List deletedItems (directory objects)

Article
03/18/2023
5 minutes to read

Namespace: microsoft.graph

Retrieve a list of recently deleted directory objects. Currently, deleted items functionality is only supported for the application, servicePrincipal, group, administrative unit, and user resources.

Permissions

When an application queries a relationship that returns a directoryObject type collection, if it does not have permission to read a certain derived type (like device), members of that type are returned but with limited information. With this behaviour applications can request the least privileged permissions they need, rather than rely on the set of Directory.* permissions. For details, see Limited information returned for inaccessible member objects.

One of the following permissions is required to call this API. To learn more, including how to choose permissions, see Permissions.

For applications and service principals:

Permission type	Permissions (from least to most privileged)
Delegated (work or school account)	Application.Read.All, Application.ReadWrite.All, Directory.Read.All, Directory.ReadWrite.All
Delegated (personal Microsoft account)	Not supported.
Application	Application.Read.All, Application.ReadWrite.All, Directory.Read.All

For users:

Permission type	Permissions (from least to most privileged)
Delegated (work or school account)	User.Read.All, User.ReadWrite.All, Directory.Read.All, Directory.ReadWrite.All
Delegated (personal Microsoft account)	Not supported.
Application	User.Read.All, User.ReadWrite.All, Directory.Read.All, Directory.ReadWrite.All

For groups:

Permission type	Permissions (from least to most privileged)
Delegated (work or school account)	Group.Read.All, Group.ReadWrite.All, Directory.Read.All
Delegated (personal Microsoft account)	Not supported.
Application	Group.Read.All, Group.ReadWrite.All, Directory.Read.All

For administrative units:

Permission type	Permissions (from least to most privileged)
Delegated (work or school account)	AdministrativeUnit.Read.All, AdministrativeUnit.ReadWrite.All
Delegated (personal Microsoft account)	Not supported.
Application	AdministrativeUnit.Read.All, AdministrativeUnit.ReadWrite.All

HTTP request

GET /directory/deleteditems/microsoft.graph.application
GET /directory/deleteditems/microsoft.graph.servicePrincipal
GET /directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.group
GET /directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.user
GET /directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.administrativeUnit

The OData cast type is a required part of the URI and calling GET /directory/deleteditems without a type is not supported.

Optional query parameters

This method supports the query parameters that are supported by the resource that is specified by the OData cast. That is, $count, $expand, $filter, $orderBy, $search, $select, and $top query parameters. This API returns 100 objects by default and supports returning up to 999 objects per page using $top.

Some queries are supported only when you use the ConsistencyLevel header set to eventual and $count. For example:

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/beta/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.group?&$count=true&$orderBy=deletedDateTime desc&$select=id,displayName,deletedDateTime
ConsistencyLevel: eventual

This example requires the ConsistencyLevel header because the $orderBy and $count query parameters are used in the query.

Examples using the $orderBy OData query parameter

The $orderBy OData query parameter is supported on the deletedDateTime, displayName, and userPrincipalName properties of the deleted object types. On the deletedDateTime property, the query requires adding the advanced query parameters (ConsistencyLevel header set to true and $count=true query string).

OData cast	Properties supporting $orderBy	Example
microsoft.graph.user	deletedDateTime, displayName, userPrincipalName	/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.user?$orderBy=userPrincipalName
microsoft.graph.group	deletedDateTime, displayName	/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.group?$orderBy=deletedDateTime asc&$count=true
microsoft.graph.application	deletedDateTime, displayName	/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.application?$orderBy=displayName
microsoft.graph.device	deletedDateTime, displayName	/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.device?$orderBy=deletedDateTime&$count=true

Request headers

Name	Description
Authorization	Bearer <code> Required
Accept	application/json

Request body

Do not supply a request body for this method.

Response

If successful, this method returns a 200 OK response code and collection of directoryObject objects in the response body.

Examples

Example 1: Retrieve deleted groups

Request

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.group


var graphClient = new GraphServiceClient(requestAdapter);

var result = await graphClient.Directory.DeletedItems.GraphGroup.GetAsync();


const options = {
	authProvider,
};

const client = Client.init(options);

let group = await client.api('/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.group')
	.get();


GraphServiceClient graphClient = GraphServiceClient.builder().authenticationProvider( authProvider ).buildClient();

GroupCollectionPage group = graphClient.directory().deletedItems().microsoft.graph.group()
	.buildRequest()
	.get();


//THE GO SDK IS IN PREVIEW. NON-PRODUCTION USE ONLY
graphClient := msgraphsdk.NewGraphServiceClientWithCredentials(cred, scopes)


result, err := graphClient.Directory().DeletedItems().GraphGroup().Get(context.Background(), nil)


<?php

// THIS SNIPPET IS A PREVIEW FOR THE KIOTA BASED SDK. NON-PRODUCTION USE ONLY
$graphServiceClient = new GraphServiceClient($requestAdapter);


$requestResult = $graphServiceClient->directory()->deletedItems()->graphGroup()->get();

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-type: application/json

{
  "@odata.context":"https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/$metadata#groups",
  "value": [
    {
      "id":"46cc6179-19d0-473e-97ad-6ff84347bbbb",
      "displayName":"SampleGroup",
      "groupTypes":["Unified"],
      "mail":"example@contoso.com",
      "mailEnabled":true,
      "mailNickname":"Example",
      "securityEnabled":false,
      "visibility":"Public"
    }
  ]
}

Example 2: Retrieve the count of deleted user objects and order the results by the deletedDateTime property

Request

GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.group?$count=true&$orderBy=deletedDateTime asc&$select=id,DisplayName,deletedDateTime
ConsistencyLevel: eventual


var graphClient = new GraphServiceClient(requestAdapter);

var result = await graphClient.Directory.DeletedItems.GraphGroup.GetAsync((requestConfiguration) =>
{
	requestConfiguration.QueryParameters.Count = true;
	requestConfiguration.QueryParameters.Orderby = new string []{ "deletedDateTime asc" };
	requestConfiguration.QueryParameters.Select = new string []{ "id","DisplayName","deletedDateTime" };
	requestConfiguration.Headers.Add("ConsistencyLevel", "eventual");
});


const options = {
	authProvider,
};

const client = Client.init(options);

let group = await client.api('/directory/deletedItems/microsoft.graph.group')
	.header('ConsistencyLevel','eventual')
	.select('id,displayName,deletedDateTime')
	.orderby('deletedDateTime asc')
	.get();


GraphServiceClient graphClient = GraphServiceClient.builder().authenticationProvider( authProvider ).buildClient();

LinkedList<Option> requestOptions = new LinkedList<Option>();
requestOptions.add(new HeaderOption("ConsistencyLevel", "eventual"));

GroupCollectionPage group = graphClient.directory().deletedItems().microsoft.graph.group()
	.buildRequest( requestOptions )
	.select("id,displayName,deletedDateTime")
	.orderBy("deletedDateTime asc")
	.get();


//THE GO SDK IS IN PREVIEW. NON-PRODUCTION USE ONLY
graphClient := msgraphsdk.NewGraphServiceClientWithCredentials(cred, scopes)

headers := abstractions.NewRequestHeaders()
headers.Add("ConsistencyLevel", "eventual")


requestCount := true

requestParameters := &graphconfig.DirectoryDeletedItemsGraph.groupRequestBuilderGetQueryParameters{
	Count: &requestCount,
	Orderby: [] string {"deletedDateTime asc"},
	Select: [] string {"id","DisplayName","deletedDateTime"},
}
configuration := &graphconfig.DirectoryDeletedItemsGraph.groupRequestBuilderGetRequestConfiguration{
	Headers: headers,
	QueryParameters: requestParameters,
}

result, err := graphClient.Directory().DeletedItems().GraphGroup().Get(context.Background(), configuration)


<?php

// THIS SNIPPET IS A PREVIEW FOR THE KIOTA BASED SDK. NON-PRODUCTION USE ONLY
$graphServiceClient = new GraphServiceClient($requestAdapter);

$requestConfiguration = new GroupRequestBuilderGetRequestConfiguration();

$queryParameters = new GroupRequestBuilderGetQueryParameters();
$queryParameters->count = true;
$queryParameters->orderby = ["deletedDateTime asc"];
$queryParameters->select = ["id","DisplayName","deletedDateTime"];

$headers = [
'ConsistencyLevel' => 'eventual',
];

$requestConfiguration->queryParameters = $queryParameters;
$requestConfiguration->headers = $headers;


$requestResult = $graphServiceClient->directory()->deletedItems()->graphGroup()->get($requestConfiguration);

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-type: application/json

{
    "@odata.context": "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/$metadata#groups(id,displayName,deletedDateTime)",
    "@odata.count": 2,
    "value": [
        {
            "id": "c31799b8-0683-4d70-9e91-e032c89d3035",
            "displayName": "Role assignable group",
            "deletedDateTime": "2021-10-26T16:56:36Z"
        },
        {
            "id": "74e45ce0-a52a-4766-976c-7201b0f99370",
            "displayName": "Role assignable group",
            "deletedDateTime": "2021-10-26T16:58:37Z"
        }
    ]
}

List deletedItems (directory objects)

Permissions

For applications and service principals:

For users:

For groups:

For administrative units:

HTTP request

Optional query parameters

Examples using the $orderBy OData query parameter

Request headers

Request body

Response

Examples

Example 1: Retrieve deleted groups

Request

Response

Example 2: Retrieve the count of deleted user objects and order the results by the deletedDateTime property

Request

Response

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Additional resources

Additional resources