By Louis Balla, Chief Revenue Officer, Nuage. Updated October 2026.
Oracle documents no way to undelete a deleted saved report or saved search. You can find out who deleted it and when with the Analytics Audit Trail, then rebuild it. A saved search that was made inactive rather than deleted is different: check the Show Inactives box on the Saved Searches list to see it and change its status.
The sections below give the steps Oracle documents, what to do after a deletion, and how to avoid the next one.
What can and cannot be restored?
| What happened | Can you restore it? | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| A saved search was made inactive | Yes, from the Saved Searches list | Check Show Inactives and change its status |
| A saved search or custom report was deleted | Oracle documents no undelete | Use the Analytics Audit Trail to see who deleted it and when, then rebuild it or ask NetSuite Support |
| The report is still there but you cannot see it | Possibly nothing needs restoring | Check ownership and audience, and ask an administrator to look |
How do I bring back an inactive saved search?
Oracle’s page on the Saved Searches list gives the route:
- Open Reports, Saved Searches, All Saved Searches. Lists, Search, Saved Searches reaches the same list.
- Check the Show Inactives box.
- Find the search in the list. An Inactive column appears as the first column.
- Use that column to change the search’s active or inactive status.
Oracle describes the box this way: it lists inactive searches and lets you change the active or inactive status for searches. Account administrators have greater access than other users to saved searches, and they can choose to show private searches.
How do I find out who deleted a saved report or search?
Use the Analytics Audit Trail. Oracle’s Analytics Audit Trail page says these searches display audit trail data covering changes to all saved searches, custom reports, report schedules and financial report layouts. Oracle adds that you can use this type of search to determine whether a saved search has been deleted.
- Go to Reports, New Search, and click Analytics Audit Trail.
- Choose the record type: Report for saved custom reports, Search for saved searches, Report Schedule, or Financial Layout.
- Filter by Record Action to find specific changes, and enter a From and To date if you know roughly when it happened.
- Narrow further with Component Name, Component Type or Component Action if you need to.
- Use the Old Value and New Value fields to look for specific values before or after a change.
By default you can view audit trail records only for saved searches, reports and report schedules that you own. To see items owned by other users, you need the Administrator role or the Unrestricted Analytics Audit Trail permission, per Oracle’s Audit Trail subtab page.
What if I cannot find the report?
Before you assume it was deleted, check the list you are looking at. Oracle’s Saved Reports page lists the reports you customized and saved in the Report Builder or Financial Report Builder, and reports whose owner added you to the audience. A report can leave your list when its owner changes the audience, so ask the owner or an administrator first.
The Delete link on that page is available only to the report owner and to account administrators, so those are the people to ask. The page offers no Restore control.
How do I search deleted records in NetSuite?
Use the Deleted Record search for the record types Oracle tracks. Oracle’s list of record types that support deletion tracking covers many records, such as accounts, locations and bills of materials, but it does not include saved searches or reports, so use the Analytics Audit Trail for those.
For those record types, the steps for the old data source are: go to Reports, New Search, and click Deleted Record. Results can include the date and time of the deletion, the user who deleted the record, the context, the record type, the record name and, optionally, the external ID. By default only administrators can use the search type, and an administrator can give another role access with the Deleted Record Search permission.
For records on the new analytics data source, Oracle says to use a SuiteQL query in SuiteScript or SuiteAnalytics Connect. You must have the NetSuite Analytics Warehouse feature enabled to search deleted records that use the new analytics data source, and the deletion time appears in Pacific Time.
What are my options after a saved report or search is deleted?
- Ask the owner and the people who used it. Someone may have a copy of the output, a screenshot or an export that shows the columns and filters.
- Read the audit trail. The Old Value and New Value fields can help you find the values the item held before it changed.
- Check your sandbox. Oracle says a sandbox can be refreshed from production, bringing in new data and customizations, and each refresh overwrites the previous sandbox. A sandbox refreshed before the deletion may still hold the item, so look there before you refresh it again.
- Open a NetSuite Support case. Give the name, the owner and an approximate deletion time, and ask whether anything can be recovered. Oracle’s Help Center describes no self-service route, so the outcome is unknown until Support answers.
- Rebuild it. Use what the audit trail, the saved output and the underlying searches show, and document it this time.
How do I keep the next report from being lost?
For saved searches, make them inactive instead of deleting them when they might be needed again. Oracle’s Show Inactives box brings them back into view.
Check what depends on a report before you remove it. Our team follows that rule in report cleanups. For a payments company’s saved report cleanup, our consultant listed duplicate and superseded reports for the client to confirm, leaving out bundled reports, which cannot be deleted directly. For a services company we recommended deactivating or reassigning 111 searches owned by people who had left instead of deleting them. When a professional services firm asked us to delete two reports, a schedule tied to a departed owner’s record blocked the deletion, so it went to NetSuite Support.
Limit who can delete in bulk. In an August 2026 assessment of an engineering services firm, our team found a third-party mass-deletion tool installed in production that deletes records in bulk from any public saved search, in an account where every saved search was public. We rated it critical and recommended restricting the tool to administrators with a confirmation and audit step, and evaluating removal.
Record the definition of any report that finance depends on: its filters, columns, formulas and audience. A short document or a set of screenshots is enough, and it gives whoever rebuilds the report something to work from. Our guide to NetSuite reporting covers the options for building reports, and the NetSuite dashboards guide covers what depends on them.
If the item is a SuitePeople Workforce Management shift report, Oracle documents a different path: a Deactivate button on the report, and a Restore Reports button at the bottom left of the screen that lists deactivated reports. That applies to Workforce Management shift reports, not to the standard Saved Reports page.
How Nuage approaches report cleanups
In report and saved-search cleanups, our team has taken or recommended these steps. The order changes with each account.
- List what is there. Duplicates and superseded reports go to the client as a list to confirm.
- Leave out what cannot be deleted directly. Bundled reports come off the cleanup list.
- Deactivate or reassign before deleting. Reports and searches owned by people who have left are reassigned or deactivated.
- Send blocked deletions to NetSuite Support. A schedule tied to a departed owner’s record is one example of a blocker.
- Restrict bulk-delete tools. Access goes to administrators with a confirmation and audit step.
Nuage’s NetSuite experts do this work as part of ongoing NetSuite optimization and managed services. If a deletion also raises a control question, the NetSuite SOX compliance guide covers access and change controls.
NetSuite deleted report FAQ
Can I recover a deleted report in NetSuite?
Oracle documents no undelete for a deleted saved report or saved search. The Analytics Audit Trail shows who changed or deleted one and when. Then ask the people who used it, check a sandbox refreshed before the deletion, open a Support case, or rebuild it from what you find.
How do I see an inactive saved search?
Open Reports, Saved Searches, All Saved Searches, and check the Show Inactives box. Oracle says this lists inactive searches and lets you change their active or inactive status, with an Inactive column as the first column. If the search is not there, it may have been deleted rather than made inactive.
How do I find who deleted a saved search or report?
Go to Reports, New Search, and click Analytics Audit Trail. Choose the Search or Report record type, filter by Record Action and date, and read the results. You can see your own items by default. Seeing other users’ items takes the Administrator role or the Unrestricted Analytics Audit Trail permission.
Does the Deleted Record search show deleted saved searches?
Oracle’s list of record types that support deletion tracking does not include saved searches or reports, so use the Analytics Audit Trail for those. The Deleted Record search covers many other record types. By default only administrators can use it, and other roles need the Deleted Record Search permission.
How can I stop reports being deleted by accident?
Make saved searches inactive instead of deleting them, limit bulk-delete tools to administrators, and reassign items owned by people who leave. Document the filters, columns and audience of any report finance depends on. Only the owner and administrators see the Delete link on the Saved Reports page.
About the author
Louis Balla is Chief Revenue Officer at Nuage, a NetSuite optimization partner that has served 250+ clients since 2011 and holds a 4.9 out of 5 rating on Clutch. The client work in this article is our team’s.
