Accidentally deleting an important canvas or model‐driven Power App can halt business processes and frustrate your team. Fortunately, Microsoft provides several recovery pathways, ranging from the Power Platform admin center’s recycle bin to PowerShell scripts and environment backups. Understanding these avenues ensures rapid restoration, minimal downtime, and greater confidence in your governance strategy.
1. Using the Power Platform Admin Center
The simplest PowerApps recovery options begin in the Power Platform admin center:
1. Sign in as an Admin
Log in to the Power Platform admin center using an account with the System Administrator role.
2. Open the Target Environment
Click Environments, then select the environment where the app was deleted.
3. Access Deleted Apps
Under Resources, choose Power Apps apps. Switch to the Deleted view to see apps removed in the past 28 days.
4. Restore the App
Select the deleted app, then click Restore. The interface confirms when the app has been successfully reinstated. This method is ideal for most accidental deletions, enabling administrators to recover apps in just a few clicks.
2. Recover via PowerShell
For automation or bulk recovery, PowerShell offers a scriptable route to undelete Power App artifacts:
1. Install the Admin
Module.Install-Module -Name Microsoft.PowerApps.Administration.PowerShell.
2. Authenticate
Add-PowerApps Account.
This prompts for credentials and connects to your tenant.
3 List Deleted Apps
Get-AdminPowerApp EnvironmentName <EnvName> IncludeDeleted | Format-Table DisplayName, AppNameIdentify the AppName for the item you want to restore.
4. Restore the App
Restore-AdminPowerApp -EnvironmentName <EnvName> -AppName <AppName>
This command immediately recovers the selected app. PowerShell scripts can be integrated into CI/CD pipelines or scheduled tasks to automate the restoration of deleted PowerApps at scale.
3. Leveraging Environment Backups
If the app isn’t in the recycle bin or it’s past the retention window, you can still restore Microsoft Power Apps from environment backups:
1. Navigate to Backup & Restore
In the Power Platform admin center, open Environments, select your environment, and click Backup & Restore.
2. Choose a System Backup
Under the System tab, pick a backup timestamp that predates the deletion. Backups are retained for up to 28 days by default.
3. Restore to a New Environment
To avoid overwriting live data, restore the backup to a sandbox environment. Once validated, export the recovered app and import it into production. This approach guarantees restoration even when apps fall outside the 28-day recycle bin period.
4. Third-Party and Custom Backup Solutions
For organizations with strict SLAs, augment built-in tools with third-party or custom backups.
- Azure DevOps Pipelines: Export solutions regularly via Power Platform Build Tools and store them in your Git repo.
- Automated ARM Exports: Use PowerShell to export individual canvas apps as ARM templates to Azure Storage.
These backups let you undelete Power App versions older than 28 days and maintain a complete history of changes.
5. Best Practices for Future Readiness
To streamline any future way to restore deleted PowerApps scenarios, adopt these practices:
- Enable Environment Level Recycle Bin: Ensure table-level deletion recovery is enabled for Dataverse-backed apps.
- Regular Automated Backups: Schedule hourly exports of critical solutions to version control.
- Document Recovery Procedures: Maintain an internal runbook that details both UI and PowerShell recovery steps.
- Assign Proper Roles: Limit delete permissions to minimize accidental removals while empowering approved admins to restore quickly.
Conclusion
Recovering a deleted Power App need not be a daunting task. By combining the Power Platform admin center’s recycle bin, PowerShell scripts for bulk operations, environment backups, and proactive best practices, you can master Power Apps recovery options and learn how to restore deleted PowerApps in mere minutes. With a clear process in place, your organization gains resilience against data loss and can maintain uninterrupted service delivery.
