Version history not working as it used to.

[taitrt]

Hi,

I'm a long time dropbox user (since early beta days) and recently my version history has stopped working.  Twice in the past 2 days I've mistakenly saved over a file that I was modifying instead of saving it as a new file.  In the past when I've done this I just restore my old file from dropbox and there's no issue.  The past two times however my version history only has the current file.  I think it might have to do with the fact that I restructured my dropbox folders, since the only other thing on the page is a history of a move.

Here's what I see on my version history page.

Thanks.

[Mark]

You are right I'm afraid 😞

Version History now only keeps historic files for 30 days. So in your screenshot as the last edit was in Feb and thus over 30 days ago it isnt possible to recover it.

As a work around. Are you using Windows? If so try and right click on the file and choose 'Previous Versions' or similar if its available - you may get it back that way.

[Mark]

Two things to add actually.

Moves now do not effect previous history - a moved file now keeps the previous history unlike in the past.

If you want it back to how it was you can buy 'Extended Version History' as an add on to Plus at www.dropbox.com/plans which keeps all files and histories for 1 year.

[taitrt]

I was thinking about that, but actually the last revision was yesterday (when I saved over the file), so it should have retained yesterday's file prior to save, and the file that I saved over it, correct?

[Mark]

No, I dont think you are correct, but, I'm not 100% sure I'm following, so. Lets say I edited a file Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

The file was a long time one that has been in my Dropbox for over a year.

When I save my file on Sunday that becomes the most recent version and as its the first edit in a year no previous versions are available. When I edit it on Monday and Tuesday as this file is now edited within 30 days those edits are available. So on Wednesday when I look at previous versions I can restore Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I cannot, however, revert to the original file which I edited Sunday as this is outside of the 30 day window.

[taitrt]

That just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me when thinking about the dropbox service.  Dropbox has all of my current files on their server.  If I had all my computers off and I installed dropbox on a new machine, the dropbox servers would be able to populate my entire dropbox without connecting to another one of my computers.

Lets say I create a file in my dropbox on 8/28/2016 and edit it on 8/29/2016, I wait a whole year to edit it again on 8/28/2017.  If I look at the version history on 8/29/2017 I should see the file that existed on 8/27/2017 and the new revision that was made on 8/28/2017.  I can understand that dropbox doesn't want to keep archived files for more than 30 days, but the file that existed on 8/27/2017 has only been ARCHIVED for 2 days, even though it was CREATED a year ago.

[Rich · Accepted solution]

That's not how it works anymore.

If you make a change to a file, and the previous edit of that file happened more than 30 days ago, then the previous version cannot be recovered. The 30 days extended to one year if you have Extended Version History.

We asked Dropbox about this a while ago when the change occured, and the response we got back was that this is how it has always worked, and how it is intended to work. The help article also reflects this. Scroll down to the Version history period section.

• https://www.dropbox.com/help/security/version-history-overview

[taitrt]

That seems insanely unintuitive based on the service, but it appears to be what they intended.  Huh.

[StuartCarter]

I agree. In my mind it should save the OLD file as well as the new one when you revise (ie. if file A is oversaved by B, file A is less than a year ago and can be recovered).

I've just fallen over this today... I'm glad there's an answer here, but not so glad it isn't the answer I wanted to see! 🙂

Guess I need to be more careful... maybe get the habit (when opening a file to alter and SaveAs...) of hitting "space, backspace, save" to ensure the orignal is preserved somewhere!

[Rich]

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StuartCarter wrote:

maybe get the habit (when opening a file to alter and SaveAs...) of hitting "space, backspace, save" to ensure the orignal is preserved somewhere!

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Exactly! That would be the best practice to ensure you can recover the file. Just be sure to test it before you start to rely on it.