Persistent luminescent (PersL) materials, due to the unique delayed emission feature, have been extensively studied and applied in the fields of night-vision security, biological fluorescence labeling, optical information storage, and optical anti-counterfeiting. The application of PersL materials is closely related to the trap depth, in which the PersL materials used for the optical information storage need to have a larger trap depth to ensure a higher storage rate at room temperature. Optical information storage technology based on deep-trap PersL materials possesses excellent rewritability, low background, large storage capacity, and high design ability, notably showing great potential for the development of multidimensional optical information storage technology. It has thus become a significant research area for advanced optical materials. In this article, the background of deep-trap PersL materials for the optical information storage applications is briefly introduced. Then, the basic mechanisms of the information storage and reading based on the deep-trap charge carrier capture and release in PersL materials are given. The important breakthroughs and the latest progress of the deep-trap PersL material research are overviewed. Finally, the future development of deep-trap PersL materials is prospected.