Recently Deleted — How to Restore a Deleted Session
Bring back a recording you deleted by mistake — you have 30 days, from any of your devices.
Deleting a recording in Wave doesn't destroy it. It moves to Recently Deleted, where it sits for 30 days before Wave removes it permanently. Until then you can put it back with one tap, from whichever device is nearest.
Restoring a recording
You can also open the recording. A red banner at the top reads This session was deleted with Permanently removed in N days and a Restore button.
A restored recording is fully back: audio, transcript, summary, chat history, and favorite status are all exactly as you left them.
One exception — folders. Deleting a recording on iPhone or Android takes it out of any folders it was in first, so restoring it leaves it unsorted and you'll need to file it again. Delete from the web or desktop app and its folders survive the round trip.
Deleting something for good
If you want the space or the privacy back before the 30 days are up, use Delete Forever. On iPhone and Android it's on the swipe and long-press actions inside Recently Deleted; on the web and desktop it sits next to Restore.
Every route asks you to confirm first: This session will be permanently deleted. This cannot be undone. Wave Desktop's right-click menu words the same warning as This permanently deletes the session. This cannot be undone.
Permanent deletion removes the audio file, transcript, summary, action items, chat history, exported PDFs, and any photos attached to the recording. Nothing about that session can be recovered afterwards — not by you, and not by Wave support.
What lands in Recently Deleted
Just about every delete route goes through the 30-day window, including bulk deletes:
- Deleting a single recording from the list or from inside it.
- Deleting a recording while you're viewing a folder — that removes the recording itself, not just its place in the folder. (To take it out of the folder and keep it, use Remove from Folder instead. See folders.)
- Selecting several recordings and deleting them with bulk actions.
Deleting a folder is different — it never deletes the recordings inside it, so nothing goes to Recently Deleted.
Good to know
- The window is 30 days, then it's automatic. A scheduled job clears out anything past 30 days and deletes the underlying files. There's no way to extend it.
- Restoring syncs everywhere. Delete on your phone and the recording disappears from the web and desktop apps too; restore it anywhere and it comes back everywhere.
- Recently Deleted is per account, not per device. Signing in on a new device shows the same list.
Looking for a recording that was interrupted or never finished uploading, rather than deleted? That's a different problem — see file recovery.
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