Version History lets you look back at an earlier state of a document, table, or artifact — to see what changed, and to recover something that was overwritten. What it saves you: you don't have to keep parallel copies named final-final to protect your work. The history is kept for you, and you choose the moment you want back.
Document snapshots
Each snapshot carries a version number, when it was taken, whether a person or the system created it, a short description, character and word counts, and a preview you can open before you decide anything.
How long snapshots are kept
While people edit, a document saves an automatic snapshot at most every 30 minutes, and another when the last editor disconnects. Automatic snapshots are pruned over time: a document keeps at most 50 of them, and automatic snapshots older than 30 days are removed. Manual snapshots are kept until you delete them, so create one before a risky rewrite.
If the document is open while you take a snapshot
A manual snapshot captures work that has already been saved. If the document is open and someone is typing, wait a few seconds for the editor to save before you take the snapshot — otherwise the last few seconds of typing may not be in it.
Compare with current
Compare with current shows the difference between a chosen snapshot and the document as it is now: text added, removed, modified, and unchanged, with a count for each. The comparison needs to read the content stored inside the snapshot. For snapshots whose content cannot be read that way, open the snapshot preview instead.
Tables and artifacts
Tables and artifacts keep their own history too. Each resource has its own timeline, so there is no single workspace-wide list of every change across all resources.
What snapshots are not
They record saved states, not who moved a cursor or who was typing at a given moment.
They can lag the newest edits until the editor has saved them.
They are not a substitute for Trash and Restore when a whole resource is deleted.
If history doesn't show what you expected
The change you are looking for isn't there yet. Snapshots are taken on a schedule, so the last few minutes may not be captured. Take a manual snapshot to capture the document as it stands now.
History stops earlier than you expected. Only a fixed number of snapshots are kept; older ones are dropped once the limit is reached.
Compare with current shows nothing. Not every snapshot's content can be read for comparison. Open the snapshot preview instead.
A teammate's edit looks missing. Snapshots record saved work, so an edit still open in someone's editor is not in any snapshot yet.
Pending verification
The retention numbers on this page (an automatic snapshot at most every 30 minutes, at most 50 automatic snapshots per document, automatic snapshots older than 30 days removed) predate the build this page is checked against and have not been re-measured. Treat them as documented behaviour, not a guarantee.
Last verified: 2026-10-26