How Long Does Google Drive Keep Deleted Files

Google Drive is probably the best free cloud-backup service available. It offers 15 GB of free space for no cost at all to everyone who signs up. 

However, 15 GB is not a lot of space nowadays, and it can run out pretty quickly if you have a habit of backing up everything. Sooner or later, you’ll want to clean out your Drive and figure out what to keep and what you should delete. And it can be done super easily without putting in much effort. Furthermore, the question is what if you delete something important?

Well, once you do delete google drive files, it directly goes into Trash or Bin and stays there for a particular number of days. So, you can restore those files or delete them permanently before they are deleted by themselves. Here is all you need to know about how long does google drive keep deleted files.

How Long Does Google Drive Keep Deleted Files

Google Drive has a trash bin where all the deleted photos, videos, and files go. It is akin to a recycle bin in that you can restore the items that you deleted if you wish to. However, unlike a recycle bin, Google Drive’s trash bin has a time limit of thirty days. 

This means that all of the files that you deleted will be saved in the trash bin for thirty days and then get deleted automatically.

Once the items are deleted, they will stay in the trash bin till they’ve been emptied out of the trash bin manually or until the thirty days have elapsed.

Read How to Stop Receiving Shared Files on Google Drive

How to Delete Files in Google Drive?

Deleting files from your Google Drive is very similar to deleting files on your laptop. Find the steps to do that given below.

• Open your laptop. 
• Select your preferred browser and go to https://drive.google.com/
• Enter your credentials to access your Drive. 
• Once you’ve gained access to your Drive, select any file you want to remove. 

• Select Remove from the menu after right-clicking on the items. 

You can now check and see if the file has been moved to the trash or not. Select Trash from the menu on the right side and the file you deleted should be there. 

Read How to Delete Files from Google Drive on Mac

Can Deleted Files Be Recovered From Google Drive?

There are various ways to recover a file even after being permanently deleted out of the trash bin. We have cataloged them in this article; you’re free to use whichever way suits your needs the best. 

1. Recovering Your Files From the Trash Bin

If you’ve only recently removed your files from your Google Drive and not emptied out the trash bin, you can simply restore any and all the items you deleted initially. 

• Open your PC or laptop. 
• Choose your preferred browser and head on over to https://drive.google.com/.
• Enter your credentials to access your Drive. 
• Once you’ve gained access to your Drive, click on Trash from the menu on the left side.
• The files you’ve deleted previously should be listed in this window. Select the files that you want to restore and right-click on them to bring out the contextual menu and choose Restore.

The item should now be restored and back in its original location on your Drive.

Read How to Delete PDF Files from Google Drive

2. Recovering Files From Google Drive For Desktop

If you use the desktop app for Google Drive and you have sync turned on, then the items you delete from one place get deleted from the other. Furthermore, you can check for the files using the steps provided below. 

• Open up your laptop or PC. 
• Open the desktop app for Google Drive. 
• Here you can see all the files that are backed up and synced. 
• Use the search bar at the window’s top right corner for Windows systems to search for the file you’re looking for. 

3. Recovering Files Using G Suite Admin

Recovering files that you’ve permanently deleted can be done using a G Suite Admin. However, there’s a time limit of 25 days till which the data can be recovered safely. Keep in mind that this option only works for Google Workspace accounts, and regular Gmail accounts cannot be used to log in to Google Admin Console. 

• Open up your PC or laptop. 
• Select your preferred browser and go to https://admin.google.com/.
• Enter your credentials to gain access to the console. 
• After accessing the console, click on the Users tab.
• Check the username and select whose data you want to be recovered. 
• Click on Restore Data from the new pop-up window. 
• Next, you have to choose the approximate date range and the Google application whose data you wish to recover.
• Click on Restore after you’ve entered all the necessary details. 

Read How to Recover Deleted Files From Google Drive

4. Sending Feedback to the Google Drive Team

If all else fails, you can go about sending feedback to the Google Drive team to recover the deleted files from your Drive.

Find the instructions to do that given below. Also, most probably they will ask you to do the same steps we have asked you above but you can give it a shot.

• Open your PC or laptop and run your preferred browser. 
• Go to https://drive.google.com/ and log in using your credentials. 
• After accessing your Drive, select the “?” icon which is beside the main search bar.
• Select Send feedback to Google

• Explain your problem in detail, submit the feedback, and wait for someone from the team to reach out to you. 

Read How to recover deleted shared files on Google Drive? and How to View Shared Files in Google Drive

Conclusion

As you can see, Google Drive keeps the files for thirty days before permanently deleting them. Even after that time has elapsed, there are various methods to recover your files if you wish to do so. 

Yes, you heard it right, for people having the admin function for GSuite can choose to get back their files once deleted very easily. Simply follow the steps we have mentioned above and everything will be good to go. Furthermore, if you have doubts you can also let us know or directly try contacting the support or send feedback to the Google Support team.

You may like the following google drive tutorials:

• How To Delete Recent Activity on Google Drive
• How to delete files from google drive permanently?
• Unable to Access Document Google Drive Error
• How To Recover Permanently Deleted Photos From Google Drive
• How to Back Up Google Drive Files