How to recover deleted items in Square

Updated October 2026

First, check it wasn't archived

Square lets you archive items as well as delete them. Archived items drop out of your item library and your point of sale, which can look exactly like a deletion. Check your archived items in the Square Dashboard's item library. If it's there, unarchive it and you're done, with its history intact.

If it really was deleted

Square has no way to undelete or restore an item once it's deleted. Your options depend on what you had in place beforehand.

Option 1: Re-import an old export

If you ever exported your item library to a spreadsheet (from the item library's actions menu in the Square Dashboard), you have a snapshot. Delete every row except the items you lost, check the prices are still current, and import the file back in.

Watch out for:

• It's only as fresh as the export. Anything you changed since then comes back wrong.
• Photos don't come back. The spreadsheet doesn't hold them, so you'll re-upload each one.
• Duplicates. Importing items that still exist can create copies. Only keep the rows you actually lost.

Option 2: Rebuild it by hand, using your reports

No export? Your sales reports still list deleted items by name, with what they sold for. Use them as a checklist: open your item sales report for a period when the item was selling, note each name and price, and recreate them in the item library.

This takes time. Variations, modifier settings, tax settings, SKUs and photos all have to be set up again from memory.

Option 3: Restore from a backup

If an automatic backup was running before the delete, restoring is one click and everything comes back: sizes, prices, options, category, tax and photo. That's what Restora does. It can't help with something deleted before it was connected, so it's worth setting up before you need it.

Deleted a category or option list?

When you delete a category or an option list (like "Milk choice"), Square doesn't delete the items. It quietly removes the category or options from every item that used it. The items themselves are still there.

To fix it by hand, recreate the category or option list, then go through each affected item and add it back. Your reports and staff memory are the best guide to which items had it. Restora handles this case directly: it brings back the deleted category or option list and relinks it to every item that had it.

What you lose even after a perfect rebuild

A recreated item is a new item as far as Square is concerned. It gets a new ID, so:

• Past sales stay in your reports under the old item, not the new one.
• Stock history doesn't carry over.
• Any other apps that pointed at the old item (online ordering, delivery, accounting) may need relinking.

How to stop it happening again

1. Archive instead of delete. If an item might come back (seasonal specials, say), archive it. Archiving is reversible.
2. Limit who can edit items. Square's team permissions let you stop staff from editing or deleting items on the point of sale.
3. Export your item library regularly. A monthly export is a free safety net. Set a reminder.
4. Run an automatic backup. Exports go stale and you have to remember to do them. A backup tool saves every change as it happens and restores in one click.