Go back to an earlier version of a story (Time Machine)

Families write together, and sometimes someone writes over the paragraph you liked best. Time Machine keeps earlier versions of each story as it's written, called snapshots. You can look back through them and restore the story to how it was.

Writers can restore the stories they added, and the owner and admins can restore any story. Viewers can't open Time Machine. If you're a viewer and need a story put back, ask the project owner.

How snapshots are made

Keepsake takes a snapshot of a story by itself:

• Every so often while someone is writing, at most every 10 minutes.
• When the last person leaves the story.
• When the story is finished.
• Before a big change, such as deleting a long passage or a photo.
• Before and after a restore, so you can always switch back.

You don't need to do anything. The first snapshot is marked Snapshots start here.

How long snapshots are kept

Every snapshot from the last day is kept. Older ones are thinned out over time: one an hour for the past week, one a day for the past month, then one a week. Snapshots of important moments, such as when a story was finished or restored, are always kept.

If a snapshot you remember has been tidied away, Time Machine shows the closest one.

Open Time Machine

Open the story, then choose the gear in the bar at the top, labelled Entry settings. At the bottom of the list, choose Time Machine. It shows when the latest snapshot was taken and how many there are.

The Time Machine card only shows once the story has its first snapshot.

Look back through a story

Move between snapshots with the arrows, Older snapshot and Newer snapshot, or your arrow keys. On a phone, swipe, or open the list of Snapshots. Current version is the story as it is now.

Changes are highlighted. To choose what each snapshot is compared with, open Compare:

• Last snapshot: what changed in this one.
• Current story: what restoring it would change.
• Off: the snapshot on its own.

Restore an earlier version

Choose the snapshot you want, then Restore. A popup says how many words come back and how many written since are taken out. Choose Restore again to confirm.

Keepsake saves the story as it is first, so nothing is lost. A message offers Undo for a few seconds. After that, the version from before the restore is in Time Machine, marked Before restore.

Photos in that snapshot come back with it if they're marked Comes back. Photos added since stay in the story's photos. See Delete and restore photos.

If the owner's plan has ended, you can look back through snapshots but not restore one until the plan is renewed.

Deleted stories and chapters

Time Machine is for changes inside a story. To bring back a story or chapter that was deleted, see Delete and restore stories and chapters.