My sister's wedding lasted five days. One photographer covered the main ceremony, while another covered the other four days. The second photographer shared the photos with my brother in a Google Drive folder. After keeping them for two or three months, my brother asked me to move the files to my Drive because his storage was full. I dragged the photos into my Drive, confirmed they appeared there, and then told him he could delete his copies. About 26 days later, I noticed that my Drive folder had been deleted as well. Google's recovery guidance says deleted files may only be recoverable for a limited period, and I may have missed that deadline by a day. Is there any realistic way to recover the photos, or are they permanently lost?
3 Answers
Since the files were deleted more than the normal recovery window ago, restoring them through Drive may not be possible. Still, contact Google support immediately and explain the situation; they may be able to confirm whether anything remains recoverable, but there’s no guarantee.
Contact the photographer as soon as possible. They may still have the original camera files or an archive, since photographers often retain wedding photos for some time even after delivering them. Five months is a long gap, but it’s still worth asking.
Before assuming everything is gone, check every relevant Google Drive location, including Trash, Shared with me, Recent, and the original owner’s account. Also check whether the files were actually copied or merely moved, and look for another backup on a computer, phone, external drive, or cloud account.
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