Introduction
This article is intended for Google Workspace administrators who need to help users recover deleted emails from the Gmail archive folder. Users occasionally delete important emails when clearing space, which can lead to loss of critical email data if the relationship between the archive and subfolders is misunderstood. This guide will walk you through the necessary steps to attempt a recovery of these emails.
Understanding Email Deletion in Gmail
Before attempting recovery, it's important to understand how Gmail handles deleted emails:
- Emails deleted from the Gmail archive are moved to the Trash, from which they are purged after 30 days.
- If the Trash has been emptied, you may have up to 25 days to recover emails using the Google Admin Console, provided the deletion occurred recently.
Steps to Restore Deleted Emails
Step 1: Access the Admin Console
- Sign in to your Google Admin console using your administrator account.
- From the admin console home page, navigate to Directory > Users.
Step 2: Initiate the Email Recovery
- Find and select the user account for which you want to recover emails.
- Click on More options (three dots icon) beside the user's name, and select Restore data.
- In the Restore data box, select a date range within which the emails were deleted. You can only restore data deleted within the last 25 days.
- Under Application, select Gmail.
- Click Restore to begin the recovery process.
Step 3: Verify Restored Emails
- Once the restoration process is complete, ask the user to check their email account to verify the successful recovery of their lost emails.
Important Considerations
- This process only works if the emails were deleted within the last 25 days. If emails were deleted prior to this, recovery may not be possible through this method.
- If your organization uses Google Vault, some deleted data might be recoverable if it was subject to retention rules or holds. Admins can search and export this data, though it can't be directly restored to Gmail.
Additional Resources
By following the above steps, you can attempt to restore deleted Gmail messages from a user's archive folder within Google Workspace. Be sure to act promptly to increase the chances of a successful recovery. If you need further assistance, consider reaching out to Google Support.
