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Recently deleted

Deleting is not final for 31 days. Deleted videos and folders move to Recently deleted — the Videos page in a trash mode — where each can be restored with one click. Enter it with the trash button in the Videos page toolbar (the same button leads back out). After 31 days an hourly sweep removes them permanently — there is no way to speed that up, and no delete-forever button.

The view works like the normal gallery: the same search box, visibility and status filters, and sorting (the Date sort means deletion date there, for the folder tiles too), with deleted folders as tiles above the deleted videos and a Not in a folder tile at the root collecting the deleted videos that aren't filed in a deleted folder. Searching finds a folder wherever it sits — deleting "Marketing" with "Q3" inside it keeps "Q3" findable by name, as its own tile — and every tile can be opened and restored on its own. Each item shows how many days it has left and a Restore button instead of the usual actions.

What's restorable

  • Videos you deleted from the gallery, a video's page, or the API. Restoring brings the video back exactly as it was — embeds resume playing, and a video.updated webhook fires. If the video was in a folder that is itself deleted or gone, it comes back not in a folder; restoring a video never brings a folder back.
  • Folders, with everything inside them. Restoring a folder brings back its whole subtree and every deleted video filed in it — including videos that were already in Recently deleted before you deleted the folder. Every deleted folder can be restored, subfolders included. The folder returns to its original spot, or to the root if its old parent is gone; if a live folder has taken its title in the meantime, the restored one comes back as "Title (2)".

Two things are not restorable:

  • A video deleted while it was still uploading or encoding is removed immediately.
  • Anything the 31-day sweep has already removed.

Good to know

  • Items in Recently deleted still count as stored media for billing until they are permanently removed.
  • Restore is dashboard-only: the API has no restore call and its video list never includes deleted videos.
  • Deleted folders don't count against the 200-folder limit, but restoring one is refused if it would push the project back over the limit.