Important Changes to Trash in Google Drive

Google is making a change to Google Drive (My Drive) so that trash behaves more consistently with the rest of G Suite services with regards to automatic deletion.

  • 15 September 2020

Starting October 13, 2020, Google is making a change to Google Drive (My Drive) so that trash behaves more consistently with the rest of G Suite services with regards to automatic deletion (e.g. Gmail, Calendar, and Google Drive - Shared drive). This means that any file that is put into Google Drive’s ‘My Drive’ trash will be automatically deleted after 30 days. 

To help inform users about this transition, Google will be displaying in-app messaging in Drive starting September 15, 2020 and in the Editors (such as Docs and Forms) starting September 29, 2020.

A few things to note:

  • Starting October 13, 2020 any files already in a user’s trash will remain there for 30 days. After the 30-day-period files that have been in the trash for longer than 30 days will begin to be automatically deleted.
  • Files in shared drives trash are already automatically deleted after 30 days.
  • These changes affect items that are trashed from any device and any platform.
  • Files deleted from Drive File Stream will be purged from the system trash after 30 days. There is no impact to Backup and Sync behavior.

Where can people get more information?

Keep an eye on IST’s G Suite news to learn the latest tips, tricks, and updates for UAlberta G Suite. Additional information can be found at Google Drive training and help.