How to Recover Permanently Deleted Items from Google Classroom

23 Dec 2021

8 min read

Ahana K.B

Article at a glance

Google Classroom has limited options for data recovery, exposing schools to potential data loss:

Deleted assignments, grades, and class materials in Google Classroom cannot be recovered once removed, risking permanent loss of essential educational content.

Google Workspace lacks built-in backup and recovery tools specifically designed for Google Classroom, making it difficult for educators to restore lost data.

1. Introduction

Google Classroom is a free learning platform designed for teachers and students to communicate, collaborate, and create and manage assignments. As of 2021, around 150 million students, educators, and school leaders around the world rely on Google Classroom to simplify the process of learning and assignment creation.

This article explores different ways in which Google Classroom users can recover their deleted data.

Use the diagram below to directly navigate within the article sections:

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

Launch wizard

2. What happens when Google Classroom data is deleted?

Retaining and recovering deleted items within Google Classroom is tricky for the administrators as Google Classroom does not have an in-built trash folder.

When a classroom is deleted, Streams, Classwork, People, and Grades get deleted permanently. However, files and folders shared within the classroom are still accessible through the classroom’s Drive folders.

With so many students and teachers relying on Google Classroom- most of them being very new to the concept of e-learning- there is a high chance of accidental deletions and improper data handling. A backup solution like SysCloud will help you recover and restore your Google Classroom data easily.

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

You cannot recover permanently deleted Google classroom data like assignments, questions, announcements, calendar, people, or grades unless you have a backup in place.

Files shared in the Google classroom are stored in the Drive folder and can be recovered and restored with Drive’s recovery options. Click here to learn more about how to recover deleted files from Google Drive.

4. How to recover permanently deleted Google Classroom data when you have a backup?

Google Classroom can be backed up using two methods:

1. Using Google Takeout
2. Using third-party backup tools like SysCloud

If you have any of these backup tools available, you can recover your Google Classroom data easily!

Recover deleted Classroom data using Google Takeout

Quiz time!

Do you use Google Takeout as a backup solution for your Google Classroom data?

YesNo

Here’s how you can recover your permanently deleted Google Classroom data using Google Takeout:

Google Takeout is a Google Workspace application to take a backup of your Google files by manually exporting and downloading the data. The Google Classroom backup taken using Google Takeout will be available in your system in JSON format.

Google Takeout can download the following Google Classroom data:

Classroom users	Item recovered
For teachers and co- teachers	Class information: →Title →Description →Room →Web link to the calendar →Information about class Drive folder →Grade categories, grades expressed as percentage, and default points per assignment. People →List of people associated with the class and their role- teachers, students, and guardians. →Information about Drive folders containing students’ unique identifier, URL, and folder name. Classwork: →Announcements →Posts →Assignments →Questions, topics, and materials →Submissions from students →Grades, comments, and rubric scores.
For Students	Student posts Student submissions including comments, grades, and rubrics.

How to download Classroom data using Google Takeout?

Note: You will have to manually export and download Classroom data using Google Takeout in fixed intervals. Google Takeout cannot download the data once it is deleted.

Step 1: Login to your Google Classroom account using your super admin credentials.
Step 2: From the Google waffle icon, select “Account.”

Step 3: Select “Data and Privacy” from the left-hand side menu bar.

Step 4: Under “download or delete your data” section, select “download your data.”

Step 5: Select Google Classroom to download your Classroom data by clicking on the check box next to the product names.

Step 6: Click on the “next step” button.
Step 7: In the next step, select the following:
- Under the “Delivery method” you can choose to add the downloaded data to your Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, or receive a link to the archive, in your email.
- Under “Frequency of export” you can choose to export the files once or once every 2 months.
- Under “File type & size,” you can choose between .zip or .tgz for the file type. After choosing all the options, click “Create export”.

Once the archive is ready, you’ll receive an email notification, or you can check the status on your Takeout page by selecting the “Manage exports” option.

Step 8: Click the “Download” button next to the created archive.

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.

Note: Administrators can use various retention methods to ensure the safety of Google Classroom data. Read our in-depth article about Google Classroom retention here

Recover deleted Google Classroom data using third-party backup tools

A third-party application like SysCloud offers reliable, automated backup and easy restore for Google Classroom data. SysCloud offers recovery using Amazon Web Services. Organizations can also backup and restore unlimited domains using SysCloud.

Why should you use SysCloud to recover deleted Google Classroom data?

Restore assignments, questions, materials, announcements, calendar, people, and grades back to the user account in just a few clicks.
Directly restore data back to its previous location with all sharing permissions and folder structure still intact.
Restore data to another user’s account.
Permit teachers/staff to restore their own files to facilitate faster recovery.

What does SysCloud restore?

Features	SysCloud	Google Classroom native data retention
Assignments	✅	❌
Announcements	✅	❌
Materials	✅	❌
Show more

A. Recover deleted Google Classroom using SysCloud

Step 1: Login to SysCloud backup application using your admin credentials.
Step 2: Click Backup→ Archive& Restore.

Step 3: Select classroom tab and select the classroom to restore the data by checking on the checkbox next to it.
Step 4: From the actions drop down, select “Restore.”

Note: You can only restore a classroom if the classroom is active and backup status is protected.

Step 5: Select the snapshot:
Date
Time (if there are multiple backups in a single day.)
Click on “Restore” to confirm export.

B. Recover Google Classroom Stream data using SysCloud

Step 1: Log in to the SysCloud backup application using your admin credentials.
Step 2: Click Backup→Archive & Restore.

Step 3: Select the Classroom tab and select the account to restore the data.

Step 4: Select the “Announcements” tab.
Step 5: Select the file(s) by clicking on the checkbox next to the file name.
Step 6: Click on “Restore” and choose either all or selected announcements.

Step 7: Add comments to be shown in the Restore Report (optional) and select “Restore” to confirm restore.

Step 8: Click on “Restore Report” to check the status.

C. Recover Google Classroom Classwork data using SysCloud

Step 1: Log in to the SysCloud backup application using your admin credentials.
Step 2: Click Backup→Archive & Restore.

Step 3: Select the Classroom tab and select the account to restore the data.

Step 4: Select the “Classwork” tab.
Step 5: Select the file(s) by clicking on the checkbox next to the file name.
Step 6: Click on “Restore” and choose either all or selected Classwork/Topics.

Step 7: Add comments to be shown in the Restore Report (optional) and select “Restore” to confirm restore.

Step 8: Click on “Restore Report” to check the status.

D. Recover Google Classroom People data using SysCloud

Step 1: Log in to the SysCloud backup application using your admin credentials.
Step 2: Click Backup→Archive & Restore.

Step 3: Select the Classroom tab and select the account to restore the data.

Step 4: Select the “People” tab.
Step 5: Select the file(s) by clicking on the checkbox next to the file name.
Step 6: Click on “Restore” and choose either all or selected People.

Step 7: Add comments to be shown in the Restore Report (optional) and select “Restore” to confirm restore.

Step 8: Click on “Restore Report” to check the status.