---
title: "Version history — SimplifyGuide docs"
description: "Every change to a guide's steps keeps the previous version, so you can look back and restore one without losing what you have now."
url: "https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/version-history/"
---

# Version history

Every change to a guide's steps keeps the previous version, so you can look back and restore one without losing what you have now.

Each time a guide’s steps change, SimplifyGuide keeps a copy of how they were before. If a rewrite, a re-recording or a round of edits goes wrong, you can put an earlier version back.

## Opening it

In the [editor](https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/editor/), press **Version history** above the steps.

![The Version history dialog listing saved versions, each with its date, step count, author and first step titles, and a Restore button](https://simplifybase.com/_astro/editor-history.DHWIk7es_1lw58W.webp)

Each version shows:

-   **When** it was saved, as a date and time and as ”… ago”.
-   **How many steps** it had.
-   **Who** made the change that replaced it.
-   **The first five step titles**, joined by arrows, so you can recognise it.

The newest version is at the top. On a guide that has never changed, the dialog says **No earlier versions yet. A version is kept every time the steps change.**

## Restoring a version

1.  Open **Version history**.
2.  Find the version you want and press **Restore**.
3.  If you have unsaved changes in the editor, you are asked to confirm — restoring discards them.

The version is put back immediately; you do not need to press **Update**. A notice confirms which version was restored.

Before it restores, SimplifyGuide saves the current steps as a new version. So a restore is never a dead end: if you picked the wrong one, open **Version history** again and restore the version at the top.

## When a version is kept

A version is kept whenever the stored steps change: pressing **Update** after editing, recording more steps, an AI rewrite on Finish, a transcription, a blur or a crop. Saving without changing any step does not create one.

Recording adds steps one at a time, so to avoid a version for every click, changes by the same person less than a minute apart are folded into one.

## What is kept

-   **The steps** — instructions, notes, source badges, highlights, annotations, and which screenshot each step uses.
-   **Up to 20 versions.** Past that, the oldest is dropped.
-   **Up to 1 MB of history per guide.** If the versions add up to more than that, the oldest are dropped until they fit. The most recent version is always kept.

What is not kept:

-   **The page context** captured while recording for [AI rewrite](https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/ai-rewrite/). It is stripped from saved versions, which keeps them small. A restored step still works in the guide and in **Show me**, but **Write this step from the recording** has less to go on.
-   **The guide’s title, description and who sees it.** Version history covers the steps only.
-   **Screenshots themselves.** A version records which image each step used, not a copy of it. **Blur** and **Crop** replace the image and delete the original, so an older version cannot bring back an unblurred or uncropped screenshot — that step shows no screenshot instead. The same applies to an image you deleted from the Media Library.

## Who can use it

Anyone who can edit the guide can see its history and restore a version.

[← Previous AI rewrite](https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/ai-rewrite/)[Next → Show me](https://simplifybase.com/product/simplifyguide/docs/show-me/)

Last updated 27 September 2026