How Trash works in Drive
When you delete a document in Drive, it does not vanish at once. It moves to Trash and waits there. You can bring it back, or delete it for good. Documents left in Trash are removed automatically after a few weeks, so restore anything you still need before then.
Before you start
- You need permission to change the document you want to move or restore.
- Documents that are on legal hold, or kept by a retention rule, are protected and are not removed for good.
Move documents to Trash
- Open a list of documents in Drive.
- Tick the box beside each document you want to remove. To pick everything on the page, tick Select all on this page.
- A toolbar appears showing how many are selected. Choose Move to trash.
- Drive asks you to confirm that you want to move the documents to Trash and reminds you that you can restore them. Confirm.
Right after the move you may see an Undo option. If you use it, the documents come back.
Restore a document from Trash
- In the left menu, select Trash.
- Tick the documents you want back.
- In the toolbar, select Restore.
The documents return to where they came from. Trash shows a note explaining roughly how many days documents stay there before they are deleted for good.
Delete documents forever
In Trash, tick the documents and choose Delete forever. Drive asks you to confirm, because this cannot be undone. To clear everything at once, select Empty trash. Empty trash deletes everything in Trash, even files that your current search or filter is hiding, so check the confirmation message before you agree. Documents on legal hold or kept by a retention rule stay.
When some documents do not go through
Drive handles each document on its own. If one cannot be moved, restored or deleted, Drive lists its title with the reason, and the others still go through.