How to Restore an Older Version of a File on a Mac

You saved over a document, a script rewrote a file, or someone "fixed" a spreadsheet you needed as it was. Before you start again from scratch, there are three places on a Mac where an earlier copy may still be waiting:

1. The app's own versions: in apps that keep them, File › Revert To › Browse All Versions….
2. Time Machine: its backups, and the local snapshots it keeps on your startup disk.
3. Your cloud's version history, on the website of Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive.

Which one works depends on the app that saved the file and on what was set up before the change. If you use Folia Files, its Versions module shows the first two, plus its own backups, for the selected file in a single list. Here is each method, step by step.

Method 1: Revert to an earlier version in the app

Apps built on macOS's document system — TextEdit, Pages, Numbers, Keynote and Preview, among others — record a version each time you save, and regularly while you work. macOS keeps those versions on your Mac.

1. Open the document in the app that saved it.
2. Choose File › Revert To › Browse All Versions….
3. The current document appears on the left, earlier versions behind it on the right. Use the arrows or the timeline at the right edge of the screen to go back to the version you want.
4. Click Restore. To keep the current document as well, hold ⌥: the button becomes Restore a Copy.

You can also select a passage in an old version, copy it, click Done and paste it into the current document.

The limits are worth knowing. Plenty of apps, including many cross-platform ones, don't use macOS versions at all, so the Revert To menu isn't there. And versions stay on the Mac where the document was saved: a copy you emailed or put on a USB drive doesn't bring them along.

Method 2: Time Machine backups and local snapshots

If Time Machine backs up your Mac, it has a copy of the file from each backup, whatever app made it.

1. In the Finder, open the folder that holds the file (or that held it, if the file is gone).
2. Click the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and choose Browse Time Machine Backups. If the icon isn't there, open the Time Machine app from your Applications folder.
3. Use the arrows or the timeline on the right to go back to a date before the change. Select the file and press Space to check it with Quick Look.
4. Click Restore. If a file with the same name is still there, macOS asks whether to keep the original, keep both or replace it.

Even when the backup disk isn't connected, Time Machine keeps local snapshots on your startup disk, about one an hour for the last 24 hours, so a recent version can often come back right away. Those snapshots are part of what macOS counts as System Data: What Is System Data on a Mac? explains how they take and free space.

Method 3: Your cloud's version history

Files stored in Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive have a version history on the service's website. Open the file's menu there and look for Version history (Dropbox, OneDrive) or Manage versions (Google Drive, for files that aren't Google Docs). How long earlier versions are kept depends on the service and your plan.

iCloud Drive has no version history page of its own. Documents saved there by apps that keep versions still have their versions (Method 1), and a file deleted from iCloud Drive can be brought back for 30 days from Recently Deleted on iCloud.com.

See every version of a file in one list with Folia Files

The three methods above each live in a different place, and you have to know in advance which one has your file. Folia Files' Versions module answers the question for the file you select, without opening its app or entering Time Machine. It lists:

• the Current Version on top;
• then, newest first, the versions macOS keeps on this Mac — the ones Browse All Versions… would show, iCloud Drive's included;
• the copies in your Folia Files backups: a copy that is identical in several backups appears once, marked "in 3 backups", for example;
• and Time Machine's copies, in the website edition, when the backup disk is connected and Folia Files has Full Disk Access.

Each row shows the date, the size and a badge saying where the version comes from: macOS, the backup's name, or Time Machine.

Open the Versions module

1. Show the right sidebar with View › Show Right Sidebar (⌥⌘E).
2. Click Modules above it and tick Versions.
3. Select a file in a pane. The module follows the active pane: choose another file, and its versions replace the list.

The module can also take a whole pane: drag New Pane to the edge of the window and choose Versions in the grid. Its gear menu turns each source on or off: macOS Versions, Folia Files Backups and Time Machine.

Look before you restore

Select a version: its preview, date and origin appear under the list. From there:

• the eye button (Quick Look), or Space, previews it;
• Open a Copy of This Version opens a read-only copy in its app, never the backup itself;
• Compare with the Current Version opens the Compare tool with the two files side by side: line by line for text files such as notes, code or CSV, and for other files, whether they are identical.

Get it back without losing the current file

• Restore a Copy puts the version next to the file under its own name, such as "Notes (version from …).md". Nothing is overwritten, and ⌘Z sends the copy to the Trash.
• Replace with This Version… asks first, then puts the version in the file's place. The current content is never lost: with a macOS version, it is kept as a new version; with a backup copy, the current file goes to the Trash. Either way, ⌘Z undoes it.

The module only shows what is on your Mac or on a backup disk that is plugged in, and it never downloads anything: a file left in the cloud isn't read. When a Folia Files backup's disk is unplugged, a note under the list says so. The module is in both editions of Folia Files; Time Machine's copies are in the website edition only.

Make sure there's an earlier version next time

If none of the methods found anything this time, a few habits make sure the next mistake is a small one:

• Turn on Time Machine with an external disk or a NAS. Its local snapshots then cover the last day as well.
• Keep documents you rework often in apps that save versions, such as Pages, Numbers or TextEdit.
• Back up the folders that matter with Folia Files (Tools › Backups…): dated copies on a disk or a NAS, continuously, on a schedule or when the disk is plugged in. Only what changed is copied, and every backup appears in the Versions module. When the module has nothing to show, its Schedule a Backup… button opens the same place. Backups work in both editions; the sync and backups page has the details.

One more safety net: when a copy in Folia Files replaces a file of the same name, the old one goes to the Trash rather than disappearing, so it can still be put back from there.