How to Recover Permanently Deleted Google Sites

5 Jan 2022

7 min read

Ragavarshini Shankar

Google Sites is a popular website builder that helps in building team websites and project sites. Sites can include data from other Google apps such as Sheets and Docs, and do not require a designer or programmer’s help.

It is tricky for administrators to understand how retention and deletion work in Google Sites. In this article, we have explored what happens when Sites data are deleted, and how you can recover your permanently deleted Google Sites data, with or without a backup.

Google Sites recovery at a glance

Google Sites has limited recovery options for deleted content, leading to potential risks of permanent loss.

Entire sites, individual pages, or specific elements can be lost forever if accidentally or maliciously deleted.

Admins in Google Workspace have minimal tools for restoring deleted Google Sites content, with no built-in features for detailed, granular recovery.

Don't have time to read the whole article? Use our Sites Recovery Wizard to quickly navigate to the section that answers your questions!

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What happens when Google Sites data are deleted?

A deleted Google site moves to the user’s Trash (located in Google Drive). It stays here for a 30-day period within which the user can restore it back to its original location. After 30 days, the site is lost from Trash and the user cannot recover it. However, an administrator can restore the site from the Admin Console within the next 25 days, after which the site gets permanently deleted.

Click here to know how to recover deleted files from Trash or the Admin Console.

Note: If the site is shared, collaborators can still make a copy of it before it is permanently deleted.

The diagram below shows the default data retention procedure in Google Sites and how data can be restored by users and administrators within specific timeframes.

How to recover permanently deleted Google Sites data when you don’t have a backup?

When a new Google site is created, it is automatically added to Google Drive. In the event a site gets deleted, it follows the same recovery procedure as Google Drive. Click here to learn more about how to recover deleted files from Google drive.

Note: Unfortunately, after a site is permanently deleted (from Trash and the admin console), there is no way to recover it unless one of the following backup options is in place.

How to recover permanently deleted Google Sites data when you have a backup?

If you have already taken a backup of your Google Sites data, you can use the following methods to easily recover your permanently deleted data:

a. Recover deleted Sites data that are backed up using Google Sites liberation tool

b. Recover deleted Sites data that are backed up using Google Takeout

c. Recover deleted Sites data that are backed up using Google Vault

d. Recover deleted Sites files using third-party backup tools

a. Recover deleted Sites data using Google Sites liberation tool

Google Sites liberation tool is an import/export tool for Google Sites. It uses HTML Microformats to generate an XHTML version of Sites content that can be stored on a hard drive and can be imported back into sites without any loss. This also enables offline browsing and simple HTTP hosting. To know more about how to use the liberation tool to import/export sites, check out this article.

b. Recover deleted Sites data using Google Takeout

Google Takeout is a Google Workspace application that helps you make an external copy of your Google Sites by manually exporting and downloading the data. The files are exported in HTML format for the pages, and other formats if images or other attachments are present.

The backup taken using Google Takeout will be available in your system as a zip file.

How to recover Sites data exported using Google Takeout?

Step 1: Locate the file to be recovered and right-click on it.
Step 2: Select the ‘Extract all’ option from the drop-down menu.
Step 3: Log into your Google Drive
Step 4: Click on the “+ New” button on the upper left of the screen and select the option “File upload/Folder upload” to upload the files back to Google Drive.

Limitations of Google Takeout

Google Takeout is not a backup solution. The users must download their data manually. If internet access is lost, the download progress is interrupted and cannot be resumed. You will have to begin all over again!
Google Takeout does not allow you to download files owned by someone else.
Exporting data using Google Takeout can fail sometimes, making it an unreliable tool for backup.
Even with a .tgz format, the maximum limit for an archive download is 50 GB/day.
You might end up with incomplete downloads while exporting larger files or folders.

c. Recover deleted Sites data using Google Vault

Google announced that from April 2021, new Google Sites will be supported by Google Vault. This means that admins can use Google Vault to set retention policies for Google Sites, perform searches of Google Sites data, and export Google Sites content. Similarly, if an organization uses Google Vault to hold Drive files, it will be applicable to Sites as well.

To learn in detail about Google Vault retention rules and holds, and how to retain Sites using Vault, read our in-depth articles on Google Vault Fundamentals and A Guide to Google Sites Retention.

How to recover Sites data from Google Vault?

Step 1: Sign in to Google Vault and select ‘Matters’.

Step 2: Click on ‘Create’ and give a name and description for the new matter.

Step 3: Under the ‘Search’ tab, select ‘Drive’ from the Service drop-down menu.

Step 4: Under the ’Entity’ drop-down, select ’Sites’.

Step 5: Type the URL of the site you want to recover and click ’Add’.

Step 6: Add other parameters such as the date modified, search terms, and version date if required.

Step 7: You can then export the deleted site and download it.

Limitations of Google Vault

Google Vault is a retention solution that is intended to preserve critical business data for legal and litigation purposes. It does not qualify as a backup solution as data can only be exported, and not easily restored to the Google account. Moreover, it does not include capabilities such as single-click restore, automated backup, cross-user email restore, etc., that are essential in a cloud backup tool.

d. Recover deleted Sites data using third-party backup tools.

Third-party backup tools such as SysCloud help businesses backup their Google Sites. Once backed up, the Sites data can be recovered whenever needed.

How to backup Google Sites using SysCloud?

Note: Due to API unavailability for New Google Sites, SysCloud backs up Classic Google Sites only.

Step 1: From the SysCloud Backup dashboard, click on the ‘Sites’ card. Alternatively, you can navigate to the ‘Archives and Restore’ page from the Backup menu.