Assistance needed with Shared Drive Spreadsheet Restoration

[beckygc]

I need to retrieve a deleted spreadsheet from a shared drive (I'm an admin in the group). However, I cannot see who deleted the spreadsheet, when it was deleted, etc. even though I'm the owner of the spreadsheet. Please let me know if I can obtain this information or better yet, if you can restore it to the shared drive. I put in a request with Google Support and they sent me here to ask a team member if you can help. Thank you.

[Jan-Carlos]

Hi Beckygc

The archives on shared drives don't have owners.

Do you know when the spreadsheet was deleted?

If it's within 25 days, that easy.

Go to Admin console > Apps > Google Workpsace >  Drive > Manage shared drives

Search for the drive where the spreadsheet belong.

Click in more and then restore:

Select the date range when the file was deleted and click in restore.

All removed files will be recovered in your shared drive.

If it's not recovered, it has 2 cenarios:

1 - 25 days has passed and the file is gone.

2- The file still on the shared drive bin.

You too can recover the file on google vault, if you have this service.

Hope it helps.

[beckygc]

Thank you for your suggestions. I restored the drive for the last 25 days
and the spreadsheet did not come through. I believe (but am not certain)
the spreadsheet was deleted within the last several weeks.

I cannot access google vault (I don't think), we are under the Basic plan,
so support told me to contact you guys and ask for data recovery on this
file. Can you please advise, thank you!

beckygc

[Jan-Carlos]

That strange... which license do you use?

Google bussiness basic or Google workspace start, don't have shared drive.

The shared drive belongs to your organization?

Are you sure the file belong to a shared drive?

Maybe the file belongs to someone else and thus the file will not be recovered by the shared drive recover option.

If you're 100% certain that the file belong to the shared drive that you recovered.

There's no other option to recover files, unfortunatly.

[beckygc]

I apologize, I misspoke. The drive itself is not shared but the
spreadsheet was in a folder that I own and shared with a group. About 8
people had access to this spreadsheet, I was the owner, but for some
reason, I cannot see who deleted it or when it was deleted in the activity
log. Is there any other way to recover this type of information?

-beckygc

[christiannewman]

Are you sure you owned the sheet? Just because you own the folder doesn't mean you own the files it contains. 

If you're certain you were the owner, you could also restore deleted files in your Admin Console user account - but again, only if it was deleted within the last 25 days. I'll assume you've checked your My Drive bin.

I'd suggest searching the file name or document ID in the Admin Console's Drive Audit Log, but if you're on G Suite Basic or Google Workspace Business Starter, you won't have access to Drive Audit Log.

[JosefP]

You might try looking at Drive audit log:

https://admin.google.com/ac/reporting/audit/drive?new=true

https://support.google.com/a/answer/4579579

I once helped me to find missing file.

[christiannewman]

@beckygc said she has G Suite Basic, so this won't be an option for her.