If you're like most of us, you've probably deleted assets, only to realize days or weeks later that you need them back. Thanks to Cloudinary’s extensive backup system, it's easy to retrieve your deleted files.
This tutorial shows the steps to restore a deleted file using Cloudinary's Management Console. For further information about Cloudinary's ability to restore deleted assets, we recommend reviewing our documentation on the subject.
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Tutorial Sections
- Watch a Video
- Enabling Backups in your Cloudinary Account
- Finding Your Deleted Assets
- Accessing and Restoring a Deleted Asset
- Accessing and Restoring a Deleted Asset - Alternate Path
- Options for Assets Deleted via 'Bulk Delete'
- Additional Resources
Watch a Video
- Background music provided by Bad Snacks.
- Icons provided by various artists via Flaticon.com.
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Enabling Backups in your Cloudinary Account
If you want to restore your deleted assets, you will need to have backups enabled on your account. The feature must be enabled before an asset was deleted, so you can recover it from backup.
Please review our tutorial on the backup setup process, especially if you have not already enabled backups or if you want to ensure it is set up correctly.
If you're trying to restore assets that you deleted before enabling backups, you can send us a service request ticket. Our Customer Success team will work with you to determine your options.
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Finding Your Deleted Assets
To restore an asset, you need to know its public ID. If you don't already know the ID, you can use the Media Library Advanced Search to find it. To do so, follow these steps:
- Log into your Cloudinary Management Console.
- Select the Console’s Media Library tab.
- Navigate to the Media Library’s search bar and select its Advanced Search icon.
If you don't see this icon, please send us a request to turn on this feature for your account.
- Look for the Type section on the Advanced Search panel’s left side. From the More types drop-down field, select the Deleted asset option.
This adds the Deleted asset type to your search criteria and all your deleted content will display in the Media Library pane. Now you can add additional search criteria to find your specific asset.
- Once you find your asset, select it from the search results in the Media Library. Note that previews aren't supported for deleted assets, so it's important to make sure you’re selecting the right file. You can do this by double-checking its public ID and file format (e.g. JPG, PNG, PDF, MP4, etc.) from the available assets.
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Accessing and Restoring a Deleted Asset
The method to restore a deleted asset depends on your account’s settings.
If clicking on your deleted asset opens the Preview pane on the right side of your screen, follow these steps to restore it.
However, clicking the asset may open a new screen. If this happens to you, jump down to follow the instructions for the Alternative Restore Method.
When you select your deleted asset, you'll see a message in the Preview pane stating that the asset was deleted. Below the message is a Restore link.
When you click it, a Restore from backup pop-up window shows you all the versions of this asset that are stored in Cloudinary’s backup.
To preview a version before restoring it, select its version number. By doing so, the backed up asset will open in a new browser tab.
Once you are ready to restore the asset, select its Restore link.
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Accessing and Restoring a Deleted Asset - Alternate Path
If clicking on your deleted asset opens a new screen that resembles the screenshot below, click the View backed up versions button.
A pop-up window that is labeled Backup versions will appear. All versions stored in Cloudinary’s backup will appear in the window.
To preview a version before restoring it, select its version number. By doing so, the backed up asset will open in a new browser tab.
Once you are ready to restore the asset, select its Restore link.
This activates the asset, allowing you to deliver it or perform any action on it. This includes managing and transforming it in the Console.
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Options for Assets Deleted via 'Bulk Delete'
Whether you are using Cloudinary’s Admin API or the Management Console, you can delete all of your assets in bulk.
Bulk deleting can be very handy when trying to remove a large number of assets with a simple action. However, it is also a very intense action that's complicated to retroactively restore. If you do find that you need to bring back assets that were deleted via our Bulk Delete functionality, send us a support request ticket. From there, our Customer Success team can evaluate your options.
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Additional Resources
Many of the steps shown in this tutorial are similar to those for retrieving backup revisions. We recommend reviewing our tutorial on that topic to become more well-versed on scenarios with our backup system.
If you are interested in learning how to restore asset versions via our Admin API, we also have documentation on that feature.
And of course, feel free to send us a ticket if you have any questions about this process. We’re here to help you be successful with your projects.
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