How to See Previous Versions of Google Drive Files or Folders and Revert Back to Them

Quick and easy-to-follow guide for Google Drive users

Saving file versions in Google Drive

You can revert Google Drive documents to a previous state.
File versions are saved automatically.
However, you can also manually save a specific version at any time.

How to view and revert back to previous file versions in Google Drive step-by-step with images

Step 1

In Google Drive at https://drive.google.com, double-click a document to open it.

On the top left, select File, then hover over Version history and click See version history.

You can also click Name current version to give the current version a name. This will help you quickly recognize the current state of your file later to revert to it.

Step 2

After clicking See version history, you will see the Version history sidebar.

Click a version’s date to give it a name.

Step 3

Click a version to see the file in a previous state.

Hover over a version and click the three dots icon to name it or make a copy of it in your Google Drive while keeping this file exactly as it is now.

Step 4

Instead of making a copy, you can also bring the current file back to the version you selected by clicking Restore this version in the top left.

Managing file versions for non-Google files

Step 1

This works differently for .pdf, images, videos, and other non-Google files.

To see past activity for such files, you need to right-click them and select Manage versions.

Step 2

Now you’ll see the current version of the file and the option to upload a new version.

Step 3

When you upload a new version, you replace the old one.

Old versions get deleted in 30 days or after 100 versions are stored. To store a version forever, click the three dots icon to its right and select Keep forever.

You can also click Download to download any version or click Delete to delete it.