDrive folder on the PC, also open the Windows Recycle Bin on the desktop.
   • If the missing Sims files are there, select them and choose Restore so they go back to their original folder.
5. If files still will not restore
   • If the files are not in the OneDrive recycle bin, or if restore continues to fail even after freeing space and trying small batches, there is no additional native Microsoft method to recover them beyond what is documented.
   • In that case, only third‑party file recovery tools or re‑downloading/re‑installing the mods remain as options.

References:

• Restore deleted files or folders in OneDrive
• Find lost or missing files in OneDrive