In a blog post, Google announced that files in the Drive trash will be permanently gone after 30 days. Prior to this, unless you emptied the recycle bin yourself, your trashed files still remained in the bin indefinitely. This change is set to take effect starting 13 October 2020. When it happens, anything that’s already there on the date will remain for 30 more days before they’re gone.

Google says this change makes Drive consistent with its other services across the G Suite, like Gmail. The company’s email service also clears files from the bin after 30 days. On one hand, this feature is great because heavy users get to free up more space on Google Drive automatically. But on the flip side, unless you’re very sure that you’ve not accidentally deleted anything important, files in the trash will be gone forever. But it’s still awhile before this change comes into effect, so there’s time for you to go through your Drive files one last time before it’s too late. (Source: Google)

Google Drive Will Soon Empty The Trash Can In 30 Days - 21