Start with the right mailbox and Trash
You deleted an invoice email and discover, while preparing records, that you do not have the file. Start with the correct Gmail account and Trash. If the message is still there, you can return it to your regular mail and retrieve the attachment.
Google says a deleted message stays in Trash for up to 30 days unless you permanently delete it sooner. After that period, an ordinary user cannot restore it from Trash.
Check the mailbox and the specific message
Open Gmail on your computer and check the signed-in address. In the left menu, select More → Trash; the displayed names depend on the interface language. Look for the supplier, date or document number you know.
Open the message before restoring it and check its content. The same supplier may have sent an order, payment confirmation and separate invoice. Finding any email with their name is not enough.
If there is an attachment, compare its designation and period with the missing item. Do not delete anything from other messages during this check.
Move the selected message back to your mailbox
Tick the required message and choose Move to. Then select a destination, such as the inbox. Google describes this procedure for taking a message out of Trash.
Find the moved message in its destination. Download and open the required original. Restoring an email does not yet mean you have a usable file for your accountant; check the number, customer and period in the document itself.
If Trash is empty
First make sure you are using the correct account and that the message was not merely archived. If permanently deleted, do not assume the same steps can recover it. For a company Google Workspace account, an authorized administrator may investigate further recovery options, which are time-limited. Contact them promptly; they must verify scope and outcome in the specific environment.
Google’s separate administrator guide →
At the same time, request the original document from the supplier. Include the company, period and any known order or payment number. Often this lets you resolve the missing record without waiting for the email recovery result.
Hypothetical result: restored message and saved PDF
In a hypothetical situation, Petra deleted an invoice a week ago. She finds the message in Trash, checks its number and moves it to the inbox. Then she downloads the PDF to the company folder and checks its content.
She records the specific document as found on the accountant’s list and delivers it in the agreed way. She need not hunt through Trash again for the next question. If she had not found it, she would leave the item open as a supplier request, rather than mark it as successfully recovered.