Google Drive users should probably check their trashcans for any important files as Google has announced that its cloud storage service will soon automatically deleted files stored there after 30 days.
Up until now, the service would keep files in the trash indefinitely unless users manually opened the trash and chose to delete them forever.
The change to the way that Google Drive stores files in its trash means that the service will soon work the same way as other Google products like Gmail do.
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Automatically deleted
In a G Suite blog post, Google announced when the change to how Google Drive stores file in the trash will go into effect, saying:
“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. 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.”
Once Google Drive's new retention policy goes into effect, G Suite admins will still have the ability to restore items that are deleted from the trash for a period of 25 days for active users. This means that while you personal files in Drive's trash may be deleted, you'll still be able to recover any important work files that were accidentally deleted.
Google plans to add a banner notification to Google Drive as well as to its Google Docs and Google Forms apps to ensure that all of its users are aware of how long files will be stored in the trash before being permanently deleted.
Although the new retention policy could be frustrating for some users, it may actually end up being beneficial for most of Drive's users as the company counts files in the trash that haven't been deleted towards the service's storage quota.
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Via The Verge
