4 Ways to Restore Previous Version of Files (Windows)

Usually, there are two situations where you need to get back the old version of a file in the following. But you can’t restore the previous version of the file the way you recover deleted files.

• You modified the file or accidentally saved over Word documents, Excel files, PPT files, or other files, but regret it several days later.
• You deleted a folder containing old file.

The deleted files are usually retained for a while but saving a file overwrites the file version right now. Hopefully, the old version is still somewhere. This article will show you 4 available methods to easily restore previous versions in Windows 7, 8/8.1, 10, or 11.

Is It Possible to Recover Previous Version of File? 

How to Restore Previous Versions of Files in Windows 10 or 11

Here are 4 methods to restore a file to a previous version in Windows 7, 8/8.1, 10, or 11. 

Method 1: Restore Files to a Previous Version from Windows Feature

Before using this method, please be sure you turn on System Restore or File History. Otherwise, you will find that there is no previous version available. 

Here take restoring the previous version of a Word document as an example.

Step 1. Go to the folder containing modified or overwritten files. Right-click the folder and click Properties. Then, select Previous Versions. 

Step 2. Choose one earlier file version from the version history. You can also click Open or Open in File History to check the selected file version.  

Step 3. After confirming the file version you want, click Restore or Restore To… to restore previous version of a file. Select Restore To... if you want to restore to a specific location.

This method also works for restoring old versions of Excel files, PPT files, and more.

Method 2: Restore Previous File Version from Cloud Drive

You might be out of luck and receive “There are no previous versions available” if you use Method 1. In this case, you can also try cloud backup if you subscribe to OneDrive, Google Drive, or Dropbox. They will save older versions of a file for about a month.

👉In Dropbox:

Step 1. Select the file you want to restore previous version and click Version History.

Step 2. Then, select the file version in the following list and click Restore to get the old version back.

👉In Google Drive:

Step 1. Go to My Drive. Select the file that has a previous version and click Manage Versions. You can then see a list of version history.

Step 2. Select the file version you want to restore, click the three-dot icon, and Download.

👉 In OneDrive:

OneDrive also has a similar feature, but it only saves older versions of Office file formats, such as .docx file, .pdf file, etc. 

Step 1. Right-click the file or folder that has a previous version and click Version History.

Step21. Then, hover over the file version you want to restore, click the three-dot icon, and Restore to restore your file to previous version.

Method 3: Restore Old Files from a Deleted Folder with Software

If you delete a folder containing old files, the best method is to recover deleted folder using reliable data recovery software.AOMEI FastRecovery integrates with two advanced scanning methods and more flexible recovery options, which is a good choice to easily recover Word documents, Excel files, PPT files, etc., in more than 1000+ file types.

✦ Recover deleted or lost files and folders with a high success rate and fast speed.
✦ Automatically start Quick Scan and Deep Scan to find missing or deleted folders.
✦ Search or filter files quickly and recover them immediately once found. 
✦ Preview files to confirm what exactly you want.
✦ Selectively restore files, not all of them.
✦ Work perfectly with NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, ReFS file systems.
✦ Support Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc and Windows Server.

To get your old version of files back quickly, please download this data recovery software.

Step 1. Install and run Windows data recovery software -AOMEI FastRecovery. Then, hover the mouse over the disk or partition containing the folders in question and click Scan.​

Step 2. It will automatically scan and search for deleted or lost folders in the selected drive. While scanning, you can filter the desired files in the following options. Once found, preview and restore the files you need without waiting for the final result.

• Type: It will contain all the file types in the local drive, such as, images, videos, documents, mails, webpage, compressed files, etc.
• Data Modified: It supports today, yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, and custom.
• Size: It allows you to filter file size from less than 128KB to 128KB ~1MB to 1MB ~ 512MB and above, or custom.

To recover Word document to a previous version, Click Filter > Type and select Documents. Then, input DOCX in the Search for files or folders box. It will list all of the deleted Word documents in the following window.

Step 3. Choose the folder containing old files and click Recover x files.​

It is also able to recover files from formatted hard drive, external hard drive, USB drive, SD card etc.

Method 4. Restore Previous Version of Existing File in Temp Folder

If the program you are using suddenly crashes and you have not saved these files, then you can go to the Temp folder. It is used by Windows as well as installed applications to store temporary files. You may find its old version here.

Step 1. Press Win + R and type %systemdrive%\Windows\Temp. Press Enter to access this folder.

Step 2. Type %userprofile%\AppData\Local\Temp in the Run window and press Enter.

Step 3. Search the folder to find your files. Right-click it and select Open with. Select a program to open the file with.

Next Step: Backup Your Files to Keep Multiple Versions

Nearly all file backup software supports keeping multiple versions of files as long as you enable features like schedule backup to run backup task automatically. By default, it will back up only changed files after the first full backup and keep a duplicate copy every scheduled time.

Step 1. Download and install backup software for Windows - AOMEI Backupper Standard. Then, click Backup and File Backup to backup your files.

Step 2. Set the Task Name to distinguish this backup task from others. Click Add File or Add Folder to choose files you want to backup.

Step 3. Click Select a cloud drive and select OneDrive. After uploading files to OneDrive, Ii will save the previous version of your files automatically. You can also select a local path, NAS or shared drive as backup drive.

Step 4 (IMPORTANT). Click Schedule Backup and enable Daily, Weekly, or Monthly to backup your files automatically.

Step 5. Confirm the operation and click Start Backup. By default, it will enable incremental backup to backup only new or changed files at the scheduled time. So it helps you a lot to keep multiple versions of your files.

FAQs

Conclusion

Whether you unsave the modified content, overwrite the file, or delete a folder containing old files, you can easily restore previous version of file in Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, etc. Try the previous version feature first. If your old files are deleted, the easiest method is to use reliable data recovery software like AOMEI FastRecovery.

Also, it’s suggested to create a file backup automatically with free backup software like AOMEI Backupper Standard, which makes it easier to recover a file to a previous version. It's always helpful to recover deleted files. You can save it to an internal or external hard drive, cloud drive, NAS or shared drive, etc.