The 25-Day Grace Period
In Google Workspace, when an employee deletes a file from their Google Drive, it goes into their local Trash folder where it sits for 30 days before being automatically purged. Furthermore, if the user explicitly opens their Trash and clicks “Empty Trash,” the files are instantly and permanently deleted from their account. The user cannot recover them.
However, Google Workspace provides Super Administrators with a hidden safety net. Once a file is permanently deleted from the user’s trash, it enters a backend retention state for exactly 25 days. During this 25-day grace period, an administrator can use the Google Workspace Admin Console to completely restore the deleted files to the exact state they were in before deletion.
Step 1: Access the Admin Console
- Navigate to admin.google.com and log in with your Super Administrator credentials.
- From the main dashboard, click on Directory > Users.
- Locate the specific user who accidentally deleted their files. You can use the search bar at the top if your organization has a large number of employees.
Step 2: Initiate the Data Restoration
- Click on the user’s name to open their detailed profile page.
- In the left-hand navigation pane of the user’s profile, scroll down until you see the More Options section.
- Click on Restore data.
Step 3: Define the Date Range and Application
A popup window will appear asking you to specify exactly what data you want to recover.
- Date Range: You must select the date range when the data was deleted. If the user emptied their trash yesterday, set the start date to yesterday and the end date to today. Note: You cannot select a date further back than 25 days. If the file was deleted 26 days ago, it is permanently gone and cannot be recovered through this method.
- Application: Select Drive from the dropdown menu (you can also use this tool to restore permanently deleted Gmail messages).
Step 4: Execute the Restore
Click the Restore button at the bottom of the popup. The recovery process will begin immediately in the background.
Depending on how much data was deleted during the selected time frame, it may take anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours for the files to reappear in the user’s Google Drive. The recovered files will be placed back into the exact folders they were originally deleted from, retaining their original sharing permissions and revision history.