Recover Deleted Files and Folders in Google Drive

Google Drive recovery depends on who owns the item, whether it is in My Drive or a shared drive, and how long ago it was deleted. Act promptly and avoid emptying Trash while the issue is being investigated.

First, confirm what happened

Search Drive by file name, owner, type, and location. Check Recent and the file’s activity if available. A file may have been moved or renamed rather than deleted. If someone else owns it, selecting Remove may only remove it from your view; the owner and other collaborators can still have access. Ask the owner to locate and reshare it.

Record the file name, expected folder, owner, approximate deletion date, and last known editor. For a shared drive, also record the shared-drive name. If many files disappeared, if deletion was unexpected, or if an account may be compromised, stop and contact IT before restoring items one by one.

Restore an item from your Trash

On a computer:

1. Go to drive.google.com and sign in to the correct account.
2. Select Trash in the left navigation.
3. Find and select the file or folder.
4. Right-click and choose Restore.
5. Return to its original location and confirm that it opens and has the expected sharing settings.

Google states that files moved to Trash are permanently deleted after 30 days. Files in Trash continue to count toward storage until permanently deleted. If Drive for desktop mirrors or streams files, placing a file in trash from the computer places it in trash everywhere. Google Drive Help

If you do not own the file, you may not be able to delete or restore it. Contact the owner. For a shared drive, a user’s ability to restore content depends on their role; a shared-drive manager or Google Workspace administrator may need to help.

If Trash was emptied or the 30-day period passed

Contact your Google Workspace administrator immediately. Google says an administrator can restore a user’s deleted Drive data within 25 days after the user empties Trash. The administrative restore applies to all items removed during a selected date range; it cannot target just one file or folder. Restored data returns to the user’s Drive in its former location, but the user may need to reshare restored items. The process can take several days. Google Workspace Admin Help

Give the administrator the narrowest accurate deletion window to minimize unrelated data being restored. Do not repeatedly empty Trash or recreate large folder structures while the administrator’s restore is running.

Google’s administrative window has firm limits. Data permanently deleted more than 25 days earlier is not recoverable through this admin restore. A deleted user’s Drive files may be recoverable if the user account is restored within 20 days of account deletion. If the organization uses Google Vault and the content was covered by a retention rule or hold, an authorized Vault user may be able to search and export retained data; Vault does not directly restore that export to the user’s Drive.

Version history and overwritten files

If the file is present but the contents are wrong, do not delete it. For Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides, use File > Version history > See version history and restore the appropriate version. For uploaded files, inspect Manage versions where available. Confirm the correct timestamp and editor before reverting, because collaborators may have made valid changes afterward.

Limits and escalation

Recovery is not guaranteed after Trash and administrator windows expire, when the wrong account owns the content, when storage limits stop a restore, or when the organization has no applicable backup or Vault retention. Escalate immediately for legal records, financial data, customer information, security incidents, a deleted shared drive, or broad deletion.

Include the user’s email address, file or folder name, owner, original path, deletion date range, shared-drive name, and business impact in the request. Do not use third-party “recovery” software on a synchronized folder without IT approval; cloud-side deletion is not the same as recovering sectors from a local disk, and unapproved tools can expose company data or overwrite useful evidence.