How To Undo/Restore Changes In WordPress With Post Revisions?

Post revisions are in-build feature visible on post edit screen but very few knows about the real power of post revisions. Using post revisions you can undo changes and revert back to an earlier version of any published post. Some simply calls the feature as Revisions as it is applicable on most post types in WordPress. Have you ever wish that you hadn’t deleted what you wrote before inside your post? With post revisions you can move back in time and undo any change. This tutorial explains how to undo changes using post revisions in WordPress.

What Is A Post Revision?

Revisions are the backup copies of your posts, it gets automatically saved everytime you click Save Draft or Update buttons. Revisions allow you to look back at the recent changes you’ve made and revert to an earlier version if required.

WordPress’s autosave feature also saves the post opened in your editor after every 60 seconds as a temporary revision. Secondly old auto saved revisions gets replaced by new auto saved revisions and then each and every time when a user clicks ‘Save Draft‘ or ‘Update‘ or ‘Publish‘ button, a new revision gets stored in your database.

How To Find A Post Revision?

Post Revision Browse

Open any post for editing. On ‘Publish‘ metabox you will be noticing ‘Revisions‘ module with a ‘Browse‘ link, click the Browse link.

How To Undo Things Via Post Revision In WordPress?

Revisions are also displayed after post edit box. If in-case they are not showing up there then click the ‘Screen Options‘ (on top right corner) and tick Revisions checkbox.

How To Compare Post Revisions?

As soon you click the Browse link in ‘Publish‘ meta box it directs you to revisions compare page where you can compare you current post content with older revisions. Use ‘Next‘ and ‘Previous‘ buttons for browsing older and newer post revisions.

Browse Post Revisions

How To Restore Post Revisions?

Clicking ‘Restore This Revision‘ button restores your current post content with older revision opened in your revision compare page. Another way of browsing revisions is ‘Revisions‘ metabox present after your post content box.

All post revisions are visible to all site admins and editors of your WordPress site. Post authors can only see  revisions which they have authored and contributors cannot see any revisions types.

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