Can You Recover Files Deleted from Recycle Bin

In short, yes. When you accidentally delete files in the Windows operating system, the Recycle Bin on your PC will save all deleted files and folders for a certain period. At this time, you can go to the Recycle Bin to find the item and recover deleted folders and files easily without lost data.

But often, when you search for this problem, it means that you have emptied the Recycle Bin or the file has been automatically deleted because it has expired. Although you cannot see or access the data, it can be recovered if newly written data are not overwritten. So, you should stop using your computer instantly until you have recovered desktop files or Recycle Bin files.

How to recover deleted files from Recycle Bin? Here, 4 reliable Recycle Bin recovery methods are available to help. Follow to recover the deleted Recycle Bin on your own now with Windows file recovery solutions. You can briefly understand what these solutions are and their applicable scenarios.

🎯Recycle Bin recovery Software The deleted files bypassed the Recycle Bin, or you have emptied the Recycle Bin already. This is the most common issue. You can also retrieve files from external storage devices with this method.
🔁Use Restore Tool The recently deleted files are in the Recycle Bin, not being emptied yet.
📀File History Backup If you have turned on Windows File History and made available backup copies.
📌Restore Previous Versions There are restore points created on your computer.

How to Recover Deleted Files from Recycle Bin After Emptying

If you have emptied the Recycle Bin after deleting files, or if data were removed in the following ways, files won't be recycled but permanently deleted, including:

So, how to recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin after emptying in Windows 10 or 11? EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Pro can help. It will thoroughly scan the computer drive and restore permanently deleted files not in the Recycle Bin

How to perform Windows file recovery? Download and install this tool on your main hard drive to avoid data overwriting. Then, take the following 3-step guide to recover files from the Recycle Bin after emptying it with the EaseUS data recovery software tool:

 Download for Win Recovery Rate 99.7%
 Download for Mac Trustpilot Rating 4.7

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and select Recycle Bin to scan deleted files from Recycle Bin. This option allows you to recover only the data in a specific location, and it also can recover deleted files from SSD. It is much more efficient than full disk recovery. The software will start a quick scan immediately for all deleted files, and later, a deep scan will launch automatically to find more lost files.

choose recycle bin to scan

Step 2. The found items are structured based on files like Pictures, Videos, Documents, Audio, and other files in the emptied Recycle Bin. You can filter the scan results to find certain items. You can preview the file to see if it's what you want. 

preview found files in Recycle Bin

Step 3. Click the "Recover" button to restore selected files. You need to select a new storage location on your computer that does not contain the Recycle Bin to avoid file corruption or data overwriting. ( Make sure your disk has enough storage space to keep these recovered files.)

recover deleted items from Recycle Bin

Share this data recovery software on your social media to help more people restore deleted files from Recycle Bin.

 

Video tutorial to recover lost data by using EaseUS data recovery software:

You May Also Like:

related articles

Mac Trash Recovery

Besides, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard also has a Mac version that can scan and restore deleted files from Mac Trash. If you accidentally deleted files on Mac, follow to bring your data back now.

Images of Mac Trash

How to Recover Items Deleted from Recycle Bin with the Restore Feature

As explained before, the Windows Recycle Bin will keep recently deleted files for 30 days by default. You can directly perform a recover Recycle Bin and bring the removed files back from the below cases:

  • Files in the Recycle Bin are not emptied.
  • Files kept in the Recycle Bin are still in the recycling period (1 day, 14 days, 30 days, 60 days).
  • Deleted files were recycled, not bypassing the Recycle Bin.

Use these steps to 3 recover a file from the Recycle Bin: 

  1. Step 1. Open the Recycle Bin by double-clicking on its icon on the Desktop.
  2. Step 2. Find the deleted files you need to recover. You can search for the item through the search bar in the top-right corner.
  3. Step 3. Select the deleted file or hold down the control key to choose multiple files.
  4. Step 4. Right-click the selected item and choose "Restore" to confirm and move it to its original location. 

Or you can go to the "Manage" tab on the top pane, then click "Restore the selected items" to restore them. 

How to Recover Deleted Files from Recycle Bin

Wait patiently; the restored file will reappear in its original location with the same contents, date and time, etc. You can view and make use of these files again.

How to Recover Deleted Items from Recycle Bin from File History

Congratulations if you have created a backup of your deleted files via Windows File History on the computer, and you can bring them back to your PC. However, nothing will be found if you don't create a backup. This method only applies to Windows 8/10/11 users. Here are the detailed steps to perform Windows file recovery and recover deleted files:

Step 1. Open Control Panel, and click to enter "File History".

Head to File History

Step 2. Click "Restore personal files" on the left panel to open your backup files.

Click Restore Personal Files

Step 3. Use the left and right arrows to choose the files you want and click the "Restore" button.

Choose a File to Restore

For Windows 7 users, you can apply the Backup and Restore features.

Restore Files from Windows Backup in Windows 7:

Step 1. Click the Start button, and select "Control Panel".

Step 2. Then select "System and Security".

System and security

Step 3. Click "Backup and Restore", and select "Restore my files".

Restore backup files Windows 7

After this, follow the onscreen instructions to restore permanently deleted files that were not recycled in the Recycle Bin immediately.

Important
To protect your data and avoid file loss issues, we recommend that you create backups of all valuable data regularly with professional backup tools and dedicated backup storage devices.
For an all-in-one tool, reliable file backup software - EaseUS Todo Backup can help.

Restore Recycle Bin with the Previous Version

When you delete or lose files and folders on your computer, but the Recycle Bin fails to restore them, you may try to find them from its previous version.

Note that this method is only for a try. Let's see how to recover deleted items from Recycle Bin using the previous versions:

Step 1. Open Windows File Explorer on your computer.

Step 2. Navigate to the folder used to save the deleted content, right-click on it, and select "Properties".

Right click and click Properties

Step 3. Click "Previous Version", choose a version before the date you deleted the file, and click "Restore".

Restore deleted files from previous version

After restoration, you can reopen the file folder and check if your lost files show up in your computer's original location. If this method doesn't work, turn to EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for help.

If this article helped you, share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram!

 

More Tips on How to Use Windows Recycle Bin

We have two more tips about Recycle Bin recovery. You can keep reading to learn how to allocate more space to Recycle Bin and how to fix corrupted Recycle Bin.

1. How to Allocate More Space to Recycle Bin

You can increase the Recycle Bin folder space with the following steps to avoid files being permanently deleted due to insufficient space:

Step 1. Right-click "Recycle Bin" and choose "Properties".

Step 2. Check the "Custom size" option, and adjust the size you want to add to the Recycle Bin.

Step 3. Click "Apply" and "OK" to save and apply the changes.

Change recycle bin size

2. How to Fix Corrupted Recycle Bin and Recover Data

Sometimes, the Recycle Bin could have corrupted and stopped working. To fix this issue, please follow the steps:

Step 1. Right-click on the desktop and select "Personalize". 

Click Personalize on desktop

Step 2. Now, in the left-side panel, click on "Themes".

Choose Themes

Step 3. In the right-side panel, click "Desktop icon settings".

Find desktop icon settings

Step 4. Select the "Recycle Bin" icon, click "Restore Default," and hit "Apply".

restore recycle bin icon

You can refer to the methods shown above to show or restore the Recycle Bin icon in Windows 10.

Recover Recycle Bin Conclusions

On this page, we collected three ways to help you easily recover deleted files from the Recycle Bin in Windows 10/8/7 and even older Windows computers.

You can use EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to restore files, whether you want to recover temporarily deleted or deleted files after emptying the Recycle Bin.

 Download for Win Recovery Rate 99.7%
 Download for Mac Trustpilot Rating 4.7

Moreover, we still recommend you apply EaseUS backup software to protect files on your computer. As you may know, data loss almost occurs on a daily basis.

Recycle Bin Recovery FAQs

After reading the passage, you may still doubt recovering files from Recycle Bin. We hope you can learn more things from the following questions:

Can you recover deleted files on Windows 11?

You can easily recover deleted files on Windows 11 with three workable methods.

  1. 1. Recover deleted files on Windows 11 from the Recycle Bin.
  2. 2. Recover permanently deleted files on Windows 11 with File History.
  3. 3. Recover deleted files on Windows 11 with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.

Why can't I find a deleted file in Recycle Bin?

You may have emptied the Recycle Bin or set the auto-empty Recycle Bin on Windows. If you don't want your Recycle Bin to delete your files and folders permanently, you can change the settings to stop the auto-empty Recycle Bin under the System Storage settings menu.

Where do all permanently deleted files go?

Once you enter the Recycle Bin and empty it or press Shift + Delete to remove the files, they are not erased forever. The files are still on your storage media before overwriting them, and you can recover them with data recovery software.

How can I recover deleted files from Recycle Bin?

You can recover the deleted Recycle Bin by clicking the Restore button or from the File History backup. After emptying the Recycle Bin, you can restore files deleted from the Recycle Bin with data recovery software or restore Windows to a previous version.

Was This Page Helpful?

Updated by Cedric

Cedric Grantham is a senior editor and data recovery specialist of EaseUS. He mainly writes articles and how-to tips about data recovery on PC and Mac. He has handled 10,000+ data recovery cases and is good at data recovery of NTFS, FAT (FAT32 and ExFAT) file systems, and RAID structure reorganization.

Read full bio

Approved by Evan Galasso

Evan Galasso is a digital forensics and data recovery engineer with over 10 years of experience in the field. He presents opinions on the current state of storage media, reverse engineering of storage systems and firmware, and electro-mechanical systems of SSDs and HDDs.

Read full bio