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How To Empty Google Drive Trash

Wondershare Recoverit Authors

Dec 16, 2024 • Filed to: Solve Mac Problems • Proven solutions

Google Drive only holds 15 GB of free space which is much better than the other cloud storage options. But space includes Google photos, messages, and attachments of your Gmail account too. That's why the 15 GB space gets filled up pretty quickly. Sometimes, we don't even realize what is taking up so much space on the drive. Therefore, people keep deleting the files from the drive. Unfortunately, the files deleted from the drive are stored inside Trash which still takes up drive space.

So, in this article, we are going to learn how to empty trash on Google drive in an easy and efficient way. And if somehow you end up losing your precious files, then we have a solution for that too.

Part 1. Reasons for Emptying Google Drive Trash

There are various reasons why the users would like to empty Google Drive trash. And some of them are listed below:

Every person has their personal reasons to delete the files stored in the Trash. Usually, people delete the files which are no longer needed and if the files still exist in the Trash then they are simply useless. But that's not always the scenario. Files can get deleted by mistake too and that's why it is better to empty the Trash manually.


Part 2. How to Delete Files and Empty Trash in Google Drive

Here, we have listed how you move the files to trash and delete them from Google Drive too. So, take a look and gain some Intel on the topic.

Method 1. How to Move Files to Google Drive Trash

It often happens that when Google Drive backup is synced with the device, lots of duplicate files are backed up which creates redundancy in data. Therefore, those files have to be deleted and emptied from Google drive trash too so that they won't occupy large space on the drive. And this is how you can move the files to Google Drive Trash:

  1. Open Google Drive on your computer and log in to your account. After you log in, access the Google Drive storage and select a file that you want to move to trash.

    google-drive-login

  2. Right-click on the file and there you will see the "Remove" option at the bottom of the menu. Click on it and the file will be moved to the Trash.

    move-to-trash

The users can also tap on the Bin icon above the taskbar to move the files to Trash. You can see the file by clicking on the Trash option on the left side panel.

Method 2. How to Empty Trash in Google Drive

Once you have moved the duplicate and extra files into the Trash, you'll also have to remove them from the Trash too so that you can delete the files permanently. Normally, the files are kept in the Trash for 30 days if you don't delete them and then gets deleted automatically. But if you want to do it manually, then here are the steps on how to empty trash on Google drive.

  1. Click on the Trash icon on the left side panel and the files that you have deleted in the past will be displayed on the screen.

    open-trash

  2. Select the file that you want to erase permanently and right-click on it. You will see two options, i.e. Restore and Delete Forever. Click on the Delete Forever button and the file will be deleted from Google Drive Trash too.

    delete-forever-from-trash

Thus, your drive space will be free and you can now use that space to store other files.

Method 3. Info about Google Drive Trash

The trash folder is very convenient for the people. People often end up deleting the wrong files. But the trash folder saves them from making this mistake. As the files are not permanently deleted, it can be recovered from the trash. Even though you know how to delete trash on Google drive, there are some things that you should know.

Limitations:

Important Tips:

When you are using Google Drive Trash, there are some tips that will come in handy to better operate the drive.


Part 3. Fix "Google Drive Empty Trash Not Working"

"My Google drive has so many extra files that I want to delete. But I can't empty my Google drive's trash can. What can I do to fix it, please tell me."

Sometimes, it happens that when we try to empty trash in Google drive, the deletion can't be completed. There are several causes which lead to this problem. Sometimes, it is cache memory that prevents the drive to delete a file and sometimes a corrupted file can do this if you try to delete multiple files at once. As there are several reasons why this could happen, you can try simple methods to resolve this problem too.

Method 1. Clear the Browser Cache

The first thing you should try out is clearing out the browser cache. If you are using Google Chrome, then the settings and password stored by Chrome are backed up on the Drive. Thus, you will need to clear up the Google Cache too.

  1. Open Chrome and go to Menu. In the menu, click on the More Tools options and then clear the Browsing Data option.
  2. Make sure that the checkbox of the data that you want to delete is ticked and then click on "Clear Browsing Data" and the cache will be cleared.

    clear-browsing-data

After that, you can go to the Drive and empty Google drive Trash too. This will free up a lot of space in the storage and you can easily perform the regular backup on Google Drive.

Method 2. Delete files at a time

If you are trying to delete the trash in Google drive all at once and you are facing some problem, then there might be some issues in the files. Thus, you must try to delete one file at a time. Sometimes a corrupted file can lead to such kind of issues. As you are deleting the files one by one, it will be possible for you to empty the trash successfully.

Method 3. Access it on a mobile device

If you can't empty the trash from a computer, then you can try accessing the Drive from your mobile phone. After all, using Drive on a mobile phone is pretty easy. To empty trash on Google Drive using mobile, you will have to follow the steps given below:

  1. Open the Google Drive app and make sure that you are logged in with the right account. Tap on the Menu icon and open the Bin/Trash folder.
  2. In the Trash folder, tap and hold the file to select it. You can select all files at once or the ones you want to delete.
  3. Click on the 3-Vertical dots and you will see two options on the screen. Tap on the Delete Forever option and the files will be deleted permanently from your drive.

    delete-from-mobile-devices


Part 4. How to Recover Deleted Files from Google Drive Trash

If you wish to find out how to recover deleted files from Google drive trash, then you will need the Recoverit Data Recovery Tool for that. It is brilliant software that can easily recover the files which are deleted from any storage space. It is a safe, fast, more reliable option for the users to restore all kinds of files that have been deleted or lost accidentally.

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You can also recover Google drive trash data by using this software. So, just download the software from the official site and install it. Once the setup is done, follow the steps below:

1. Select the Location

Run the App And Select a Location: Launch the app on the system and you will see the existing drives in the interface. Specify a location and then click on the Start Button.

choose-disk

2. Scan the Disk

Scan the Disk: The software will scan the disk and display the results on the screen sorted according to their format. If the normal scan didn't work out, then you can try Deep Scan to search for the lost or deleted files.

scan-disk

3. Preview and recover files

Enter the Mac admin password to authorize the command and hit Return to confirm. Finally, run the command and this will immediately delete the files that you dragged into the Terminal window.

recover-files

Using Recoverit Data Recovery software is very helpful if you accidentally lost or emptied your trash. The software won't let you suffer due to the loss of your files as it can effectively recover them in a matter of seconds.

Video Tutorial on Mac File Recovery


Conclusion

As you can see, there are several methods by which you can restore Google drive trash. Using Google Drive is pretty easy for everyone and it is a good method to have an extra backup too. but as space is limited, it is advised that you clean the store as often as possible. And if somehow you end up losing your files, then you can always use Recoverit to get them back.

Recoverit author

Sue Wayne

staff Editor

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