Deleting and restoring Atlas Workspaces

With sufficient permissions, workspaces can be deleted from Atlas ConneX by the Owner or a SharePoint Administrator. After deletion, workspaces can be restored by a SharePoint Administrator as long as this is done within 93 days of deletion.

You must not delete an Atlas workspace unless you are completely sure it will never be needed again, because although you can restore it, you should understand that a restored workspace will no longer be considered an Atlas workspace by ConneX. Microsoft recreates the workspace with a new ID rather than restoring it with the same one it used to have, so the ConneX database cannot see the workspace anymore. If you are not completely sure about the deletion, you should just remove user permissions from the workspace so it is not accessible.

In this article:

• Deleting a Workspace
• Permanently deleting a Workspace
• Restoring a Workspace
• Still need help?

Deleting a Workspace

Workspaces can be deleted via ConneX, and this will delete all content and infrastructure related to that Workspace and send it to the Deleted Sites section of the SharePoint Admin centre. Deleting the workspace inludes the following:

• SharePoint workspace
• All content within the workspace
• The Microsoft Team behind the workspace (if applicable)
• The Microsoft 365 Group behind the workspace (if applicable).

In order to delete a workspace you will need to be an Owner of the workspace, or a SharePoint Administrator on the M365 tenant.

1. To get started, navigate to Atlas ConneX
2. Find the card for the workspace you want to delete, using the search box or refiners if needed
3. When you find the right workspace, click the ellipsis (...) at the top right of the card and click Delete:
   
4. A popup will appear requiring you to confirm that this workspace will be deleted. If you are sure, type "YES" into the box and click the Delete button:
   
5. Your workspace will now be deleted - this may not be instant but will happen very quickly. Please note the following points:
   • Any links to this workspace or its content within pages or documents will no longer work and will need to be fixed manually
   • Any links to this workspace in the Global Navigation may still appear while users still have those links in their cache. Once their cache is updated those links will no longer appear, but we recommend also clearing up any such links in the Term Store. 

Permanently deleting a Workspace

After deleting a workspace from ConneX using the instructions above, a SharePoint Administrator can permanently delete the workspace by following the instructions here:

Permanently delete a site - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Docs

This is a required step if you need to reuse the URL for a new workspace - after permanently deleting a workspace the URL is usually available after around 24 hours. 

Restoring a Workspace

Workspaces can be restored from the SharePoint Admin Centre by a SharePoint Administrator, but cannot be restored by the original Owner unless they are also a SharePoint Administrator. Workspaces can be restored within 93 days of deletion by following the instructions here, as long as you did not permanently delete it:

Restore deleted sites - SharePoint in Microsoft 365 | Microsoft Docs

However you should understand that a workspace restored in this way will no longer be considered an Atlas workspace by ConneX. Microsoft recreates the workspace with a new ID rather than restoring it with the same one it used to have, so the ConneX database cannot see the workspace anymore.

Still need help?

If you still need assistance with any of the above please contact support or your CSM.