Welcome to my blog! In this article, I will walk you through the easy process of deleting documents in Google Docs. Whether you want to do some digital spring cleaning or remove an old file you no longer need, deleting documents helps keep your Google Docs account organized.
Why Delete Documents?
There are a few key reasons you may want to delete a document:
- Free up storage space: Google Docs offers 15GB of free cloud storage, but that space can fill up faster than you’d think once you start creating documents, spreadsheets, presentations and more. Deleting unused files helps free up room for new content.
- Maintain privacy: If you have sensitive information in a document that you no longer need to store in the cloud, you’ll likely want to delete it for privacy reasons.
- Keep things tidy: If you’ve used Google Docs over the years, you likely have old documents cluttering up your account. Doing an occasional purge of unneeded files keeps things clean and organized.
How to Delete a Document in Google Docs
Deleting a document in Google Docs just takes a few clicks. Here are the steps:
- Open Google Docs and navigate to the document you want to delete. Make sure you select the correct file so you don’t accidentally delete something you still need!
- Click the More actions icon (3 vertical dots) at the top right of the document window and select Move to trash from the drop down menu. Move document to trash
- A pop-up will appear asking you to confirm that you want to move the document to trash. Click OK to confirm.
- The document will now be moved to trash. But don’t worry, it’s not deleted yet!
- Now, open the trash by clicking the Trash icon on the left side navigation panel in Google Docs. Google Docs trash icon
- Locate the document in the trash and click the delete forever option (trash can icon) on the far right. Delete document forever
- One last confirmation pop-up will appear. Click Delete Forever to permanently remove the document.
And that’s it! The document is now completely deleted from your Google Drive and Google Docs. Just repeat this process whenever you need to delete any other documents.
What Happens When You Delete a Document
When you send a document to trash, it will stay there for 30 days before being automatically deleted forever. This gives you a month to recover the file in case you deleted something by accident.
However, if you manually select the “Delete Forever” option, then the document is permanently removed right away. So be absolutely certain before deleting anything for good!
Once a document is manually deleted forever:
- You will no longer be able to access or recover the file.
- The document will not take up any cloud storage space.
- Any links or embeds connected to the deleted document will no longer work.
So in summary, deleting documents helps declutter your Google Docs account while freeing up valuable cloud storage. Just be careful not to delete anything important!
