Unable to Restore a Deleted Salesforce Record from the Recycle Bin – Hard Delete and Master-Detail Relationship Scenarios

When a record is deleted in Salesforce, it is placed into the Recycle Bin in a soft deleted state and can be restored through the user interface without issue.
However, there are specific circumstances in which a deleted record no longer appears in the Recycle Bin:

Scenario 1: Child Record in a Master-Detail Relationship Becomes Hard Deleted

If a record is a child (detail) record in a Master-Detail relationship, and the parent record is deleted after the child record is deleted, the child record transitions to a hard deleted state. In this scenario, the child record cannot be recovered and must be recreated manually.

Scenario 2: Child Record Is Deleted When the Parent Is Deleted

If a record is a child (detail) in a Master-Detail relationship and the parent record is deleted, the child record is also soft deleted but is not visible in the Recycle Bin. To recover the child record, you must first restore the parent record. The child record is recovered automatically when the parent is restored. You cannot recover the child record independently of the parent.

What Happens After Hard Deletion

Once a record is in hard deleted status, it is no longer visible in the Salesforce user interface (UI). However, for a limited time, the record may still appear through API tools such as Data Loader. After this window closes, the record is permanently gone and must be recreated.

Additional Notes

• The Recycle Bin is available in both Salesforce Classic and Lightning Experience.
• Review Recycle Bin and View and Restore Your Recycle Bin in Lightning Experience for UI-based restore steps.
• You can Use Schema Builder to identify and query object relationship fields for delete performance.