Enter your idea

The bigger issue: This is a Business Continuity risk

The real takeaway here isn’t just “we need a recycle bin” (although that would help).

It’s this:

"Xero is a live system of record — not a historical archive or immutable store of your documents."

If a file can be:

- overwritten
- replaced
- or deleted (intentionally or accidentally)

…then it is not a canonical, immutable record of your financial history.

For audit, compliance, and professional responsibility (especially for accountants and bookkeepers), that distinction matters.

⚖️ Xero Terms of Use – Shared Responsibility

It’s also worth calling out something many users overlook.

Under the Xero Terms of Use (Section 37), users explicitly agree that:

- They are responsible for maintaining copies of their data
- Xero is not responsible for restoring deleted content

So there is a shared responsibility model here.

And that leads to a fair question (not criticism — just reality):

"If you’re relying on Xero as your only copy of financial records and documents…
why don’t you have a backup, given those terms?"

✅ Backup vs Business Continuity

However, even a “backup” isn’t enough on its own.

What this thread exposes is the need for something more robust:

You don’t just need a backup

You need a Business Continuity platform

Specifically one that provides:

✅ Immutable history — once captured, it cannot be changed or deleted

✅ Canonical record — what was attached, when, and to which transaction

✅ Point‑in‑time reconstruction — the ability to prove what existed at a given date

✅ Independence from Xero’s live state

Because in real-world scenarios (audit, disputes, compliance, insurance claims), the key question is not:

“What’s in Xero today?”

It’s:

“What existed at the time?”

💡 Final thought

A recycle bin in Xero Files would absolutely reduce accidental losses — and it’s a valid feature request.

But it doesn’t solve the underlying issue.

This thread is really about data ownership and resilience:

Xero helps you run your business in real time

But you are responsible for preserving its history

And that requires thinking beyond storage…
to continuity, integrity, and audit‑safe data preservation

Disclosure - Control-C Founder

You can find us in the Xero App Store ;-)

Yes - we need a deleted files folder, and I can't understand why there *still* isn't one. I've accidentally deleted the wrong file when the file names are all similar many times. Giving us about 5 seconds to choose to undelete if you don't realise you're deleting the wrong file is not good enough . Oh and while I'm here... I hate hate hate the new files system in Xero. It's shockingly awful and clearly designed by someone who never has to use it on a daily basis.

This is ridiculous, I have never known all the invoices I upload to be in the archives before. When did this change. I just deleted 2 months of invoices from the archives, as well as all my audit files and BAS files. This is BS. This is a not for profit and now all my weekly reconciliations and all other files are missing and unretrievable.

This is so important - it is far too easy to delete files accidentally!!

I echo Lexina Wyatt...CERTAINLY THERE SHOULD BE A WARNING!!!

This is what I sent earlier today:

I saw over 2000 items in a HubDoc folder in my library. To clean things up, I deleted them. I then had an idea, that I should check, and discovered they were all gone from my transactions. I then found this note, in your help files, "Warning, Deleting a file from the file library removes the file from all transactions it’s attached to. We can't retrieve deleted files. To use a deleted file, you need to upload it again.".

DON'T YOU THINK I SHOULD HAVE BEEN WARNED THAT WHAT I WAS DOING WOULD UNATTACH THE DOCUMENTS AND WAS NOT REVERSIBLE?

There should AT THE VERY LEAST be an alert that there is no going back if you delete the files........

I have noticed that 'deleted' attachments are still available to download if you still have the "File_ID". Not sure how long after the fact you can do that but it does indicate that deleted files are still lingering about even if they are not visible in the Ui. Anyone else notice that.? or is it just me.

I have uploaded pictures images of receipts via the xero app but they are not attached to the transactions despite me doing that which means I cannot reclaim UK VAT. Having deleted files avaialble to restore (even if for 1 month after deletion) would be a very useful feature

This would be handy since I am uploading an entire year of receipts from a client. I found that the receipts they had uploaded went to spend money instead of Xero files. When I tried to remove and save to xero files the document did not go, instead just deleted. I had to back to client and get them again. OR download each document, save and upload again.