How to Recover Permanently Deleted Files from Google Drive

Google Drive allows users to store files (e.g. photos, videos, docs, sheets, presentations, etc.), synchronize files across devices, and share files. It protects user files from missing in many ways, with a Bin feature to keep deleted files, with the specialized Backup and Sync program to back up and sync your computer files... So, whenever you removed some files/folders from My Drive, you can try to recover from the Bin folder or backups. 

Can you recover permanently deleted files from Google Drive? 

Most Google Drive users know exactly what the Bin is for. All files you removed from the drive would go to the Bin for one-month preservation. You can always rely on the Bin recovery method except it's a permanent deletion, including you delete forever an individual file, empty the entire trash bin, or it reaches the time limit when Google Drive automatically clear your bin folder.

To recover deleted files not in the Bin anymore, you have three ways to go: 

• Restore backups via Backup and Sync
• Search for locally saved files and folders
• Ask for help from Administrator and Support

Restore backups via Backup and Sync

On the condition that you have 'Backup and Sync' program installed. It automatically syncs files from the specific folders you configured when setting up the program, like Desktop, Documents, and Picture on your PC.

To check the missing files in Backup and Sync, follow the below steps.

• Step 1: Launch Backup and Sync and you will arrive at the path C:\Users\Your name\Google Drive
• Step 2: All the copies of important files are viewable on the pane
• Step 3: Browse the files by viewing large icons thumbnails or directly search the file name in the search box.

Search for locally saved files and folders

Assuming that you're syncing or uploading files from a computer to Google Drive all the time, there is a chance that you can try to recover the original files that have been uploaded on the cloud storage.

Things would be much easier if you can still recall where the original files were kept. Even they're removed after syncing to the cloud, using data recovery software could track them from where they saved.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a dependable yet powerful data recovery software that has both Windows and Mac versions. It's able to scan all types of lost files on a specific location, such as a computer hard drive, an external HDD, USB flash drive or a memory card. It's not designed to recover missing files from the Google Drive server, but the original location where Google Drive files were initially created. Download the FREE version for the first time. The software will first ask you to select the file location to scan, so make sure that you didn't choose the local drive by wrong.

To recover local files from a storage location, follow the below steps.

1. Download and install EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on your computer.

2. Use the data recovery tool to search for and recover your lost data.

• Choose a storage location or a specific folder where your data was lost and then click the Scan button.

• When the scan is complete, locate the recoverable files or folders from the list of scan results.

• Select files and then click the Recover button. When choosing a location to save the recovered data, you should not use the original drive.

Ask help from Administrator and Support

To realize the possibility of retrieving deleted files by yourself, you must obey the criteria:

• The file must be created/uploaded to the Google Drive server by the same user or
• The original owner of the file must grant the rights to it.

Google account that's associated with a school, company or organization, usually it's the administrator who is able to recover the deleted files. 

If you're a paid customer of Google Drive, writing feedback to the official support is a guaranteed way to recover permanently deleted files from the cloud server. As reported, it could be challenging for a free user to get a prompt reply.

To contact the support, follow the below steps.

• Step 1: On the webpage or app interface of Google Drive, click the " ? " symbol in a circle, click Help.
• Step 2: From the drop-down list, click "Send Feedback".
• Step 3: Describe your issue in the pointed area and add a screenshot if necessary. Click SEND.