The Restore feature recovers deleted files and folders from your site, much like the recycle bin or trash feature on your computer. Restoring works even with large numbers of files or deeply nested folder structures. These operations run in the background and do not interrupt other activity on the site. This feature is available to Site Administrators.

Deleted files remain available for restoration only within a configured retention window. Files.com saves backups of deleted items and retains them for the duration specified in your site settings. This retention period is configurable in your site’s retention settings. By default, deleted files are retained for thirty days. Deleted content older than the retention period cannot be recovered.

How Restores Work

Restores are processed in the background and do not interrupt other activity on the site. After submitting a restore request, the status is available for tracking. Completion time depends on the number of items, the volume of data, and the queue of other background jobs.

Site Administrators may choose to restore deleted content from a specific folder or across the entire site. When selecting a folder as the scope, it is possible to further narrow the restore by specifying a particular file or subfolder within that path. Restored files can return to their original location, or you have the option to restore them to a new folder created under the root folder.

If you select the option to restore permissions, folder-level permissions that were deleted with the content are also restored when files are returned to their original location.

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.

Restores are only available for items still within the retention window defined by the Retain backup copies of files after deletion setting. Files are eligible for restoration only once. Additional attempts to restore the same files will not succeed.

Files modified through protocols such as FTP or SFTP, which change file content inline without creating new file versions, may not qualify for restoration. Folder settings, such as public hosting, file name restrictions, permission fences, or watermarks, are not restored when a deleted folder is restored. Check your settings changes logs for which folder settings were removed when the folder was removed.

Deleted Files on Remote Servers

Data stored on Remote Servers are under the control of those storage vendors. Deleted files on Remote Servers cannot be restored by Files.com.

For supported providers, Files.com offers the ability to browse and restore Remote Server content using point-in-time filtering, which allows you to view and recover files as they existed at a specific moment in the past.

Some of the cloud-based storage solutions, such as Amazon S3, Backblaze, Box, Dropbox, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure Blob, Microsoft OneDrive, Microsoft Sharepoint, and Wasabi may support restoring deleted files. Please contact the owner, or vendor, of the Remote Server to find out what options they provide for restoring deleted files.