Summary

A bad sync, a mass delete, or a ransomware infection can damage hundreds of files at once — far too many to repair one at a time. OneDrive's Files Restore feature rolls your entire drive back to any point in the last 30 days in a single operation, and you do not need IT to run it. This article shows you when a full restore is the right call, how to pick the exact moment to rewind to, and how to undo a restore if you choose the wrong one.

Before You Start

• Files Restore is included with every work or school OneDrive account, and with personal accounts on a Microsoft 365 subscription (Basic, Personal, or Family). The free 5 GB tier does not include it.
• The damage must have happened within the last 30 days — the restore window does not reach further back.
• You need a browser and your OneDrive sign-in details. Any computer or phone works; it does not have to be the machine the damage happened on.
• If ransomware caused the damage, run the restore from a different, clean device and keep the infected computer off the network until it has been cleaned.
• No admin rights required.

Instructions

1. Check That a Full Restore Is the Right Tool

Files Restore rewinds everything in your OneDrive at once, so match the tool to the size of the damage before you commit.

• One file is wrong — overwritten, badly edited, or saved over. Use version history instead: it fixes that file and touches nothing else. See How to Restore a Previous Version of a File in OneDrive.
• A handful of files were deleted. Use the OneDrive recycle bin instead: you pick exactly which files come back. See How to Recover Deleted Files.
• Hundreds of files are deleted, overwritten, or encrypted — a folder emptied by mistake, a sync gone wrong, or ransomware aftermath. This is what Files Restore is for. Carry on with this article.

A full restore also undoes the changes everyone and everything else made in the same window — your own edits from another device included — which is why the per-file tools win when the damage is small.

2. Open the Files Restore Page

The feature lives on the OneDrive website, not in the desktop app or File Explorer.

1. Open a browser, go to onedrive.com, and click Sign in. Use the account whose files were damaged. Your OneDrive file list appears.
2. Click the Settings gear icon in the top-right corner, next to your profile picture. A settings panel opens.
3. On a personal account, click Options, then Restore your OneDrive in the left menu. On a work or school account, click Restore your OneDrive directly in the settings panel. The two account types place the entry differently, so check the other location if you do not see it at first.
4. The Restore your OneDrive page opens, with a Select a date dropdown near the top.

3. Pick a Restore Point

This choice sets the moment OneDrive rewinds to — every change made after it will be undone.

1. Click the Select a date dropdown. It offers Yesterday, One week ago, Three weeks ago, and Custom date and time.
2. Choose the option closest to the last time your files were in good shape. If you know when the damage happened — a deletion you watched, a ransomware timestamp — select Custom date and time for precise control.
3. Once a date is selected, an activity chart and a feed of file changes appear below the dropdown.

4. Fine-Tune the Point with the Chart and Activity Feed

The chart and the feed exist so you can find the exact moment the damage started instead of guessing.

1. Read the activity chart. Each bar represents one day's file activity, so a mass delete or a ransomware encryption run shows up as a sudden tall spike after days of normal activity.
2. If you chose Custom date and time, drag the slider on the chart to a point before that spike.
3. Review the activity feed below the chart. It lists every change made after the point you picked — file names and what happened to each — with the newest at the top. Scan it to confirm the damage is inside the selection and your last good work is not.
4. To set the cut-off precisely, click the earliest change in the feed that you want undone. That change and every change after it are selected automatically.

5. Run the Restore

Restoring undoes every selected change in one pass, and a large drive takes a while to process.

1. Before you commit: if you created any files after the restore point that you want to keep, copy them to a folder outside OneDrive now — the restore removes them along with the damage. If you skip this and regret it, the restore itself can be undone (Step 6), so nothing is permanently lost.
2. Click Restore. The page shows progress while OneDrive undoes the selected changes — from seconds for a small selection to considerably longer for thousands of files.
3. When it finishes, the page confirms the restore is complete. Browse your files on onedrive.com and confirm the deleted files are back and the damaged ones open correctly.
4. On your computer, the OneDrive sync app now downloads the restored state. Click the OneDrive cloud icon in the taskbar corner to watch progress; when it shows your files are up to date, the folders on your computer match the restored drive.

6. Undo the Restore If You Picked the Wrong Point

A restore is recorded in your activity history like any other change, so a second restore rolls the first one back.

1. Return to the Restore your OneDrive page (Step 2).
2. Select Custom date and time and move the slider to the minutes right before you ran the first restore. The first restore's changes appear in the activity feed as one large block at the time you ran it.
3. Click Restore. Your drive returns to the state it was in before the first restore ran, and you can try again with a better point. This works for as many attempts as you need within the 30-day window.

Troubleshooting

WARNING

Files Restore rebuilds your drive from version history and the recycle bin. Files you permanently deleted — emptied from the recycle bin, or deleted more than 30 days ago — are beyond its reach, and no slider position brings them back. If files that matter are in that category on a work account, ask IT to check whether your OneDrive is covered by a retention policy or backup, and include the folder paths and the date the files were lost.

Symptom / Error	Potential Cause	Solution
Restore your OneDrive is missing from Settings	Free personal account	Files Restore requires a Microsoft 365 subscription. Recover files individually instead: the recycle bin for deletions, version history for overwrites.
Some files did not come back after the restore	Permanently deleted earlier	Files removed from the recycle bin before you ran the restore cannot be rebuilt. On a work account, ask IT to check for a retention policy or backup covering your OneDrive, and include the affected folder paths.
Restored files become encrypted again	Infected computer still syncing	Disconnect or shut down the machine the ransomware ran on, run the restore from a clean device, and reconnect the affected computer only after a full Windows Security scan comes back clean.
The slider does not reach the date you need	Damage older than 30 days	The 30-day window is a hard limit. On a work account, ask IT whether a retention policy or backup covers the files, and include the paths and the date they were last correct.
Your computer's OneDrive folder still shows the damage	Sync has not finished	The restore applies on the web first. Click the OneDrive cloud icon in the taskbar corner — while it reads Processing changes, the restored files are still downloading. Large restores take time to sync down.

Related Articles

• How to Restore a Previous Version of a File in OneDrive
• How to Recover Deleted Files
• How to Fix OneDrive Sync Problems

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