# Trash & restore

Deleted forms move to Trash, where you can restore them or remove them for good.

## Trash & restore

Deleting a form does not destroy it right away. It moves to Trash, where you can bring it back or delete it permanently. Trash is available on all plans.

<h2 id="what-happens">What happens when you delete a form</h2>

Deleting a form is a soft delete — the form moves to **Trash** instead of being erased. When this happens, formbase:

- Stamps the form as trashed and removes it from your folders and dashboard counts.
- **Revokes its active share links**, so public URLs and embeds stop serving the form immediately.
- **Cancels every pending request** on that form. Recipients can no longer open their link, and the caller is told the request was canceled.
- Locks the form against editing, publishing, and duplicating while it sits in Trash.

Submissions and analytics collected so far stay attached to the form, so nothing is lost if you restore it. Canceled requests are the exception: a canceled request is final, and restoring the form does not bring it back. See <a href="/requests/overview">Requests</a>.

> ⚠️ **Deleting a folder skips Trash**
> <p>
>     Only forms go to Trash. Deleting a <a href="/workspaces-teams/folders#delete">folder</a> permanently deletes the folder, its subfolders,
>     and every form inside them — there is nothing left to restore.
>   </p>

<h2 id="open-trash">Opening Trash</h2>

Click **Trash** in the workspace sidebar to see every deleted form in the current workspace, with who deleted it and when.

<h2 id="restore">Restoring a form</h2>

Select a form and choose **Restore form**. formbase asks where the form should go when it comes back out of Trash — pick a folder, or **Home** for the top level of the workspace — then brings it back with its submissions and analytics intact. Its share links stay revoked, and publishing again does not bring them back. Open the Share panel and click **Re-activate** on each link you want live again, or create a new link.

To restore several at once, check multiple forms and use the bulk **Restore** action in the toolbar — they all land in the folder you pick.

<h2 id="permanent-delete">Deleting permanently</h2>

Choose **Delete permanently** to erase a form for good. This cascades — the form, its submissions, its analytics, and its uploaded files are all removed and **cannot be recovered**. You can permanently delete one form, select several and remove them in bulk, or use **Empty trash** to clear everything at once. Permanent deletion frees the form's storage immediately: a form sitting in Trash still counts toward your storage quota until it is permanently deleted.

> ⚠️ **Permanent deletion is irreversible**
> <p>
>     There is no second trash. Once a form is permanently deleted, its submissions and analytics are gone for good. Export anything you want
>     to keep first.
>   </p>

<h2 id="auto-cleanup">Automatic cleanup</h2>

Forms left in Trash are permanently deleted automatically after **30 days**. A daily job removes anything past that window, so restore a form before then if you want to keep it.

<h2 id="idle-forms">Idle forms on the Free plan</h2>

On the Free plan, a form that has gone a full year with no edits and no new submissions is moved to Trash automatically. formbase emails the workspace owner a warning first, at least 30 days before it happens, so you have time to open the form or export it. Once trashed, it follows the same 30-day window as anything else here. Paid plans are never affected.

<h2 id="next-steps">Next steps</h2>

<div class="not-prose grid gap-3 sm:grid-cols-2">
  - [Version history](/building-forms/version-history) — Browse and restore past versions of a form
  - [Exports](/submissions-analytics/exports) — Download submissions before deleting
  - [Submission retention](/submissions-analytics/submission-retention) — How long formbase keeps response data
</div>