How to recover a deleted SOLIDWORKS PDM file

In the world of SOLIDWORKS PDM, nothing is truly gone until it’s DESTROYED.  If you mistakenly delete a file (we all make mistakes…right?), don’t worry because SOLIDWORKS PDM has your back and using the recycle bin we can recover a deleted file.

Required permissions

To restore a deleted file, requires the folder permission: Recover files from recycle bin

Recover files from recycle bin permission

How To Recover a Deleted File

The SOLIDWORKS PDM recycle bin can be accessed via the folder properties;

Accessing the SOLIDWORKS PDM recycle bin

NOTE: In this example, I’m looking at the root level of the vault, therefore it will show ALL deleted files, to help narrow down the list of files you can use the parent folder where the file was deleted.

Select the Deleted Items tab and enable the Include items in sub-folders checkbox.

Include items in sub-folders

From here, we can scroll to the required file, then; Right-Click > Recover.

Recover Deleted Files

The file will be then restored to the original location it was deleted from;

Recovered Deleted File

And the file history will be updated to reflect the recovery:

Recovery entered in file history