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When you restore a user account within 30 days after deleting it, the account and all associated data are restored. The user can sign in with the same work or school account. Their mailbox is fully restored. To find out how much time remains before a specific user account can no longer be restored, contact us.
Here are a couple of tips:
Make sure licenses are available to assign to the account.
If your business uses Active Directory, for instructions on restoring a user account, see How to restore deleted user accounts in Microsoft 365, Azure, and Intune.
Restore one or more user accounts
You must be a (user management admin) to do these steps.
In the admin center, go to the Users > Deleted users page.
On the Deleted users page, select the name of the user who you want to restore, and then select Restore user. You can select multiple users if you want to restore more than one deleted account.
Follow the prompts to set their password, and then select Restore.
If the user is successfully restored, select Send email and close. If you encounter a name conflict or proxy address conflict, see the instructions below for how to restore those accounts.
Make sure to add a license for the user after you restore them if you want them to use Microsoft 365.
After you restore a user, make sure you notify them that their password changed and you follow up with them.
Restore a user that has a user name conflict
A user name conflict occurs when you delete a user account, create a new user account with the same user name - either for the same user or another user with a similar name, and later try to restore the deleted account.
To fix this conflict, replace the active user account with the one that you're restoring. Or, assign a different user name to the account that you're restoring so that there aren't two accounts with the same user name. Here are the steps.
In the admin center, go to the Users > Deleted users page.
On the Deleted users page, select the names of the users that you want to restore, and then select Restore user.
Note
If two or more users fail to be restored, an error message advises you that the restore operation failed for some users. View the log to see which users were not restored, and then restore the failed accounts one at a time.
Follow the prompts to set the password and select Restore.
A message pops up that says there was a problem restoring the account. Do one of the following:
Cancel the restore and rename the current active user. Then attempt the restore again.
OR, type a new primary email address for the user and select Restore.
Review the results, and then select Close.
Restore a user that has a proxy address conflict
A proxy address conflict occurs when you delete a user account that contains a proxy address, assign the same proxy address to another account, and then try to restore the deleted account. Follow these steps to fix this issue.
You must have admin permissions in Microsoft 365 to do this.
In the admin center, go to the Users > Deleted users page.
On the Deleted users page, select the user that you want to restore, and then select Restore user.
On the Restore page, follow the instructions to set the password and select Restore. Any conflicting proxy addresses are automatically removed from the user you're restoring.
Review the results, and then select Close.
Related content
Delete a user (article)
Assign admin roles (video)
Assign licenses to users (article)
