Recover a Previous Version of a File

Posted: June 04, 2016

[caption id="attachment_12735" align="alignright" width="296"] Image from pcworld.com[/caption] There may come a time that the need to recover a previous version of a file is necessary. While it's not always guaranteed that you can, or that it will be easy, you have some options to try. From cloud storage to backups, looking in these three places for the previous version is your best bet. Lincoln Spector, contributing editor for PC World, shares tips on how to find an older version of an existing file.

3 ways to recover an older version of an existing file

Sometimes, you need the day-before-yesterday's version of a file. Here's how to get it. You can’t recover an older version of an existing file the way you can recover deleted ones. The file, as it existed last Wednesday, has almost certainly been overwritten by a later version. But hopefully, there may be older versions of that file elsewhere. Here are three places to look.

Windows’ previous versions tool

Windows has a tool that automatically saves old versions of your data files...if and when it works. To access this feature, go to the folder containing the file in question. Right-click the file and select Restore previous version. Or you can select Properties and click the Previous Versions tab. Read the entire article 3 Ways to Recover an Older Version of an Existing File on PC World.