Restore Deleted Files (Admins) – FileTransfers.net Help

Restore Deleted Files provides a way to recover deleted files for up to 999 days. When enabled, any files deleted from the My Files tab will appear in the Deleted Files tab near the top of the page where they will remain for the amount of time set by an Administrator. Files that remain in the Deleted Files tab continue to count towards storage limits until they are permanently deleted.

For the purposes of this article, deleted files will refer to files that have been deleted from the My Files tab interface and appear in the Deleted Files tab. Permanently deleted files will refer to files completely removed from the site.

IMPORTANT: Once a file is permanently deleted, it cannot be recovered by either an Admin or FileTransfers.net support staff.

Roles

Admins and Super Users
Admins and Super Users can restore any deleted file, regardless of who deleted it. Admins and Super Users can also restore entire deleted workspaces, with the option of selecting specific files to be restored without restoring all. Only Admins can set site-wide or workspace-specific time periods.

Sub-admins
Sub-admins can restore any file deleted from a workspace the Sub-admin manages, regardless of who deleted it. For workspaces they belong to but don't manage, Sub-admin can only restore files they themselves have deleted.

Users
Users can only restore files they themselves have deleted.

Enabling Restore Deletes

An Admin can enable Restore Deleted Files by going to Control Panel > Site Settings > Deleted File Retention. Under “Retain Deleted Files” the Admin can set site-wide and/or per-workspace retention policies.

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Deleting Files

When deleting a file that has a site-wide or current workspace retention policy, a window will appear and display how long the file will be retained.

When a file or folder is deleted and retained, it will disappear from the main file listing in the My Files tab and appear in the Deleted Files tab.

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Restoring Files

Under the Deleted Files tab in the left menu, you are initially taken to a list of files that can be restored. Rolling over the Actions menu for any file/folder and selecting "Restore" will restore those folders/files to their original location and remove them from the Deleted Files tab. If multiple files/folders are selected by checking the box to the left of the name, the Batch Actions Menu will become active at the top of the file listing, allowing for multiple restores at once.

When rolling over the Actions menu for any file or folder and selecting "Restore All in Location", any files that were deleted from the same location as the file being restored will also be restored. Example: If, within a workspace, you have a folder named "Forms" and within you have 10 files and an additional folder with 5 files within, and all 10 files and the folder are deleted. If you go to the Deleted Files tab and select "Restore All in Location" on one of the 10 files, all 10 files and the folder (and the files within the folder) will be restored. This is a way to quickly restore many deleted files or folders at once.

If files or folder are part of an entire workspace that was deleted, a red "Workspace Deleted" will appear below the file and workspace name.

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Attempting to restore any file within a deleted workspace will restore the workspace and all users, as well as the following:

Restore all user/user group memberships
Restore all sub-admins
Restore all custom workspace permissions/notifications
Restore all workspace override permissions/notifications
Restore all file management settings for the workspace

If any part of the file path had been previously deleted (for example, trying to delete a single file inside a deleted folder), the entire folder path will be recreated.

Permanently Deleting Files

Within the Deleted Files tab, rolling over the Actions menu next to any folder/file will also display a "Permanently Delete" option. Selecting this and confirming the delete will permanently delete the file from the system and free up any storage space being used.

If multiple folders/files are selected by checking the box to the left of the name, the Batch Actions Menu will become active at the top of the file listing, allowing for multiple deletions at once.