Can you recover deleted Linear issues after 30 days?
Only if you still have a usable copy. Linear keeps deleted issues in its recently deleted list for 30 days. After that, it permanently removes them and cannot restore them. An earlier backup or export may contain what you need to recreate the issue. Connecting a backup service now cannot recover an issue it never saved.
We build BackupLatte, a backup and restore service for Linear.
First check whether the issue was deleted
A missing issue may still exist. Check its URL, ask someone with access to the team to look for it, and check archived work. A changed filter or lost access can make an issue disappear from your view.
If you just deleted the issue, try Cmd/Ctrl + Z first. Otherwise:
- Open the relevant team and press G, then X (one after the other) to open its archives.
- Choose Recently deleted issues.
- Select the issue and press # (Shift + 3 on a US English keyboard) to restore it.
Linear's deletion and archive guide covers these shortcuts and the 30-day limit.
Check the sub-issues too. Deleting a parent issue deletes its nested sub-issues, and restoring it can bring back the whole deleted chain. A single selection can therefore restore several related issues. Check the restored parent and its sub-issues before continuing work.
If you still cannot find it, note the old identifier or URL, team, approximate title and deletion date. These will help you search any copies your team has saved.
What can you recover after 30 days?
Look for a backup, export or downloaded record from before the deletion. Open it and check whether it contains the issue.
| What you have | What to check next |
|---|---|
| A backup from before deletion | Find the issue and check whether its comments and files were saved too |
| An earlier CSV, Markdown copy or PDF | Check what it contains; you may need to rebuild the issue by hand |
| A snapshot taken after the issue was gone | Look for an earlier copy; this snapshot cannot contain an issue it never captured |
| No saved copy | Check other tools for fragments of the issue |
The backup date alone does not prove the issue is there. The connected account may not have had access to its team, or that part of the backup may have failed.
Your backup can expire before you notice the deletion
Suppose an issue was backed up on 1 September, deleted on 2 September, and you noticed it was missing on 10 October. With seven-day retention, the September backup would be long gone. With 60-day retention, you could still have that copy.
That is why the backup schedule and retention period both matter: daily backups help only if you keep them long enough to discover the loss.
BackupLatte starts new workspaces with 7-day retention, configurable from 1 to 365 days. Choose enough time to notice a problem, investigate it and recover. Extending retention later cannot bring back snapshots that have already expired. Snapshots keep expiring if you disconnect the workspace or your plan ends. See the retention guide for how cleanup works.
How to recover from an existing BackupLatte snapshot
You need a snapshot that captured the issue before deletion and is still available. Restore requires an active BackupLatte plan and a target workspace connected to the same BackupLatte account. You can still download retained snapshots without an active plan. If you have no usable snapshot, check the export and other-copy options below.
Find and inspect the earlier snapshot
Open the workspace's Backups list and find a Success or Partial snapshot from before the deletion. Under Download…, review the data sets and any gaps. Prepare and download the ZIP, then search the saved records for the issue's identifier or title.
The archive contains JSON data, copied files and a manifest. Check for the issue itself and the comments or files you need. Issues already marked as deleted in the snapshot are skipped during restore. A partial snapshot may still have complete data sets you can use; only complete sets can be selected for restore. The snapshot guide explains the download options and gap reports.
You select whole data sets, not individual issues. In both options below, What to restore starts with all available sets selected. Untick what you do not need. Choosing Issues can restore other missing issues from that snapshot alongside the one you are looking for.
Option 1: Restore into the same workspace
Use this when you want deleted work back in the workspace your team already uses.
- On the chosen snapshot, select Restore… → This workspace.
- Review What to restore. Include Issues and any other sets you need, such as Comments. If the original project is missing too, include Projects.
- Choose Queue restore, then follow progress under Restores.
Missing supported records are created again. If a saved issue belonged to a project that still exists and is accessible, the recreated issue is linked back to it. An issue or project that was active in the snapshot but is now archived or in Linear's trash can be brought back as the original record. That can affect other records from the selected sets alongside the issue you wanted.
Existing issue content is not overwritten with the saved version. A restore does not undo edits to the title or description of an issue that still exists. An original brought back from the trash keeps its identity; a recreated issue may have a different identifier.
A restore into the original workspace keeps the original file links rather than re-uploading saved copies. Check that those files still open.
Option 2: Restore into another workspace to inspect a copy
Use this when you want to inspect the saved data before bringing anything back into current work. The source workspace stays untouched.
- Create a new, empty workspace in Linear. If assignments matter, invite the relevant people before you start: BackupLatte matches active members by email and does not invite them for you.
- In BackupLatte, choose Restore… → Another workspace on the snapshot. Review What to restore before connecting the target. A restore into another workspace also needs the snapshot's Teams and Workflow states data. See the restore guide.
- Keep the new workspace open in Linear, then choose Connect a workspace and restore in BackupLatte. Check the workspace named on Linear's approval screen. After authorization, the restore starts automatically. For a target already connected to BackupLatte, select it under Workspace and choose Queue restore instead.
For another workspace, BackupLatte uploads saved Linear files again and rewrites their links. If a file was not copied into the snapshot, or Linear permanently refuses its upload, the original URL can remain instead. Check the report and open the files you need.
Inspect the recovered copy, then copy the content you want into your team's current work. If you choose an existing target that already holds work, restored records are added alongside it; they cannot be removed in one step.
Check the result with either option
BackupLatte rebuilds parent/sub-issue links when the parent is available in the target. A sub-issue whose parent cannot be restored or found may end up as a top-level issue. Check the hierarchy, descriptions, comments, project links and uploaded files in the recovered copy. Recreated issues may have different identifiers, so check links to them too.
New comments are posted by the Linear user who connected the target. When the original author is someone else, their name is added to the comment text.
The target's Linear plan still limits the teams and features it can accept. Review the restore report for skipped or failed records and sets marked Not in the target. See restore options and limitations for the full behavior.
What if you only have an export or fragments?
An earlier CSV may contain the title, description and basic fields you need to rebuild the issue. It does not include attachment files, although attachment URLs may appear in descriptions. Those links depend on the original files remaining accessible. See Linear's export documentation for the fields included.
A saved Markdown copy can include comments, and a PDF may preserve useful text. If you plan to re-import a CSV, note that Linear's CLI importer does not import comments or projects. For a single issue, recreating it by hand may be less work.
If you have no saved copy, look for a pasted description in a document, a screenshot in a support conversation, an email notification or context in a linked pull request. These may give you enough to continue the work, even if you cannot reconstruct every comment or field. Note what is still missing.
Check your recovery setup before you need it
Choose retention to match how often your team revisits old work. A quarterly review can uncover a deletion much later than a weekly check. Make sure the connected account can see the teams you need to protect, and investigate failed or partial backups while an older copy is still available.
Try a small recovery exercise: create a disposable issue, add a comment and a file, take a backup, and restore into an empty workspace. Open the recovered file and check the content. Write down who can repeat those steps.
Backups run while people are working, so records can change during a run. A daily schedule also leaves a gap between runs: changes made after the latest backup will not be in that copy. Check what BackupLatte saves and its Linear backup limitations when planning your setup.
Our Linear backup and restore guide walks through setup. If you are deciding whether a CSV is enough, see Linear CSV export vs. automated backup.
Linear documentation checked on 18 October 2026.