Versioning in SharePoint

Basic Idea

Document collaboration, co-authoring, and List updates with human beings is much better with versioning enabled. People make mistakes, and versioning provides a safety net.

Emotionally, versioning helps reinforce the idea that SharePoint is a good place to store your work product.

With versioning enabled in Lists and Libraries, documents can be stored, tracked, and restored to the previous state of the item or document: how it was before a user changed it.

Versioning creates a historical record of changes, with the date/time and an indication of the user who made the change, on a per-file/list item basis. The end user can view, delete, and restore a version if they have the correct permissions in the library or list.

In modern SharePoint, Site Owners have Full Control permissions, and Site Members have Edit permissions.

Enabling Versioning

In SharePoint Online or on premises, versioning is enabled in the List Settings or Library Settings screens by clicking on the 'Versioning settings' link. The interface lets you control how many versions you'd like to retain. The user must have the Manage Lists permission capability to enable or change versioning.

Disabling Versioning

If you can enable versioning, you can disable versioning. Disabling versioning doesn't delete the old versions. End users receive no notification of this change.

Accessing Previous Versions

In SharePoint Online, select the list item or document, and in the Actions menu, select Version History. You can also see a link to the version history in the details pane.

In SharePoint on-premises (2010, 2013, 2016, 2019) you can view version history by clicking on the link in the ribbon menu.

In both products, Version History opens in a modal dialog box, with options to View, Restore, or Delete the entry. If any SharePoint Metadata columns were changed, those columns and their changed values will be displayed, which can help you identify the version you are looking for.

SharePoint Online vs SharePoint On-Premises

Historically, versioning was not enabled by default at the creation of a list or library. SharePoint Online enables versioning by default in libraries when they're created.

Major Versus Minor Versions

Libraries can have both major versions, which are represented with whole numbers (12.0), and minor versions, which are represented with decimal numbers (12.3). If your library is configured to use check in/check out, each change performed by a user with a checked-out document will create a minor version.

Lists usually only have major versions.

Best Practices and Versioning Trivia

• The Version column in SharePoint Views is not a number column. If you sort it, version 12 shows up in between version 1 and 2.
• It is a best practice to enable versioning in a list at creation and not set a limit of major versions. It takes up very little space, and your end users will thank you for it.
• In an average SharePoint on premises farm, setting document library versions up to 10 major and 10 minor has, in practice, may be enough for any group that can't define how many versions they need.
• A deleted and then restored file/list item maintains its old versions. The restored version is essentially copied to a new version with the most recent version number.
• In a list with versioning enabled, attachment changes are not versioned.
• Limiting the number of versions can be a good practice. It means you can conserve space on the server and reduce clutter for users. But, if your organization is required to save all versions for legal or other reasons, don’t apply any limits.
• As best practice PST (mail archive) files should not be uploaded on OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online team site document libraries due to the impact on storage. If PST files are uploaded the service will retain versions for 30 days.

Versioning with autosave and co-authoring

By default, SharePoint saves a version of a document every time a user clicks the "Save" button. However, if autosave is turned on - which it is by default with documents in your OneDrive or synced libraries and in Office Online apps- SharePoint will automatically save a version of the document every few minutes.

When co-authoring is enabled in SharePoint, multiple users can work on the same document simultaneously. Each user's changes are tracked and saved as a new version. When a user saves changes to a document that is being co-authored, SharePoint will save a new version of the document that includes all of the changes made by all co-authors.

It's important to note that co-authoring can have an impact on versioning in SharePoint. If multiple users are working on the same document at the same time, it can be difficult to keep track of who made which changes and when. SharePoint does its best to track changes and create new versions as needed, but it's still important for users to communicate and coordinate when co-authoring to ensure that changes are properly tracked and versioned.

Further Reading

• Microsoft: Planning Versioning, Content Approval & How does versioning work in a SharePoint list or library

Principal author: Patrick M Doran