Work safely with backup and autosaving
Autosaving and backups make it less likely you’ll lose your work
Create
REQUIRES
An app that supports versioning, a file you’ve saved several times
you will learn
How to restore work from previous versions of a file
IT WILL TAKE
10 minutes
File versioning is a feature of macOS that enables apps to save a history of changes to a document without cluttering your storage with multiple copies of files. Apple calls this Versions. The feature has a counterpart called Auto Save, which acts as an additional safety net. Together, these features make it less likely that you’ll lose work by accidentally saving over it or because an app crashes.
Support for Versions and Auto Save is far from universal, though. Apple’s document creation apps — Pages, Numbers, and Keynote — support it, while Microsoft apps have their own implementation of it. It’s worth checking whether an app has a Revert To submenu in the File menu.
When you choose File > Save, your app saves the changes you’ve made since the last version was created — automatically or manually — as part of a much longer history that’s safely tucked away.
Compatible apps automatically save new versions to a document’s history as you work. This happens at least once every hour, and when you open, duplicate, lock, rename, or revert a file to an earlier version. A version is also created when you save manually — do that when you reach an important milestone in your work to save later disappointment.
Versions are saved as part of your file, so even if you quit the app, you’ll still be able to access them when you reopen it. Note, though, that if you move files between your Mac and another operating system, such as Windows or Linux, you won’t be able to access the versions there — it’s a macOS–only thing. Ian Evenden