⚠️ This project is deprecated.Google Drive trash items will be automatically deleted after 30 days starting on October 13, 2020. This project hence no longer has a purpose, and will not be maintained.
Unlike many other cloud storage services, Google Drive doesn't auto delete files in trash/bin even after they've been there for a long time. There isn't even a way to check when a file was trashed. Emptying the entire trash folder is just too risky.
This script helps you safely cleanup Google Drive's trash by deleting only files that've been there for more than 30 days (or some other period of time).
To use the Python script directly
- Python 3.5+
- Package google-api-python-client and oauth2client. Run
pip install --upgrade google-api-python-clientand
pip install --upgrade oauth2client
to install
To use the Windows binary (download on the releases page)
- Windows update KB2999226
Download cleaner(.py or
.exe),
place it in an empty local folder, and run it from command line.
By default, cleaner retrieves a list of all files trashed more than 30 days ago, and prints their info on screen.
You're asked whether you want to delete them.
If confirmed, these files are permanently deleted from Google Drive.
The first time you run cleaner, you will be prompted with a Google authorization page asking you for permission to view and manage your Google Drive files.
Once authorized, a credential file will be saved in .credentials\google-drive-trash-cleaner.json under your home directory (%UserProfile% on Windows).
You don't need to manually authorize cleaner again until you delete this credential file or revoke permission on your Google account page.
You can specify a custom location for the credential file by using the command line option --credfile. This is helpful if you're using multiple Google accounts with cleaner.
cleaner finds out when your files were trashed by scanning through your Google Drive activity history.
On first run, it must start from the very beginning to ensure no files are missed, so it might take some time.
After first run, cleaner saves a file named page_token in its own parent folder.
This file contains a single number indicating an appropriate starting position in your Google Drive activity history for future scans,
so they can be much faster than the first one. Each run of cleaner updates page_token as appropriate.
You can specify a custom location or name for the page_token file by using the command line option --ptokenfile.
More command line options are available. You can read about them by running cleaner --help.
usage: cleaner [-h] [-a] [-v] [-d #] [-q] [-t SECS] [-m] [--noprogress]
[--fullpath] [--logfile PATH] [--ptokenfile PATH]
[--credfile PATH]
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
-a, --auto Automatically delete older trashed files in Google
Drive without prompting user for confirmation
-v, --view Only view which files are to be deleted without
deleting them
-d #, --days # Number of days files can remain in Google Drive trash
before being deleted. Default is 30
-q, --quiet Quiet mode. Only show file count.
-t SECS, --timeout SECS
Specify timeout period in seconds. Default is 300
-m, --mydriveonly Only delete files in the 'My Drive' hierarchy,
excluding those in 'Computers' etc.
--noprogress Don't show scanning progress. Useful when directing
output to files.
--fullpath Show full path to files. May be slow for a large
number of files. NOTE: the path shown is the 'current'
path, may be different from the original path (when
trashing) if the original parent folder has moved.
--logfile PATH Path to log file. Default is no logs
The idea for the script's working mechanism is borrowed from this Stack Overflow question.