Google’s Chrome OS is getting a trash folder. While that sounds like a minor detail, ask anyone with a Chromebook and they’ll tell you it’s really quite exciting. Users of other operating systems running the Chrome browser never had this problem as they can use the native Recycle Bin/Trash functionality.

Although the vast majority of Chrome OS files are held in the cloud, there are plenty of occasions where you might want to restore or ‘undelete’ a physical file you’ve received, only to find you can’t - once you hit that delete button, they’re gone.

However, in the last two weeks, a new flag has appeared in Canary builds of Chrome OS. It’s called #files-trash, and is labeled Enable Files Trash. Enable trash for My files volume in the Files App. - Chrome OS”. According to 9to5Google, the flag appears to have been submitted by a contributor, rather than being an official Google feature, but has since been reuploaded by an official account.

If you’re on the Canary channel of Chrome OS, be warned, the beta version of the Trash folder will be moving in the coming days, from being a sub-folder of My Files, to being its own virtual volume, in the same way as the Downloads folder already operates. At a later date, there’ll be a second Trash folder added for use by Linux apps run inside Chrome OS, which should allow it to work with Linux file managers without lots of configuration.

Chrome OS trash folder

Image credits: 9to5Google

At the moment, the only way to find Trash folders, even if the flag has been activated, is to hit Ctrl+. to display hidden folders and files. We’d expect that by the time the Trash folder reaches the Stable channel, it’ll be a lot easier to access. It’s presumed that deleting files will trigger a toast with an option to “Undo”, much as happens within Gmail.

As exciting as all this is, it’s most definitely a work in progress. The current Canary builds are version 88 and even if development is completed, we won’t see that in the stable channel until January at the earliest. The current stable version - ChromeOS 86 - doesn't include the flag.