Google Docs is a cloud-based productivity platform to create, edit, store and collaborate on a document, which is the best free alternative to Microsoft Office Word. It has a lot of useful tools and can be accessed across different systems, which makes Google Docs one of the best word processor.
But what if you deleted a Google Docs by accident and want to get it back? Is it possible to recover a permanently deleted Google Docs after 30 days? You will find all the solutions for deleted Google Docs in our guide.
Yes, we can.
For a recently deleted Google Docs file, Google Drive can keep it in the Trash folder for 30 days. As long as you didn’t click the "Delete Forever" or "Empty trash" button in Google Drive Trash, you can recover it anytime within 30 days since the date of deletion.
But can you get back deleted Google Docs after 30 days? Luckily, yes. For permanently deleted Google Docs that moved to Trash bin after 30 days, if you have a Google backup, it is super easy to recover the files; if you have other backups or once saved the Google Docs to your computer offline, you can recover them using a data recovery tool; if you don’t have a local or cloud backup, you can even contact Google support for restoration.
You’ve probably already checked guides or videos of how others tried to restore a permanently deleted Google Docs. The solution is not only one and not the same to all, which depends on if you have a backup or not. In this part, we are going to walk you through a step-by-step process to recover a permanently deleted Google docs in 6 ways.
We possibly once created or edited the Google Docs in local folder before uploading to Google Drive, or backed up the files locally and externally in a hard drive, even the copies were deleted from your device for some time, we can still recover with a data recovery program.
Cisdem Data Recovery for Windows and Mac is a data recovery program to recover permanently deleted files from internal or external hard drive. As long as you once saved a Google Docs file on your hard drive, no matter it is on your Mac, Windows, USB drive, SD card or other storage devices, Cisdem is able to restore it.
Not only recovering permanently deleted Google Docs, Cisdem Data Recovery can also recover other 1000+ types of files, including Google Sheets, Google Slides, Google Photos, videos, audio, archive, email, other photos and so on. It can list the file name and file size in scan results, also allowing users to preview the files before recovery.
If you have created a Google Drive folder on your device to store the files and stopped syncing before deleting the Google Docs, you can restore the permanently deleted Google Docs from this backup.
If you have subscribed Google Vault, you can use your license to recover a deleted Google Docs after 30 days from Google Workspace. It is designed to retain, search and export data from Gmail, Google Drive, Groups and Chat.
There is another way to recover permanently deleted Google Docs on computer, that is, using the built-in backup utility, like Windows File History and Mac Time Machine. When set up, they can back up your files automatically on a fixed schedule, also restore a deleted file by offering a backup copy of the deleted file.
On Windows:
On macOS:
In the event that you once shared the Google Docs file with others or collaborated on it, it’s potential to recover the permanently deleted file from Google Drive by checking the version history. It might contain previous versions of your Google Docs that can be restored.
If you don’t have any backup of the deleted Google Docs, or searched across your cloud storage accounts but found nothing, don’t be upset, Google Drive Help Center is also an efficient way to go. But bear in mind that this method works only when you are the owner of the files and the files were permanently deleted from Google Drive within the last 25 days.
If you didn’t empty the trash or manually delete the Google Docs in Trash bin, the deleted Google Docs will be still saved in the Trash folder of Google Drive. To find and recover a recently deleted Google Docs within 30 days, all you need to do is to check out the files in Google Drive Trash bin and restore.
As above we have unmasked a complete guide on how to recover deleted Google Docs on computer, both recently and permanently. Also, there are numerous users wondering how to retrieve deleted deleted Google Docs on Android or iOS. Here we go:
Obviously, this tutorial only tells how to restore recently deleted Google Docs files on phone. As for how to recover permanently deleted Google Docs after 30 days on phone, likewise, adopt a dedicated data recovery tool if the files have been saved locally ever, or turn to any backups if feasible.
It is easy to recover a recently deleted Google Docs, you can restore within Google Drive by putting back files to Trash folder. And it is still possible to recover a permanently deleted Google Docs, as long as you have a backup copy of this file or once saved this file on your Mac, Windows, or other storage device. As you can see, it is always right to back up file in case of any data loss.
Zoey shows a great interest in what she does. Although not long with Cisdem, she has possessed a professional understanding of data recovery.
Tony G. Theisen
I submitted a file recovery request to Google support as you explained in this post, Google sent back me the file, it is really useful and thanks for your sharing.
Elmer
I cannot live without Google Docs, thanks for helping me restore the deleted files after emptying the trash bin, I was trying to get more space. A mistake, but you helped me fix it.
Richard
My deleted Google Docs were not saved on my computer or any other local storage devices before. Is there any way to restore them after 30 days? Please help me.
Harry
Whew! Thank you for saving my neck!