How to delete files on Chromebook? (Step by Step Guide)

Chromebook and its upcoming models have become very popular in terms of their speed, performance, price, and other related specs.

In relevance to filing storage and various applications, we know that it supports cloud storage and has a Play Store to install the apps.

Chromebook has some files which are only in readable mode, and you cannot edit or delete them, supported by Chrome OS. If you have installed Android apps on your Chromebook, you must uninstall them first.

Table of Contents

Are you wondering how to delete your files on Chromebook?

This article will describe the steps involved in deleting your unwanted files in the Chromebook.

Trash can:

You might have heard of the trash can or a recycle bin when you delete a file, say it to be a document or a music file or an image to go in the recycle bin in Windows whenever you remove or delete them.

Beware!

Chromebook does not support any such trash can, and you will not find an option or a chance to get your files in a retrievable form in case you change your mind.

Backup files:

Well, as the files will be permanently gone once you get rid of them through the DELETE option, it will be a better option if you keep their backup.

For this, Google Drive serves the best purpose, and you can store there as much as you want.

How to delete the files on Chromebook?

Let’s discuss the way through which you can delete the files in the Chromebook.

Step by step procedure to carry this out is as follows:

First of all, go to your File app in the Chromebook. You can do this by clicking the dot which is at the left most corner at the bottom of your screen.
Select the up-carrot so that you can have a look at the apps.
Select the File app.
In this file app you will see different files.
You can search for your required file in the search bar which will be at the top-right corner.
Select the files you want to delete by using Ctrl and Click for more than one file.
You can then either press Alt with Backspace key or you can use the right click option to select Delete and delete the files that you want.

Delete Recent files or images:

At times, many people have experienced that Chromebook does not allow to directly delete the recent images, files, videos, etc. They often get confused because of this.

In the picture above, we see that the option of delete is not available or is grey. This is how it looks when we try to delete any image from the recent folder, which has been divided into audio, images, and videos.

Delete History:

You can delete your Chromebook history in a few different ways. One way is to open the History menu in the Chrome browser and select Clear History. You can also press Ctrl+H to open the History menu and select Clear History.

Delete Apps:

The simplest way to delete an app on Chromebook is to right-click on the app you wish to delete, then click on “Remove from Chromebook“, click on it and a box will appear with two buttons, click on Uninstall to remove the app from your Chromebook.

How to delete a particular recent video or an image?

As mentioned above, the recent section is just for read mode or view mode and you will only be able to delete the particular file from its original path or source.

For this, whenever you wish to delete a recent video, image, or any other file you must find the original folder where that particular image or video is located and then delete it from there.

Any kind of editing like renaming will also be done from the original location. In other words, go to the My files app and look for the file in it that you wish to delete.

Final Words:

Chromebooks provide several facilities to their users and are known to be quick and portable. However, people often do not find it user-friendly at first because of its certain restrictions as compared to Windows.

This article discusses in detail the Delete option that you can use for deleting your files which only works through the File app in the Chromebook and cannot serve you wherever you desire.

When you get used to using it, Chromebook will become easier for you in terms of deleting the files. The recent folder is just a quick view of your images, videos, etc. And you cannot perform any editing there.

If you want to delete a file in Chromebook, keep this thing in your mind to have its backup as Chromebooks provide no second chances once you delete any unwanted file.

If you wish to rename or move a file, you can also find that file in the actual folder in the My Files app and continue editing it.

I hope that this article helped you understand the delete facility in Chromebook and how to use it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Chromebook allow to delete files?

Yes, it allows you to delete your files, but they will be deleted permanently.

Can you retrieve the files you delete in Chromebook?

A simple answer to this is a NO, and you cannot get them back as Chromebooks have no trash bins.

Does Chromebook have any Delete Button to delete the files?

No, you can only delete your files by searching for them under the file app in your Chromebook and using Alt+Backspace to delete them.

Why can I not delete my recent images through Chromebook?

Chromebooks work differently from Windows in this scenario, and they only use the recent folder to display your files but not to edit or delete them.
You can use this library folder for viewing purposes and delete them by going to the file’s actual location.

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Noor ul Qamar

Noor is an enthusiastic Technical writer who aims to write informative and quality content. She is an IT person whom you can always trust, and Her background is full of success stories, from winning medals to making spots in Springer nature with impact factor journals. During the last 5 years, I've handled various Tech projects with clients all over the world.

How to delete files on Chromebook? (Step by Step Guide)