Trash and restore records

Deleted records go to a trash for 30 days. Undo a delete, restore records from the trash, or delete them forever.

Deleting a record does not destroy it straight away. It moves to its record type's trash, where it stays for 30 days. You can undo a delete, restore it later, or delete it for good.

Before you start: You need Full control on Business records to delete records, see the trash and restore them. The trash shows only records you are allowed to read and delete.

Undo a delete

Right after you delete one record or a selection, a message says, for example, Customer moved to the trash, with an Undo button. Click Undo to put the records back.

Restore from the trash

  1. Open the record type's list.
  2. Click the trash icon (Trash) at the top of the list, next to Import.
  3. The Customer trash dialog lists deleted records, newest first, with when they were deleted and by whom.
  4. Click Restore on a record. You see <name> restored and the record is back in the list.

A restored record comes back exactly as it was deleted, with the same values, ID and links. Restoring counts as a change, not a new record, so welcome messages and auto-numbers are not triggered again.

Delete forever

  1. In the trash dialog, click Delete forever on a record.
  2. Confirm Delete forever? — "It is removed for good and can no longer be restored."

After 30 days

Records in the trash for more than 30 days are deleted for good automatically.

Unique values

A record in the trash still holds its values. If you create a new record with a unique value that only a trashed record holds (for example the same GSTIN), the trashed record is deleted for good so the new one can use it. A value held by a live record is still refused.

What else to know

  • Trashed records are left out of lists, search, reports and exports.
  • Deleting and restoring are recorded on the activity trail and in the workspace audit log.
  • Restoring may be refused if the workspace is at its plan's record limit.
  • Flows, forms, workbooks and other items you delete go to the workspace trash in Settings → Trash instead. Files have their own trash in Drive.