---
title: "Go back to an earlier version"
description: "Open a chapter's version history, compare any snapshot with the current text, and restore it. Galley snapshots the current text first, so nothing is lost."
source: https://usegalley.com/docs/restore-a-version
---
# Go back to an earlier version

Every chapter keeps snapshots of itself. If a revision doesn’t work out, you can see exactly what you
changed and put the old text back.

*The Galley version history panel showing a list of snapshots and a diff between an earlier draft and the current chapter text.*

Version history for a chapter: daily snapshots, the ones you took, and a compare view.

## How to do it

1. **Open the chapter.** Open the chapter you want to go back on in the editor.
2. **Open History.** Click **History** in the status bar at the bottom. The
panel lists every snapshot of the chapter, newest first.
3. **Compare.** Click the compare button on a version to see what changed. Added words are highlighted
and removed ones are crossed out.
4. **Restore.** Click restore on the version you want. Galley snapshots the current text first, so you
can come back to it.

## When snapshots are taken

- **Once a day** for any chapter you’ve changed.
- **When you ask.** Click **Snapshot now** at the top of the History panel before you try
something big.
- **Before big changes** Galley makes for you: a book-wide find and replace, a character rename, a
restore, or moving a chapter to a new stage.

Snapshots you take yourself are kept forever. A chapter keeps up to fifty, and only the daily ones are thinned out
after that.

## The whole book at once

For a version of the whole book, like the draft you sent to your agent, use **Draft milestones** in the
**Toolkit**. A milestone names a version of every chapter at once and is kept forever, so
you can open “the March draft” a year later.

## If you deleted it

A deleted chapter isn’t in History, it’s in the bin. Open **Bin** from the Toolkit or the bottom of the
sidebar and restore it. Chapters stay there for 30 days. There’s more in
[your data](https://usegalley.com/docs/your-data#bin).

## Next

The other revision tools are in [revision](https://usegalley.com/docs/revision), and how saving works is in
[the editor](https://usegalley.com/docs/the-editor#saving).

[PreviousRevision tools](https://usegalley.com/docs/revision) [NextPreview & export](https://usegalley.com/docs/preview-and-export)

## Go on, write a page in it.

Opens straight into a book. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for.

[Open the demo](https://demo.usegalley.com) [See what €199 gets you](https://usegalley.com/buy?from=site)