Restore a deleted user's Drive files

If you don't transfer files at the time you delete a user, the user's files are deleted 20 days later. If you act quickly, you can restore the deleted user and transfer ownership of his or her files before they're permanently deleted.

Restore Drive files from a deleted user

  1. Restore the deleted user.

    You have up to 20 days after a user is deleted to restore their account and data.

  2. Once the user is restored, transfer ownership of his or her files to an active user.

  3. Delete the user account of the original file owner. 

Automatically keep shared files when someone leaves

If you use Team Drives for shared files, the files are owned by the entire team. You don't need to worry about losing these files when someone leaves the organization.

Team Drives are available with these editions.

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