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How to Undo Changes in WordPress

How to Undo Changes in WordPress

It happens to all of us using WordPress – you write a terrific post, but then something happens and you end up with a version that is less than satisfactory. Or you make a mistake. Perhaps someone else edited your post and you don’t want those changes to go live. There are a lot of scenarios when a WordPress user just wishes they could go back in time and create a different post. Fortunately, there’s a way to undo changes in WordPress. Read on to find out how.

WordPress Post Revisions

As you have probably noticed, WordPress has the autosave function for the posts you make. Consequently, even if you don’t click on Save or Publish, the changes you made, however tiny, are going to be autosaved. The WordPress editor autosaves everything you put in every 60 seconds. Old autosaves are replaced by newer versions. These autosave versions are saved as post revisions in the WordPress database and there are as many of them as there are voluntary user saves or autosaves made by WordPress.

“That’s a bit too much, isn’t it?” – you’re probably thinking. But think again. It’s precisely these post revisions that allow you to undo changes you made to your post and help you tweak your post just right.

The Post Revision functionality is perfect for editors of posts with multiple authors. It allows the editor to see exactly which author made which changes, when and where.

The way Post Revisions works is by showing you different versions of your post and allowing you to switch between them and perhaps undo changes that don’t work for you. This way, you get to tweak everything just right and come up with the perfect final version.

How to Use Post Revisions

In order to access this functionality, you’ll need to log into your backend, go to All Posts and pick the post you want to see revisions for.

Once you’ve opened the post in your editor, you’ll see the number of revisions displayed in the Publish meta box in the right-hand side of the editor. Click on Browse to access the revisions.

Undo Wordpress Changes

Alternatively, you can opt to display Revisions underneath your post edit area. To do so, go up to Screen Options and check the box that says Revisions.

Wordpress Revisions

Reviewing Your Post Revisions

Now, the post revisions screen displays the latest version of your post. There is a scroll at the top that you can use to display different revisions of the post. Changes in each version will be highlighted and easy to recognize. The name of the user who made the changes, as well as the time the changes were made, is displayed above.

Wordpress Compare Revisions

Another way to navigate between different post revisions is by using the Previous and Next buttons. You can also check the box that says Compare any two revisions. This adds an additional button to the scrollbar you use to navigate the revisions. You can drag each button in the direction you want for a more detailed insight into version histories and changes between two revisions.

Wordpress Changes

Restoring a Revision

After you have identified the version you want to use and decided which changes in your WordPress post you want to undo, you can click on Restore This Revision or Restore This Autosave. This will now be your current post version and you can save it as a draft.

Restore Wordpress Autosave

Conclusion

Post Revisions is an amazing WordPress functionality that helps you undo changes to the posts you’ve made, to find the perfect version of your post and to navigate between all the changes multiple authors have made.

In addition, you can also limit Post Revisions to a certain number of revisions or even disable it completely. However, we have to say we do not encourage this, since there may come a time when it will be vital for you to revert to one of the older revisions or undo a change made to the post. Everyone makes mistakes, but that doesn’t mean we should end up stuck with them, does it?

We hope that you found this article to be helpful. If you liked it, please feel free to check out some of these articles as well!

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