How do I access and restore deleted posts?

Sometimes you might accidentally delete a scheduled, Draft or Queued post and need to recover it. From the Deleted Posts tab in Publishing, you can view posts that were deleted in the past 30 days.

This article contains the following sections:

• What determines which deleted posts show up in the Deleted Posts tab?
• How do I view details about deleted posts?
• How do I restore a post?
• What if it's been more than 30 days since I deleted a post?
• What if I want to restore a deleted Sent Post?
• FAQ

What determines which deleted posts show up in the Deleted Posts tab?

Your view in the Deleted Posts tab shows deleted posts that you have access to. This means that if you don't have the appropriate permissions to a profile, you won't see its deleted posts in your Deleted Posts tab.

If you think you should see deleted posts for a specific profile, make sure to double-check your permissions in Settings > Personal Settings > Personal Permissions.

You can filter the Deleted Posts tab by profile so you can hone in on what posts were deleted for each connected network.

How do I view details about deleted posts?

If you want to view deleted post activity and see when the post was created and deleted, click the activity icon on the post in the stream. The Activity window opens with more details including Post Updates, Team Conversations and External Comments where applicable.

How do I restore a post?

You can restore a post to Compose by clicking the Restore icon . Clicking this icon reopens Compose with the original post settings. From here, you can make any content modifications if necessary, reselect any Approval Workflows, apply Tags, select a date to publish and then click Save to restore the post.

Note: It's important to note that you can't change the post type (i.e. from Draft to Scheduled and vice-versa) or change the network the post was originally tied to. 

What if it's been more than 30 days since I deleted a post?

Regardless of the date the post was originally scheduled for, the Deleted Posts tab shows any post that was deleted in the past 30 days. For example, if you deleted a Draft post from 6 months ago today, that post will remain in your Deleted Posts tab for 30 days from today.

After a post is deleted, you have 30 days to recover it. After that time, the posts are permanently removed from your Sprout account.

What if I want to restore a deleted Sent Post?

You can restore deleted Sent Posts from the Smart Inbox or the Post Performance Report. Deleted Sent Posts won't appear in the Deleted Posts tab.

FAQs

What type of posts can be recovered from the Deleted Post page?
Drafts, Queued, Rejected, Needs Approval and Scheduled posts that haven't been sent to a network.

Why are sent posts not included in the Deleted Post page?

If a post was published to a social network and then deleted, Sprout is unable to recover the original post due to API limitations. However, you may view and create a duplicate of the sent post via Post Performance Report or Smart Inbox. See this help center article for more information.

How far back are deleted posts shown within the Deleted Post page?
Deleted posts show for 30 days from when a user deleted the post. Only posts that were deleted after 11:30 AM CDT on 09/12/2023 appear in the Deleted Posts page.

What is recovered on a deleted post? Is there anything I need to add back in when recovering the post?

All post contents are recovered from caption text, media attached, original comments, audience targeting, location tags, tags, etc. 

When restoring a post, the Profile drop-down, This is a Story toggle, This is a Draft toggle and When to post drop-down are disabled so that the original state of the post is restored. You have the option to edit those areas after the post is restored.

If the deleted post included a scheduled date and time and that date and time has expired, a warning appears so you can select a new date and time. If the date and time are not in the past from today's date, then that date and time are recovered. 

Who can recover a deleted post?

All users can see the Deleted Post page however, recovering a deleted post is based on Profile Permissions.

• Users who have No Access for a profile won't see any deleted posts associated with that profile. 
• Users who have Read Only for a profile can view a deleted post associated with that profile but won't have access to recover it.
• Users who have Can Reply or Needs Approval for a profile can view a deleted post and may only recover the deleted post associated with that profile if they were the author of that post. If the post originally required approval, it must go through the approval process again once recovered.
• Users with Full Publishing for a profile can view and recover a post associated with that profile.

Will a post that was Approved via the Needs Approval workflow then deleted go through the approval process again if the deleted post is recovered?

No, however, only a user with Full Publishing permissions on that profile can recover the post. A user with Need Approval permissions can only view a deleted post via the Deleted Post page.