Trash

Restore deleted Drive files and folders within 30 days, undo a delete, delete forever or empty the trash.

When you delete a file or folder in Drive, it moves to Trash instead of disappearing. It stays there for 30 days, so you can put it back if you deleted it by mistake. After 30 days it is deleted forever.

Before you start: you see the items deleted from spaces you can edit. Restoring or deleting forever needs the same edit access the delete needed. If you don't see Trash working yet, the owner applies the waiting workspace upgrade — see Upgrade your workspace.

Undo a delete straight away

After Move to trash, the message at the bottom of the screen has Undo. Click it and the item goes back where it was. You see "Restored".

Open the trash

Click Trash in the Drive rail. Each row shows the Name, the space it came from, Deleted by, when it was Deleted and its Size. A deleted folder is one row, with everything that was inside it. The newest deletes are at the top.

With nothing deleted you see "Trash is empty".

Restore an item

  1. In Trash, click Restore on the row (or open its actions menu and choose Restore).
  2. It goes back to the same space and folder. You see Restored "name".

If something with the same name was added there in the meantime, the restored item is renamed, for example quotation (restored).pdf, and the message says the name was taken.

Delete forever

  1. Open the row's actions menu and choose Delete forever.
  2. Confirm Delete forever. This cannot be undone.

Empty the trash

  1. Click Empty trash.
  2. Confirm. Everything in the trash that you can manage is deleted permanently.

Good to know

  • Items are deleted forever 30 days after they were moved to the trash.
  • Deleting a whole space also deletes what is in its trash.
  • Files in the trash no longer appear in lists, search, Recent or shares.