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With over 1 billion users, Google Drive has become one of the most popular file storage and collaboration services used by organizations worldwide.
Google Drive retention at a glance
Google Drive has limited retention policies, putting important files at risk of permanent deletion. • Files deleted from Google Drive, whether intentionally or accidentally, can be lost permanently if not recovered within the retention period. • Google Workspace’s retention rules are often complex and may not cover all scenarios, leaving gaps in data protection. What is the solution? • SysCloud provides automated, continuous backups and comprehensive recovery options, ensuring that all Google Drive files, including those deleted or overwritten, are fully protected and can be easily restored.
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For a step-by-step guide to recover deleted Google Drive files from trash, click here.
Note: The default retention is applied to files in both User Drive and Shared Drive.
To know how a Google Workspace Administrator can recover permanently deleted files from Google Admin Console, Click here.
To know more about what Google Vault is, Vault retention rules, holds, and license requirements, read our in-depth article on Google Vault Fundamentals.
Items within the scope of retention | Items outside the scope of retention |
---|---|
Google Docs | Linked files |
Google Sheets | ‘Shared with you’ files from external users |
Google Slides | |
Google Forms | |
New Google Sites | |
Google Drawings | |
Google Meet recordings & associated chat | |
Q&A and Polls logs | |
Jamboard files in users’ Drives | |
Non-Google files uploaded to Drive | |
Files in Shared Drive | |
What are linked files?
Note: Organizations can apply a default rule apply only if a custom rule or a hold is not already in place.
Create a default retention rule for Google Drive
Step 1: Log into Google Vault.
Step 2: Click on ‘Retention’
Step 3: Select ‘Drive’ from the list of services
Step 4: Choose the retention period for the files
Step 5: If you have set a retention period, then choose what happens to the files after the retention time expires.
Step 6: Click Create. If you have set a retention period Vault will ask you to confirm that you understand the rule's effects. Check the boxes and click ‘Accept’ to create the rule.
Note: Once you set a retention period, Vault will immediately delete files that exceed the retention period when you create the retention rule. If not configured properly this may delete data that was not meant to be purged.
Note: Custom retention rules always take precedence over default retention rules for that service.
Define a custom retention rule for Google Drive
Step 1: Log into Google Vault.
Step 2: Navigate to Retention > Custom Rules > Create
Step 3: Under service select Drive and click on Continue.
Step 4: Choose the entity that you want to apply the rule to.
To apply to a Specific Organization unit: - Select the option and choose the Organizational unit. Learn more about retaining data at an organizational unit level - (Optional) Select the option ‘Include results from shared drives to apply the rules to all the shared drives the accounts in the selected OU are members of.
Step 5: Click Continue
Step 6: Define the retention time period.
Step 7: If you have set a retention period, then choose what happens to the files after the retention time expires.
Step 8: Click Create. If you have set a retention period Vault will ask you to confirm that you understand the rule's effects. Check the boxes and click ‘Accept’ to create the rule.
Note: Once you set a retention period, Vault will immediately delete files that exceed the retention period when you create the retention rule. If not configured properly this may delete data that was not meant to be purged.
Jamboard jams and Google Meet recording are by default governed by the Drive retention settings. If you want to retain Meet recording different from the Drive settings, then you can turn on separate retention for Google Meet recordings and this will supersede the Drive retention settings.
Sites are by default covered by the Sites Retention rule. If you want them to be retained the same way as your Google Drive, you can change the Sites retention settings.
To learn how to place your Drive data on hold, read our article ‘Google Vault Fundamentals’.
Note: Hold can be applied only to items created by members of your organization and not to those created and shared by external users.
Items covered by hold | Items not covered by hold |
---|---|
Items created by users | Drive folders |
Items directly shared with users | Drive Shortcuts |
Items in shared drive directly shared with a user | Items owned and shared by external users |
Note: Shared Drives cannot be directly put on hold. To put a shared drive on hold, you must put its members on hold and check the Include shared drives option.
To learn how to apply a hold to Google Drive data, read our in-depth article, Google Vault Fundamentals.
To learn more about why retention is not backup, read our in-depth article, “Google Vault’s eDiscovery and Retention Rule vs. SysCloud’s Backup for Google Workspace”.
Third-party cloud backup solutions like SysCloud are a one-stop solution to your data backup and restore problems. Visit our website to learn more about our backup solution.
7 Dec 2021
12 min read
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