# Restore a deleted form or submission

> Deleted forms and submissions sit in Trash for 30 days — restore them from there before they go for good.

Nothing you delete disappears straight away. Forms and submissions go to **Trash** in the sidebar, where they stay restorable for **30 days**. After that they're permanently deleted and there is no way to get them back.

## Delete a form

1. Go to **Home**.
2. Open the **Actions** menu at the end of the form's row.
3. Select **Move to Trash**.
4. Confirm with **Move to Trash**.

![The Move to Trash confirmation, explaining the 30-day window](/docs-assets/submissions/trash-and-recovery-1.png)

The form comes off the air immediately — its public link stops working — and its submissions go to Trash with it.

## Delete a submission

Open the form's **Submissions** tab, then either choose **Delete** from a row's **Actions** menu, or tick several rows and use **Delete selected**. Either way the submissions land in Trash.

## Restore something

1. Select **Trash** in the sidebar.
2. Use **All**, **Forms**, or **Submissions** to narrow the list — each pill shows how many items it holds.
3. Find the item. Every row says what it is and when it went in — *Form · Deleted 4 seconds ago*.
4. Select **Restore**.

![The Trash page listing deleted forms, each with a Restore button](/docs-assets/submissions/trash-and-recovery-2.png)

You'll see *Form restored.* and the item is back where it was. Restoring a form also brings back the submissions that were deleted along with it — but not a submission you had already deleted separately beforehand. That one stays in Trash and you restore it on its own.

## Delete something permanently

If you want it gone now rather than in 30 days, open the **⋯** menu at the end of the row and choose **Delete forever**. To clear everything at once, use **Empty Trash** at the top right; it asks *Permanently delete N items?* and warns *This cannot be undone.* Both are immediate and irreversible — there's no second Trash behind the first.

Permanently deleting a form takes its submissions with it, and you lose the files people uploaded too. If you might want those, [save them](/submissions/exporting-submissions) before you empty the Trash.

## If Restore says you've hit your form limit

Your plan caps how many forms you can have, and a restored form counts toward it. If you're already at the cap, Maxforms shows **Form Limit Reached** — *You're using 3 of 3 forms on your current plan* — with an **Upgrade Plan** button. Either upgrade, or move another form to Trash to free a slot and try the restore again. Restoring a submission is never capped.

## If you can't find what you deleted

Check the filter pills first — **All** shows both kinds, and a submission won't be there if you were looking at **Forms**. If it's genuinely missing, the 30 days are up. One thing never reaches Trash at all: [partial submissions](/submissions/partial-submissions) are deleted outright after 30 days of inactivity, so there's nothing to restore.