Check activity and file versions

Access changes made to your files in Drive and keep track of who made those changes. You might notice changes when someone:

  • Edits or comments in a file
  • Renames a file or folder
  • Moves or removes a file or folder
  • Uploads a new file to a folder
  • Shares or unshares an item

Important: Version history for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides is different to history for .pdf files, images and other files stored in Drive. Learn how to access the history of changes for Google files. 

Access past activity

  1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
  2. At the left click My drive.
  3. In the upper-right corner, click Info Info.
  4. Select an option. To access:
    • Recent changes, select an option:
      1. Click Activity.
      2. Scroll down the right side.
    • The activity of a specific file or folder, click the file or folder.

Save and restore recent versions

Only the most recent versions of past documents will be saved, unless you click Keep forever.

Find out when a file was added to Drive

To check when a specific file was added to Drive, you can:

  1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
  2. Right-click your selected file.
  3. Click File information Information and then click Details.
  4. To locate the date on which the file was created, scroll through the side panel.
Download recent versions

You can download and keep previous copies of PDF files, images and other files stored in Google Drive.

  1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
  2. Click the file that you want to download.
  3. At the top right, click More More and then Manage versions.
  4. Next to the version that you want to download, click More More.
  5. To save a copy to your computer, click Download.
Upload a new version
  1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
  2. Click the file that you want to replace.
  3. At the top right, click More More and then Manage versions and then Upload new version.

Tip: If you upload a new version of a file owned by someone else, the original owner remains the same.

Delete a previous version
  1. On your computer, go to drive.google.com.
  2. Click the file that you want to replace.
  3. At the top right, click More More and then Manage versions.
  4. Next to the version that you want to delete, click More More and then Delete.

Version history

Version history for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides is different from file versions in Google Drive. Learn how to access the history of changes for Google files.

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