Restoring Deleted Files and Folders

The Restore Deleted Files and Folders feature allows Site Administrators to recover content deleted from a site's native Files.com storage, and Workspace Administrators to recover content within their own Workspace. Use this feature to recover from deletions that break your workflows. Restore operations run in the background; they do not interrupt other activity on the site.

Deleted files remain available for restoration only within a configured retention window defined in the Retain backup copies of files after deletion setting. By default, deleted files are retained for 30 days. Deleted content older than the retention period cannot be recovered.

For content preserved by Archive Removed Files, start with the configured archive path. For files deleted on mounted storage, use the Remote Server recovery options.

How Restores Work

Background processing of the restore begins after you submit the restore request. The submitted request shows information about the restore progress, final status, and errors. Completion time depends on the number of items, the volume of data, and the queue of other background jobs.

Site Administrators can choose whether to restore deleted content from a specific folder or across the entire site. A Workspace Administrator's restore stays within their own Workspace.

To restore a particular file or subfolder, run the restore for a specific folder rather than sitewide. A folder restore covers that folder and its contents only; it does not include other folders whose names start with the same text. For example, restoring Clients/Acme does not restore Clients/Acme Corp.

Restored files and folders can return to their original location, or you can restore them to a new folder created under the root folder. If a folder has been created at the original path since the deletion, an in-place restore puts the recovered content into that folder. A file cannot be restored to its original path if another file with the same name already exists there; the restore preserves the existing file.

Restoring content and restoring its access are separate choices. An in-place folder restore can also bring back eligible folder permissions, so the recovered content can return with the access needed for its workflow.

You can choose to keep the original Last Modified timestamps or set them to today's date to prevent immediate triggering of file expiration policies. If you keep the original timestamps and a restored file is already older than the expiration period, it remains eligible for deletion. Review the rule and choose timestamps for the recovered file's intended use before submitting the restore.

Folder Permissions

Deleting a folder removes the permissions granted on it and on its subfolders. Creating a new folder at the same path does not restore those permissions.

A Site Administrator, or a Workspace Administrator within their own Workspace, can bring eligible user and group permissions back with an in-place folder restore by selecting Restore folder permissions, if available. If a folder already exists at the original path, the restored permissions apply to that folder and the recovered content placed within it.

A permission is eligible only when its path is covered by a folder returned in place and it was removed at or after that folder's deletion, no more than 24 hours later. Permissions removed before the folder was deleted or more than 24 hours afterward stay deleted.

Permissions for users or groups that have since been deleted also stay deleted. The 24-hour window is measured from the folder's deletion to the permission's removal, not to the time you submit the restore; content recovery still depends on the retention window.

Eligibility follows the time of removal, including for permissions removed manually. A permission removed manually from a folder recreated at the original path within that 24-hour window can therefore come back with the folder restore. To recover content while keeping deleted permissions removed, leave Restore folder permissions, if available unselected and grant the access the recovered content needs.

Restore to a new folder at the root brings back no deleted permissions. It neither restores them on the original paths nor transfers them to the new folder. Grant permissions on the new folder if the recovered content needs additional access.

Each successfully recovered permission has a separate entry in the Settings Changes log, attributed to the user or API key that requested the restore. The restore request reports progress and errors; the log identifies the permissions actually recovered.

What Can Be Restored

Restores are only available for files and folders still within the retention window defined by the Retain backup copies of files after deletion setting. Restoring a file returns the retained file to active use, so it is no longer a deleted item eligible for another restore. If you need the recovered content in multiple locations, restore it once and then copy the restored file.

Items That Cannot Be Restored

Restoration preserves any file already at the destination. If a file has been overwritten, its retained earlier version cannot be restored to the same path while the replacement is there. Restore it to a new folder instead.

Any file deleted before the defined retention window cannot be restored. This is because deleted items are permanently removed after the retention window has passed.

Deleted folder settings are not part of the recoverable folder configuration, so restoring the folder and its contents does not restore its rules. Use your settings changes logs to identify the settings removed with the folder and recreate the ones the restored folder needs.

Files deleted from a Remote Server follow that storage's recovery options, not the mounting site's native-storage restore.

Deleted Files on Remote Servers

Data stored on Remote Servers is controlled by those storage vendors. Files.com cannot restore their deleted files from the mounting Site's native-storage backups.

For a Files.com Remote Server, the other Site's Archive Removed Files rule can preserve deleted or overwritten files in its archive. Ask that Site's administrator to check its archive and recovery options. Through _/Sites/, the storing Child Site or Host likewise owns the archive and retained files.

On supported Remote Server types, point-in-time filtering lets you view retained versions as they existed at a specific moment. Download or copy the version you need to recover its contents.

Some of the cloud-based storage solutions support restoring deleted files. Contact the owner, or vendor, of the Remote Server to find out what options they provide for restoring deleted files.