How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files from Google Drive for Business

Introduction to Google Drive recovery

Can you recover deleted Google Drive files?

How to recover deleted files from Google Drive trash

• Step 1: Open your Google Drive – click here to redirect to your Drive – and navigate to the “Trash” option on the left pane.

• Step 2: Locate the file(s) to be recovered and right-click on them.

• Step 3: Select the “Restore” option from the drop-down menu.

How do you recover permanently deleted files from Google Drive?

I. How to recover Google Drive files that are permanently deleted from Trash – When you do not have a backup

1. For individual Google Drive users – Google Drive customer support

Individual Google Drive users have a total of 30 days to recover the files that were deleted ( Click here to know how). After this, the files and folders will be permanently deleted from the ‘Trash’ folder and cannot be recovered, unless you have already taken a backup of the files before deletion. However, in some cases, the Google Drive Customer Support can be of help. To avail this support, follow the steps below:

• Step 1: Go to the Google Drive Help page for file recovery. Click on "Request file recovery" button at the bottom of the page.

• Step 2: Fill the required fields and submit the form.  

• You created the file(s).

• You uploaded the file(s) to Google Drive.

• You accepted ownership of the file from someone.

2. How to recover permanently deleted Google Drive files using the Google Admin console

a) How can a Google Workspace administrator recover permanently deleted files from Google Drive?

• Step 1: Log in to the Google Admin Console – click here to go to your Admin Console.

• Step 2: Click on the “Users” icon from the Google Admin console in the side panel, under “Directory.”

• Step 3: Select if you want to restore data of “users from all organizational units” or “users from selected organizational units.” Then go under the “last sign-in” of the user(s) you want, and you will get a pop-up saying, “More options.”

• Step 4: Select the “Restore data” option from the pop-up menu.

• Step 5: Specify the required date range and give the Application as “Drive” and click on “Restore."

b) How can a Google Workspace administrator recover permanently deleted files from Shared Drive (Team Drive)?

• Step 1:  Log in to the Google Admin Console – click here to go to your Admin Console.

• Step 2: Navigate to “Apps → Google Workspace → Drive and Docs.”

• Step 3: Select the option “Manage Shared drives.”

• Step 4: Click on “All organizational units” or “Selected organizational units,” depending on what files you want to restore. Highlight file(s) you want restored, then click on the “More” dropdown, then select “Restore.”

• Step 5: Choose a probable date range during which the file was deleted and click on “RESTORE DATA."

c) How to recover Google Drive files from a deleted account

• Step 1: Restore the deleted Google account. You can now transfer the file ownership to another Google Workspace user.

• Step 2: Log in to the Google Admin Console.

• Step 3: Go to “Apps."

• Step 4: Click on the option “Google Workspace.”

• Step 5: Select “Drive and Docs.”

• Step 6: Select the option “Transfer ownership" from the list.

• Step 7: Provide the respective username and domain of the users in the ‘From’ and ‘To’ section

• Step 8: Click on ” TRANSFER FILES.”

II. How to recover permanently deleted files from Google Drive – When you have a backup

a) How to recover permanently deleted files from Google Drive using Google Takeout backup

• Step 1: Locate the file to be recovered (it should be in your "Downloads" folder, if you downloaded the data from the email sent by Takeout) and right-click on it.

• Step 2: Select the "extract all" option from the drop-down menu. This unzips the zip file(s).

• Step 3: Log into your Google Drive.

• Step 4: Click on the “+ New” button on the upper left of the screen and select the option “File upload/Folder upload” to upload the files back to Google Drive.

b) How to recover permanently deleted files from Google Drive using Google Vault

Following are the steps to recover deleted files from Google Vault:

• Step 1: Log in to Google Vault using your admin credentials – click here to open Google Vault. Click on the “Matters” pane.

• Step 2: Create a new matter and name it. (A description is optional). Click on “Create.”

• Step 3: Click on the “Search” module on the left pane → Choose “Drive” as the type of application and provide the email address of the user who has lost the file.

   You can also filter the files based on date range and advanced terms.

• Step 4: Click on the “Search” button to list all the files with the specified search conditions.

• Step 5: Click on the “Export” option to export all the files.

• Step 6: Click on “Download” after completing the export process.  To download a specific file: open the file to see a preview, then click the “Download” button at the top right-hand corner.

Limitations of using Google’s native features to restore Google Drive files

• No self- recovery for shared files: If you delete a file which was shared with you, it will not be available in your trash to restore. You will have to ask the owner to re-share the file.

• Limited data recoverability time: Files that were permanently deleted from the Trash can be restored only within 25 days of deletion by the Admin and within 30 days from the Shared Drive.

• No granular Google Drive restore: These features do not let you select the file(s) that need to be recovered. It automatically restores everything that was deleted during the specified date range leading to a clutter of unnecessary files in your Drive, consuming storage space.

• Lost sharing permissions: You cannot recover the file/folder share settings.

• No recoverability: If it is a personal Google account, there is no way for you to recover the deleted file.

• Data loss: The advanced search option does not let you view the missing file if you don’t own it.

c) How to recover permanently deleted files from Google Drive using third-party cloud backup tools

Why should you use third-party backup tools to recover permanently deleted Google Drive files?

• Restore permanently deleted data: Recover Drive files even if the user account is permanently deleted.

• Customized restore: Directly recover a single file, a complete folder, or your entire Drive back to its actual destination.

• Point-in-time restore: Restore a previous version of a file from a specific point in time with all its sharing settings and folder structure intact.

• Self-user restore: Provide self-service Google Drive restore for end users, resulting in faster data recovery and reduced load on IT administrators.

• Cross-user restore: Restore files to another user’s account.

• Usage reports: Audit all activities performed within the application and generate reports

Following are the steps to recover deleted files that are backed up using SysCloud:

• Step 1: Log in to the SysCloud application using your admin credentials.

• Step 2:  Navigate to the “Archives” in the menu bar and select the user account from the user archives whose data you want to recover.

• Step 3: Click on the Drive icon next to the user's name to navigate to the app archives.

• Step 4: Select the required files and click on “Restore."

Frequently asked questions

Individual Google Drive users have 30 days to recover the deleted files. ( Click here to know how ). After this, the files and folders will be permanently deleted from Trash and cannot be recovered, unless you have already taken a backup of the files before deletion.

Google Workspace users can contact their admins, who can recover permanently deleted items within 25 days of deletion from Trash. To know how to recover files from the Google Admin Console, Click here

Yes, you can recover deleted Shared files from Google Drive. Click here to know how.