Preview a File in Google Drive
Quickly preview a file without opening it.
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.
After clicking See version history, you will see the Version history sidebar.
Click a version’s date to give it a name.
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.
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.
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.
Now you’ll see the current version of the file and the option to upload a new version.
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.
Quickly preview a file without opening it.
Open a file in your Google Drive using an add-on app.
Open a file in your Google Drive.
Access and edit Office files straight from Drive without converting them to Google format.
See details about a file or folder in Drive.
Look at the activity history related to a file or folder in Drive.
View or revert to previous versions of a file.
Make an exact duplicate of a file in Drive.
Change the name of a file or folder.
Export one or more files from Drive to your computer.
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