How to review and restore previous versions of a file on the Mac to recover anything

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David Bernal Raspall

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Cómo revisar y restaurar versiones anteriores de un archivo en el Mac para recuperar cualquier cosa

In the process of creating and editing documents on the Mac, we often make changes and adjustments. Periodically saving is crucial, not only to preserve our current work but also because every time we do so, a version of the document is generated. Versions that, if necessary, we can later review and restore to recover certain changes.

A way to recover any change with a couple of clicks

If we accidentally delete a document in Finder, the first place to look for it is the Mac's Trash. Although the document has been deleted, its previous versions can still be accessed, but first, we must recover it. How to do it? As easy as following these steps:

  1. Open the Trash on our Mac.
  2. Locate the desired document.
  3. Right-click on it and select Put Back.

With this, the file will return to its original location. It is true that we will not always need to do this step, because many times what we will want to do when going back to a previous version of the same document is to recover some internal change that we have carried out unintentionally or thinking it was the correct one.

Going back much further than Command (⌘) + Z, that's what the version history allows us. Reviewing and restoring previous versions of a file is as easy as following these steps:

  1. Open the document we are interested in.
  2. In the File menu, click on Revert To and then on Browse All Versions.
  3. An interface will be presented with the current document on the left and its previous versions on the right. We can navigate between them using the arrows in the bottom right corner. These views are interactive, so we can scroll through the document itself to check that it is the version we want to recover.
  4. When we find the one we're interested in, we click on the Restore button. If we decide not to opt for any version, we simply click Done to finish the process.

Working on the Mac offers us various tools —like finding the complete path of any file— that facilitate and secure our workflow against data loss. The ability to review and restore previous versions of our documents is one of those advantages that undoubtedly guarantees peace of mind. The knowledge that, at any moment, we can go back and recover any change we have made to a file.

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