SharePoint co-authoring and file sharing

Overview

SharePoint Online provides built-in tools for safely deleting and recovering content, collaborating on documents in real time with multiple authors, and sharing files and folders with colleagues inside or outside your organization. This guide covers all three areas — the Recycle Bin, document co-authoring, and file sharing — so you can get the most out of SharePoint as both an end user and a site administrator.

Deleting Content in SharePoint

Deleting a file, folder, or link in SharePoint (Classic)

In the classic SharePoint experience, deleting a file, folder, or link follows the same basic pattern across all content types:

1. Navigate to the library or list containing the item you want to delete.
2. Hover over the item to reveal the checkbox on the left, and click it to select the item.
3. In the ribbon at the top of the page, click the Files or Items tab and then click Delete Document (or Delete Item for list items).
4. Click OK when prompted to confirm the deletion.

In the modern SharePoint experience, select the item using its checkbox, then click the Delete button in the command bar — or right-click the item and choose Delete from the context menu.

Restoring Deleted Items

Restoring items from the site Recycle Bin

1. From the left navigation of your SharePoint site, click Recycle Bin. If it is not visible, click Site Contents and look for the Recycle Bin link at the top.
2. Locate the item you want to restore. Use the search box at the top of the Recycle Bin page to filter by name if needed.
3. Select the checkbox next to the item and click Restore in the command bar.

The item is returned to its original location. If the original folder has also been deleted, SharePoint recreates the folder path automatically during the restore.

Restoring deleted items from the site collection Recycle Bin

SharePoint uses a two-stage Recycle Bin. When items are deleted from the site Recycle Bin (the first stage), they move to the site collection Recycle Bin (the second stage) rather than being permanently deleted. Site collection administrators can recover items from this second stage:

1. Navigate to Site Settings > Site Collection Administration > Recycle Bin.
2. At the bottom of the page, click Second-stage recycle bin.
3. Select the item and click Restore Selection.

Restoring the whole collection of sites

If an entire site collection is deleted, it can be recovered from the SharePoint admin center:

1. Open the SharePoint admin center.
2. Select Sites > Deleted sites from the left navigation.
3. Find the deleted site collection, select it, and click Restore.

How long does the Recycle Bin keep deleted items?

Fundamentals of restoring from the Recycle Bin

• Items deleted by any user on the site appear in the site Recycle Bin, but only the item’s owner and site administrators can restore them by default.
• The 93-day clock starts from the moment of deletion — not from when the item moved to the second stage.
• If the site collection’s storage quota is exceeded, items may be purged from the Recycle Bin early to free space.
• Restoring a folder also restores all items that were inside it at the time of deletion.

Document Collaboration and Co-Authoring

What is co-authoring?

Co-authoring allows multiple users to open, edit, and see each other’s changes in a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint document simultaneously, in real time. Changes made by each author appear on screen as they type — no need to check a document in and out, and no risk of overwriting a colleague’s work.

What is required to co-author a document?

Documents with Macros (.docm)

Files saved in the macro-enabled format (.docm, .xlsm, .pptm) do not support co-authoring. If a document contains macros and must be collaborated on, the recommended approach is to remove the macros, save the file in the standard modern format, enable co-authoring, and maintain the macro version separately as a standalone tool.

How to create or open documents for co-authoring

Option A — Open directly from SharePoint or OneDrive

1. Navigate to the SharePoint library or OneDrive folder containing the document.
2. Click the file name. SharePoint opens the file in Office for the web by default, which supports co-authoring immediately.
3. To switch to the desktop app while keeping co-authoring active, click Editing > Open in Desktop App in the Office for the web toolbar. AutoSave activates automatically.

Option B — Save a local document to OneDrive first

1. Open your document in the desktop app.
2. Click File > Save As and choose OneDrive or your SharePoint site as the save location.
3. Once saved to the cloud location, AutoSave activates and the file becomes available for co-authoring.

Working with others in Office

When a document stored in SharePoint or OneDrive is open in a Microsoft 365 desktop app with AutoSave enabled, all co-authors see each other’s edits within seconds. Key behaviours to understand:

• Presence indicators show which section each co-author is currently editing, preventing accidental overwrites.
• Version history is automatically maintained — go to File > Info > Version History to review or restore any prior version.
• Comments and @mentions allow authors to leave notes and notify specific colleagues without leaving the document.

Working with others in OneNote

OneNote notebooks stored in SharePoint or OneDrive support real-time collaboration without any additional setup. Every section and page is automatically synced across all users who have access to the notebook. Unlike Word or Excel, OneNote does not require AutoSave to be toggled — sync is always on when the notebook is stored in the cloud.

Sharing Files and Folders

Using a regular email attachment to share

Emailing a file as an attachment creates a disconnected copy — recipients get a snapshot of the file at that moment, with no connection back to the original. Any edits made to the attachment and any edits made to the source file diverge immediately. This method is not recommended when ongoing collaboration or version control is needed.

The preferred approach for sharing SharePoint content is to send a link rather than an attachment, so all recipients are always working with the same up-to-date file.

Sharing a file or folder in SharePoint

1. In your SharePoint library, select the file or folder you want to share.
2. Click the Share button in the command bar (or right-click and choose Share).
3. In the sharing dialog, choose the link type:
   • Anyone with the link — no sign-in required (if enabled by your admin)
   • People in [your organization] — requires sign-in with a company account
   • People with existing access — sends a link that only works for users who already have permission
   • Specific people — grants access to named individuals only
4. Set the permission level — Can view or Can edit.
5. Optionally set an expiry date or a password for the link.
6. Click Copy link to copy to clipboard, or enter email addresses directly and click Send.

Sharing on Windows (File Explorer)

If you have OneDrive sync running on your Windows machine, SharePoint libraries appear in File Explorer. You can right-click any synced file and choose Share from the context menu to open the same SharePoint sharing dialog directly from the desktop — no browser required.

Summary

SharePoint’s Recycle Bin gives you a reliable safety net for accidental deletions with a 93-day recovery window across two stages. Co-authoring removes the friction of sequential editing by letting multiple users work on the same document simultaneously — provided the file is stored in SharePoint or OneDrive and saved in a modern format. And sharing via links rather than attachments keeps everyone working from the same source, with controls for permission level, expiry, and audience. Together, these capabilities make SharePoint a practical platform for everyday document work across teams of any size.

Related Articles

• Manage the Recycle Bin of a SharePoint Online site collection – Microsoft Learn
• Document collaboration and co-authoring in Microsoft 365 – Microsoft Learn
• SharePoint and OneDrive integration with Azure AD B2B – Microsoft Learn
• OneDrive for Business planning guide – Microsoft Learn