Johannesburg - Google has added a new feature that will change how Google Drive handles trash files and documents starting on the 13th of October.
With the new feature, files that are put into the Google Drive trash will be automatically deleted after 30 days. Before this, Google Drive would keep trashed items until the users decide to empty the trash.
Currently, any files that are already in the user’s trash on October 13, will remain there for 30 days. And after the 30 day period, files that have been in the trash for more than 30 days will be automatically deleted.
Google has made great progress with the automatic trashing feature, as some users would use trash/bin to move their files away and never delete them. This will be beneficial for all users as Google counts trashed files that are not deleted toward your Drive storage quota.
The new feature would mean that Drive’s trash will work the same way as other Google products.
“This change matches the policies of other G Suite products and services, such as Gmail. This will help ensure behaviour is consistent and predictable for users across G Suite products and will help make sure that items users trash are actually deleted as expected,” the company said in a statement.
Administrators have the power to restore files that were deleted from a shared drive for up to 25 days for active users. In addition to that, if the entire shared drive was accidentally deleted, the administrator can also restore the shared drive and its contents.
However, if the administrator attempts to restore a lot of files or folders at once, it might take them some time to restore all the items. And if the admin starts a restore while another is in progress, one of the restores will be cancelled.
Google will be adding in a banner notification to Google Drive and other Google app to make users aware of the new feature.
“As this policy takes effect, we 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,” the statement reads.
The rollout will be effective from October 13, but it may take about 15 to 20 days to reach all users.
IOL TECH