How to Recover Deleted Files in Google Drive
Restore a deleted file from the Google Drive trash within 30 days, and what to do when the trash has been emptied or someone else owned the file.
Applies to: Google Drive on the web; app differences noted. Checked September 2026.
A deleted Drive file sits in the trash for 30 days before it is gone for good. Within that window you can put it back exactly where it was.
Open the trash
Go to drive.google.com and click Trash in the left sidebar. The list shows everything you deleted, newest first. To find one file in a long list, click the filter icon in the search box, set the location to Trash, and search by name. Only files you own appear here.
Restore the file
Right-click the file and choose Restore. It returns to the folder it was in. If that folder was deleted too, restore the folder instead and the file comes back with it. A restored file keeps its sharing settings, so the people who had access get it back as well.
Ask for help if the trash was emptied
After the trash is emptied, or after 30 days, the file is no longer visible to you. For a personal account, Google support can sometimes restore it for the owner if you ask within about 25 days. Open the Drive help site, search for the recover files article, and follow the request form. Only the owner of the file can ask, and the file must have been deleted permanently rather than removed from a shared folder.
Ask the owner if it was not yours
If a file someone else shared with you disappeared, it is either in their trash or still in your Drive under a different location. Search for the file name; if it appears, it was moved rather than deleted. If it does not, ask the owner to check their trash and restore it. If you removed a shared file from your own list, it was never deleted, and the original link still opens it.
Check Drive for desktop and email
A file that synced through Drive for desktop may still be on your computer. Look in the Drive folder on the disk and in the system trash or recycle bin. If the file was ever sent as an attachment, search Gmail for it and save a copy back into Drive.
Recovering earlier content. If the file still exists but the content is wrong, use version history instead. In Drive, right-click the file and choose Manage versions to restore an older upload. In Docs, Sheets, or Slides, click File, Version history, See version history, pick a date, and click Restore this version.
Workspace accounts. An administrator can restore files that were permanently deleted within the previous 25 days from the Admin console, including files that belonged to a deleted user.