Skip to main content

How to delete a file from Google Drive

For many of us, Google Drive has become an ideal place to store our files, predominantly due to the convenience of having it all accessible through an online service. With this in mind, if you don’t perform regular maintenance on your Drive account, it can get pretty messy. You need to know how to delete a file from Google Drive.

Whether you’re looking to delete a file you simply no longer need access to or you’re long overdue for some spring cleaning, here’s how.

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • A computer, laptop, tablet, or phone with access to Google Drive

Deleting a file

Step 1: Go to your Google Drive’s account main homepage.

Step 2: To delete a file, right-click the file you want to delete. Click the Remove button at the bottom of the drop-down list.

The drop-down list that appears when right-clicking a file on Google Drive.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 3: Alternatively, click the file you want to delete and then within the top bar where all the tools are situated, click the Trash icon named "Remove."

The Remove button on Google Drive.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 4: To confirm the deletion of a file, you need to go to Google Drive’s Trash page. In the sidebar section, click Trash.

The Trash tool on Google Drive located on the sidebar.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Step 5: Right-click on the file you sent to Trash and click the Delete Forever button.

Another way you can delete the file is by clicking the file once and then selecting the Delete Forever icon at the top-right.

Don’t worry if you’ve deleted a file by mistake. That’s to be expected if your Google Drive is overwhelmed with all your files. Go to Trash, right-click on the mistakenly deleted file, and click the Restore option.

The button for deleting a file from Google Drive’s Trash folder.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Editors' Recommendations

Zak Islam
Computing Writer
Zak Islam was a freelance writer at Digital Trends covering the latest news in the technology world, particularly the…
How to change icons for files and folders on Mac

MacOS makes it easy to distinguish a file from a folder by the icon. The icon for a file represents the type of file. For instance, a text file is a piece of paper, and a zip file shows a zipper. The icon for a folder is even simpler: It’s a folder.

What isn’t always obvious is how to change the icons for files and folders on Mac. Maybe you want an image as a file icon or a different color for a folder icon. In just a few clicks, you can make those icons almost anything you want.

Read more
How to open RAR files
How to zip a file in Windows 10

Knowing how to open RAR files can prove to be a valuable skill, especially if you frequently download various drivers, files, and applications from third-party websites. Unlike zip files, Windows does not natively support RAR files, so you'll require a dedicated application for this purpose.

Our recommended programs for opening RAR files are 7-Zip for Windows and The Unarchiver for macOS. Here's how to use them to open RAR files.

Read more
This is how Google Docs is challenging Grammarly’s AI
Google presenting new Docs features.

Google announced a full suite of artificial intelligence enhancements for Workspace at its IO event in May. Now, those advanced features are available as Google Duet, and one stands out as a threat to Grammarly's dominance in AI proofreading.

Google Proofread goes much further than the usual spelling and grammar check that's part of Google Docs. It suggests alternate wording to match the context of the document, listing dynamic or formal alternatives.

Read more