Recently deleted

When you delete something from your vault, it isn’t gone straight away. It waits in Recently deleted for 30 days, so you can bring it back if you change your mind.

What it is

Recently deleted is on the Vault under More, with the number of items waiting. Each item shows how many days it has left. After 30 days, Paperwise removes it for good.

Items in Recently deleted aren’t in All items, on shelves, in folders or in search.

Hidden is different. Deleting a Hidden item deletes it at once. It never goes to Recently deleted.

Step by step

Delete an item

Open the item and tap •••, then Delete.
Paperwise asks, for example, Delete this document? It moves to Recently deleted for 30 days. Tap Delete.
A message says “Moved to Recently deleted”, with Undo for a few seconds.

To delete several at once, tap Select in All items, a folder or a shelf, choose items and tap Delete.

Bring an item back

On the Vault, tap More → Recently deleted.
Tap the item, then Restore.

It goes back where it was, including its folder (if that folder still exists).

To restore several, tap Select, choose them and tap Restore.

Delete an item for good now

In Recently deleted, tap the item.
Tap Delete now.

Empty Recently deleted

In Recently deleted, tap ••• at the top right.
Tap Empty trash and confirm.

This can’t be undone.

Free and Pro

Recently deleted is free. With Pro sync, it works across your devices: see below.

Privacy

Deleted items stay on your iPhone, with the same protection as the rest of the vault, until they’re removed for good.
With sync (Pro): a deletion on another of your devices moves the item to Recently deleted here first (30 days), not straight to deletion. When an item is removed for good, its encrypted copies on our servers are deleted too.
With the iCloud backup: items removed for good are taken out of the backup at its next run.
Hidden items skip Recently deleted entirely, so nothing from Hidden lingers here.

Tips

If you can’t find something, look here before anywhere else.
Want an item out of sight but not deleted? Use ••• → Move to Hidden instead: see Protected documents, Never send to AI and Hidden.

What if…

What if I deleted a Hidden item by mistake?

Deleting in Hidden is immediate and there’s no Recently deleted for it, so Paperwise can’t bring it back. That’s why Hidden asks Delete this item forever? before it deletes.

What if an item I restored isn’t in its folder?

The folder was deleted meanwhile, so the item is back in the vault without a folder. File it again with ••• → Add to folder.

What if something disappeared from Recently deleted?

It had reached its 30 days and was removed for good.

What if Recently deleted is empty but I’m missing an item?

Check Hidden, and check you’re looking on the right device. Without sync, each device has its own vault.