One of the other great features of OneDrive is that it includes version history. With version history, you can see and restore older versions of your files stored in OneDrive. Version history works with all file types, including Microsoft 365 files, PDFs, CAD files, photos, videos, and more. In fact, OneDrive saves up to 100 previous versions of a file.

There are 2 ways to access a previous version of a file.

Method 1 – Access files in OneDrive

  1. (Sign in - Microsoft OneDrive (live.com) or click on the OneDrive icon on the left-hand panel  from your Microsoft 365 dashboard.

                

  1. Select the file that you want to restore to an earlier version (you can only restore one file at a time), right-click, then select Version history.

  2. Select the ellipses (...) next to the version of the document that you want to restore, and then click Restore. You can also click Open File to view the file online (if it’s an Office file, like Word or Excel), or you can choose to delete that version from your OneDrive.

 

  1. If you restore the file, that version will become the latest version of the file. However, the previous latest version will still be retained in OneDrive.

 

Method 2 – View previous versions of Office Files

Version history in Office only works for files stored in OneDrive or SharePoint in Microsoft 365. For more info, see Save a document to your OneDrive.

  1. Open the file you want to view (e.g. a Word, Excel, PowerPoint file, etc.)
  2. Click File > Info > Version history. 

  1. Select a version to open it in a separate window.

 

 

  1. If you want to restore a previous version you've opened, select Restore.

 

 

 

OneDrive is a great place to save critical files that you are working on, mainly because they are automatically backed up in the cloud. We also use a third-party backup service, so even if you accidently delete something from OneDrive, we can usually retrieve it.

Don’t forget that other great IT how-to tips and tricks are available to you quickly and easily on our Helpdesk Knowledge base site. If you have any questions, please feel free to send us an email at help@armgroup.net.