One feature that deserves more attention is the Recycle Bin in Microsoft Dataverse, a preview feature enabling the restoration of deleted records. This highly anticipated addition, long requested by the community, is invaluable for preventing user mistakes from escalating into major data losses.

While this feature arrives later than Salesforce’s version (introduced over 5 year ago), it’s definitely a case of ‘better late than never’—and almost 30 years after the original Recycle Bin made its debut with Windows 95 😁

While the Recycle Bin is a powerful safeguard, it doesn’t eliminate the need for careful permissions management. In recent discussions with a client about security roles, I considered the impact of DELETE permissions on critical data like opportunities and leads. In our setup, for instance, we decided that regular sales reps wouldn’t have delete permissions for opportunities, as these should be performed only by the deal desk. This measure minimizes risk, but it’s essential, especially during initial implementation, to assign permissions carefully to avoid accidental bulk deletions. The Recycle Bin provides a useful backup, but a robust permissions strategy is still fundamental.

Currently (as of November 3, 2024), the Recycle Bin feature is still in preview and administrators can restore deleted records through the Power Platform admin center. Developers can also access it via the SDK, using the Web API for restoration tasks, an added advantage for customized handling of data.

Admins have the possibility to restore deleting records.

How does it work under the hood?

The Recycle Bin in Microsoft Dataverse uses a soft delete mechanism to temporarily flag deleted records instead of removing them permanently. When a record is deleted, it’s marked as “soft deleted” and kept in the system for a set retention period, allowing it to be restored if needed. After this period, Dataverse runs cleanup jobs to permanently delete these records, freeing up storage while giving users a chance to recover data.

Check out the video to see how the Recycle Bin in Dataverse can help you quickly recover deleted records and prevent data loss

Developers also restore deleted records by using the SDK for via Web API. For details review Restore deleted records with code (preview) – Power Apps | Microsoft Learn

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