It’s 90 minutes before a high-stakes renewal call. Your sales rep opens Dynamics 365 to pull up the account, check the contact history, and review last week’s email thread. But the record isn’t there. Neither is the linked contact. nor the activity timeline. Gone because someone hit delete on the wrong row while cleaning up the pipeline.
The panic sets in fast. Who has access to fix this? Is there an undo button somewhere? Does IT need to restore the entire database? And if they do will the team lose every record updated since the last backup?
If you’ve been in that situation or you’re determined never to be this guide is for you.
✅ Quick Answer
Yes, deleted records in Dynamics 365 CRM can be recovered. And no, you don’t need a full database restore to do it. If CRM Auditing was enabled at the time of deletion, tools like Undo2Restore by Inogic let you recover individual or bulk records in minutes with their original status, related line items, linked activities, and lookup records fully intact.
Here’s exactly what that recovery looks like what Microsoft gives you natively, where it falls short, and how to get your data back without putting everything else at risk.
Does Dynamics 365 CRM Have a Native Undo or Recycle Bin?
The short answer is no and this surprises most teams until an incident forces them to find out the hard way.
Dynamics 365 does not provide a comprehensive, relational recycle bin capable of restoring deleted records with all associated data across entities. What it does have are three native mechanisms each built for a different purpose, and each with serious limitations when you actually need to recover a specific deleted record.
1. Audit History
Dynamics 365 Audit History logs every change made to a record what field changed, what the old value was, who made the change, and when. It’s a powerful compliance and forensic tool. But here’s the critical distinction most teams miss:
For a Sales Manager or IT Manager who discovers a deleted record, the audit history tells them the record existed and when it was deleted. It does nothing to bring it back.
2. Environment Backups (Dataverse)
Microsoft manages system-level backups of your Dataverse environment, typically retained for up to 28 days. On paper, this sounds like a safety net. In practice, it’s a sledgehammer when you need a scalpel.
Restoring a Dataverse backup is an all-or-nothing operation. It overwrites your entire environment with the backup snapshot. That means every record created, every deal updated, every case resolved since the backup was taken gone. You’d be trading one deleted record for hundreds of lost updates.
It also requires admin access to the Power Platform Admin Center, can take several hours, and causes full environment downtime. It’s designed for disaster recovery not for the sales rep who deleted the wrong account before a client call.
3. Native Recycle Bin (Very Limited)
A basic recycle bin capability exists in Dynamics 365, but it applies only to a narrow set of entities and is not a reliable or consistent recovery path across your CRM data.
What’s needed isn’t blunt-force recovery. It’s a surgical one and that becomes possible only when the right foundation is in place.
Your Dynamics 365 CRM Recovery Options Compared
Before walking through the step-by-step recovery process, here’s how every available option stacks up so IT Managers and CRM admins can make the right call based on the size and urgency of the problem.
|
Recovery Method |
What It Actually Does |
Speed |
Scope |
Risk Level |
| Native Audit Log | Shows change history only no restore action available |
— |
Partial visibility | None (but no recovery) |
| Full Environment Restore | Overwrites entire environment to a backup snapshot | Hours to days | Everything (overkill) | High – all recent data lost |
| Native Recycle Bin | Recovery for select entities only | Fast | Very limited | Low |
| Undo2Restore (In-App) | Surgically restores deleted records with related data | Minutes | Any audited entity | Low – entity-scoped restore |
| Undo2Restore Tool (Windows) | Bulk restore at scale, outside CRM UI | Minutes | Any audited entity | Low – entity-scoped restore |
Five options exist. Only two of them let you recover a single record or thousands of them without putting everything else in your CRM environment at risk.
How to Recover a Deleted Record in Dynamics 365 CRM Step by Step
Undo2Restore is a Microsoft Marketplace preferred app built by Inogic a Microsoft Gold ISV Partner with 20+ Marketplace apps. It installs directly into Dynamics 365 CRM and Dataverse. Once configured, record recovery requires no technical knowledge from end users and takes minutes for CRM admins.
Step 1: Install and Configure Undo2Restore
Install Undo2Restore from Microsoft Marketplace (a 15-day free trial is available) or directly from the Inogic product page. Once installed:
- Activate your license: Navigate to the Undo2Restore App → License Registration → enter and activate your license key.
- Enable entities: Go to Enable Entities inside the Undo2Restore configuration. Move the entities you want to protect from the Available Entities list to the Selected Entities list, then Save.
Note: Only entities with entity-level auditing already enabled will appear in the Available Entities list. If an entity you need isn’t visible, return to Step 3 of the prerequisite section above and enable auditing for that entity first.
Step 2: Recover the Deleted Record
Once Undo2Restore is installed and your entities are enabled, recovery follows a straightforward process directly inside Dynamics 365.
- Navigate to the entity home page (e.g., Accounts, Contacts, Opportunities, Leads).
- Click ‘Restore Deleted’ in the CRM ribbon bar at the top of the page.
- Browse the Restore grid, which displays all deleted records within the configured recovery window (30 days by default adjustable in Undo2Restore Configuration settings).
- Search or filter the grid by record name or deletion date to locate the specific record you need.
- Select the record(s) you want to restore single or multiple.
- Click ‘Restore.’ The record is reinstated immediately, in the exact state it was in at the time of deletion.
Restoring Activity-Type Entities (e.g., Email Records):
Navigate via Advanced Find → search for the Email Messages entity → click Results. The ‘Restore Deleted’ button will appear in the ribbon. Click it to view and restore deleted Email activity records.
The same approach applies to other activity entities enabled in your Undo2Restore configuration.
Step 3: What Exactly Gets Restored? (The Part That Surprises Most Teams)
Most recovery tools bring back the record shell the name, the ID, the basic fields. Undo2Restore restores the full picture. Here’s what comes back with every restored record:
✅ Original Record Status
✅ Related Line Items
✅ Timeline Activities
✅ Lookup Records
✅ Multiple Records in One Click
What If Hundreds of Records Were Deleted? Bulk Recovery With Undo2Restore
A single accidental deletion is stressful. A mass deletion triggered by a bad Power Automate flow, a failed data migration, a bulk delete job that ran against the wrong view is a crisis. Undo2Restore handles both.
In-App Bulk Restore
From the Restore grid inside Dynamics 365, select multiple deleted records and click Restore all selected records are recovered simultaneously. This works for any enabled OOB or custom entity and is the fastest route for small-to-medium batch recoveries directly in the CRM UI.
Undo2Restore For Large-Scale Recovery
When the deletion runs into hundreds or thousands of records, Inogic’s standalone Windows-based Undo2Restore Tool handles the recovery outside the CRM interface entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can you recover permanently deleted records in Dynamics 365 CRM?
Yes if CRM Auditing was enabled at the time of deletion, Undo2Restore can recover the record without a full database restore. The recovery is surgical, entity-specific, and takes minutes.
2. Does Dynamics 365 have a recycle bin for all deleted records?
Not universally. Microsoft’s native recycle bin applies to a limited set of entities and isn’t a consistent recovery path across your full CRM data. Undo2Restore provides comprehensive deleted record recovery for all standard and custom entities with auditing enabled.
3. How far back can I recover deleted records with Undo2Restore?
The default recovery window is 30 days from the date of deletion. This period is configurable in Undo2Restore Configuration settings and can be extended based on your organization’s audit data retention settings.
4. What happens to related contacts, line items, and activities when I restore a deleted record?
Undo2Restore restores the main record together with its related lookup records, product line items, and timeline activities simultaneously. For example, restoring a deleted Account automatically restores its linked Primary Contact and re-establishes the lookup relationship on the Account form.
5. Does Undo2Restore work with custom entities in Dynamics 365?
Yes. Undo2Restore supports both standard (out-of-the-box) and custom entities as long as entity-level auditing has been enabled for those entities in Dynamics 365 CRM or Dataverse.
6. Does it work with both Dynamics 365 Online and On-Premises?
Yes. Both the in-app Undo2Restore solution and the standalone Windows-based Undo2Restore Tool fully support Dynamics 365 CRM Online and On-Premises (v9.x+), as well as Dataverse and Power Apps environments.
7. Do I need a separate license for the Undo2Restore Tool?
No. The Windows-based Undo2Restore Tool is included with the main Undo2Restore app license no additional purchase or subscription is required.
Stop Treating a Database Restore as Your Only Option
A deleted record doesn’t have to mean a crisis meeting, an IT incident ticket, or a painful backup restore window that puts the rest of your data at risk. With the right foundation CRM Auditing enabled, Undo2Restore installed and configured recovery is a three-minute admin task, not a three-hour event.
For IT Managers, that means fewer high-stakes escalations and a clear, predictable recovery process your business can depend on. For sales and service teams, it means the confidence to work in CRM without the fear that one wrong click can derail a deal or a customer relationship.
That’s the shift Undo2Restore enables. Not just data recovery but CRM confidence for everyone who uses it.
Ready to protect your Dynamics 365 data?
Explore Undo2Restore by Inogic → Visit the Undo2Restore product page to see the full feature set, pricing, and supported platforms.
Start your 15-day free trial → Download Undo2Restore from Microsoft Marketplace. No credit card required.
Technical documentation → Full setup and configuration guide available at here.