Accidental data deletion is a common occurrence in any organization. When a user deletes a file in Google Drive, it sits in their Trash for 30 days before being permanently purged. However, if a user empties their trash or the 30-day window expires, the file disappears from their view. As a Google Workspace administrator, you have a limited window to recover these permanently deleted files using the Admin Console.
The 25-Day Recovery Window
Google Workspace provides administrators with exactly 25 days to recover files after they have been permanently deleted from a user’s Trash. Once this 25-day grace period expires, the data is purged from Google’s servers and cannot be recovered via the Admin Console (requiring third-party backup solutions like Vault, if configured).
How to Restore Data via the Admin Console
If the deletion occurred within the 25-day window, follow these steps to restore the files directly to the user’s My Drive:
- Log in to the Google Workspace Admin Console using an administrator account.
- In the left-hand navigation menu, go to Directory > Users.
- Locate the user who owned the deleted files. Click on their name to open their account details page.
- On the left side of the user’s profile, click the Restore Data option.
- A dialog box will appear. You must specify a date range for the restoration:
- From date: The earliest date the file might have been permanently deleted.
- To date: The latest date the file might have been permanently deleted.
Note: It is best practice to keep this date range as narrow as possible. Restoring a wide date range will recover every single file deleted during that time, potentially cluttering the user’s Drive.
- Under the Application drop-down menu, select Drive.
- Click Restore.
What Happens Next?
The restoration process operates in the background. Depending on the volume of data being restored, it may take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours.
The recovered files will appear back in the user’s Google Drive in the exact folder locations they occupied before deletion. If the original folder was also deleted, the files will be restored directly to the root of the user’s “My Drive”. Furthermore, any sharing permissions that existed on the file at the time of deletion will be fully reinstated.