Just like Gmail, Google will now keep your trashed files in its Drive platform for only 30 days and start deleting those once the deadline is crossed, starting October 13. Currently, Google Drive keeps all files, including the trashed ones, indefinitely.
"Starting October 13, 2020, we're changing the retention policies for items in the Trash in Google Drive. With this new policy, any file that is put into a Google Drive trash will be automatically deleted after 30 days," Google said in a statement.
Previously, trashed items would be retained indefinitely until the trash was emptied by the user.
"Any files already in a user's trash on October 13, 2020, 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," Google added.
This change matches the policies of other G Suite products and services, such as Gmail. According to the company, this will help ensure behaviour is consistent and predictable for users across G Suite products and will help make sure that items users trash is actually deleted as expected.
As this policy takes effect, Google will show a banner to users with details of the change.
"The policy change will take effect regardless of whether a user sees or acknowledges the banner. We will be showing in-app notifications in Drive and in our Editors products (Google Docs and Google Forms) starting September 29," Google informed.
Admins can still restore items deleted from a user's trash for up to 25 days for active users.
"Files in shared drives' trash are already automatically deleted after 30 days. Items in the trash will still continue to consume quota," Google said.
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