Deleting a slide by accident in Google Slides can be frustrating, especially if you spent a lot of time working on it. The good news is that with Google Slides’ version history feature, you can easily recover deleted slides.
In this blog post, we’ll walk through the steps for recovering deleted slides in Google Slides using the version history tool. We’ll also provide some tips on how to avoid accidentally deleting slides in the first place.
Why Slides Get Deleted in Google Slides
Before we dive into the recovery process, let’s first understand some of the common reasons slides get deleted in Google Slides:
- Accidental deletion – This is the most common reason. You may have been trying to delete another slide and accidentally selected the wrong one. Or you pressed the delete key while the slide was selected without realizing it.
- Syncing issues – If you collaborate on slides with others, sometimes syncing issues can cause slides to disappear. This tends to happen if multiple people are editing at once.
- Overwriting – If two people are working on the same presentation and save over each other’s changes, slides can get overwritten and disappear.
- Formatting issues – Occasionally issues with slide formatting can cause slides to become corrupted or unviewable. This may result in blank or deleted-looking slides.
Using Version History to Recover Deleted Slides
The great thing about Google Slides is that it saves a version history of your presentation every time you make changes. This allows you to go back and restore previous versions.
Here are the steps to recover deleted slides using version history:
1. Open the Presentation
Open the Google Slides presentation that had slides deleted from it.
2. Access Version History
Click on File > Version history > See version history in the menu.
Alternatively, you can click on Last edit was in the top right and access version history from there.
Version history menu in Google Slides
3. Identify Version with Missing Slides
Review the version history timeline on the right side of the screen. Look for a version that was saved prior to when the slides were deleted.
Often, Google Slides will group together versions that were saved within a short period of time. You may need to click the arrow icon to expand some groups to see all versions.
4. Preview Version
Click on the version you want to preview. This will show that version of the presentation on the left side of the screen.
Review the slides and confirm the deleted slides are present in that version.
5. Restore Version
Once you’ve identified a version that contains the deleted slides you want to recover, click Restore this version at the top of the screen.
Restore this version button in Google Slides
This will replace your current presentation with the previous version. The deleted slides should now be restored!
Tips for Avoiding Accidental Slide Deletion
Here are some tips to help avoid accidentally deleting important slides in Google Slides:
- Name versions – Give unique names to important versions of your presentation using version history. That makes them easier to find later if you need to restore.
- Review changes before saving – Glance through recent changes before saving, to make sure you did not accidentally delete anything.
- Use keyboard shortcuts carefully – Using keyboard shortcuts like Ctrl/Cmd + X to cut or delete slides leaves room for error. Use the menu delete button instead.
- Limit editors – Be cautious about who you share editing access with, to prevent overwrites.
- Review activity log – Check the activity log for any potentially accidental deletions by collaborators.
Restoring Other Deleted Elements
The version history tool in Google Slides doesn’t just allow you to recover deleted slides. You can also use it to restore other deleted elements like:
- Text boxes
- Images
- Charts/graphs
- Shapes
- Animations
- Speaker notes
- Slide comments
As long as the element was present in a previous version, you can restore it using the same process described above.
Alternative Method: Drive Trash
In addition to using version history within Google Slides itself, you also may be able to recover deleted slides using Google Drive trash.
Recently deleted files sit in your Drive trash folder for 30 days before being permanently deleted. So if you accidentally deleted an entire Google Slides file, check your Drive trash.
You can restore deleted presentations from Drive trash just like any other file. Just right-click on it and select Restore.
Conclusion
As you can see, Google Slides makes it relatively easy to recover deleted slides thanks to the detailed version history it keeps. Following the steps outlined in this article, you should be able to rescue your presentation even if critical slides were accidentally erased.
Just be sure to access version history soon after the deletion occurred. And utilize the tips provided here to avoid unwanted deletions in the first place.
Let us know in the comments if you have any other questions about restoring deleted content in Google Slides!
