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Solved
I edited an old document today, but I can't restore it to its previous version.
Question or Issue
I have been using Dropbox for many years mainly as a backup system of all my files. I thought my data was save: If I ever edit/change for example a word document and then accident...
I can't see the original in the version history. It looks like the original is now lost, because it was "older than 30 days".
Unfortunately, that's how it works.
If you have a file that hasn't changed in over 30 days (or whatever the recovery limit is on your account) and you modify it today, you can't recover the version prior to the edit. The version history only allows you to recover a version that changed within the last 30 days. Take a file that hasn't changed it 29 days, edit it today, and you'll be able to recover the pre-edit version.
That to me doesn't make any sense.
No, it doesn't make sense, but that's how it works now. Years ago it used to work as you'd expect; edit a file and within 30 days you could recover the pre-edit version. Then one day the functionality changed to how it works now. The kicker is the documentation was updated and Dropbox claimed that it had always worked this way and never as it did previously.
Rich
Super User II
Super User III can't see the original in the version history. It looks like the original is now lost, because it was "older than 30 days".
Unfortunately, that's how it works.
If you have a file that hasn't changed in over 30 days (or whatever the recovery limit is on your account) and you modify it today, you can't recover the version prior to the edit. The version history only allows you to recover a version that changed within the last 30 days. Take a file that hasn't changed it 29 days, edit it today, and you'll be able to recover the pre-edit version.
That to me doesn't make any sense.
No, it doesn't make sense, but that's how it works now. Years ago it used to work as you'd expect; edit a file and within 30 days you could recover the pre-edit version. Then one day the functionality changed to how it works now. The kicker is the documentation was updated and Dropbox claimed that it had always worked this way and never as it did previously.
Thank you for confirming.
It is interesting that someone renamed the title of my post from "Is Dropbox version history useless?" to "I edited an old document today, but I can't restore it to its previous version."
I will have a look for alternatives out there (maybe MS OneDrive???) that have a better version history.
