Where did my numbered back-ups go?

Have you ever been working in Revit, only to realize that the program is no longer saving numbered back-ups? Or have you ever tried to recover an older version of your current drawing only to find that your numbered back-ups don’t exist in your file. Panic? Stress? End of the world? Not exactly, Revit is still saving your back-ups, but it’s handling these back-ups differently in some situations. In this article I will describe why sometimes Revit will display a series of numbered back-ups and other times it does not.

If you start a new Revit file from the default template, the first time you save the file you have the option to go through your file save options to set up how many back-ups you want to save, using the options button. Select the number of back-up files that you want saved. Keep in mind that a back-up file is as large a file as the original at the time of the last save. Saving too many back-ups can bog down your system or fill valuable space on your network drives.



If you go to your file folder, you will see that each time you save, the back-up files get numbered in sequence out to the number of back-ups that you set when you first saved. Once you have reached your maximum number of back-up files saved, Revit continues to number the back-up files in sequence rotating out the (here the third) back-up, pushing it out into cyberspace to allow for the latest and greatest back-up file.



Restoring a back-up file of this type is as easy as opening the numbered back-up of your choice and doing a save-as, either over your original file or as a different file name. Revit has made this very easy. There is no searching for an Auto Save in some double secret hidden folder that takes Mcgruff the Crime Dog and a search party to locate.

This is all good and fine if you have a numbered back-up file to work with. What do you do if a numbered file is not created when you save? Why is Revit not creating a numbered back-up file anyway?

Revit will create a numbered back-up file as long as you have not enabled Worksets. Once Worksets are enabled, Revit handles the back-up process completely different. Instead of numbered back-up files, Revit creates a folder and stores all the project content there. This folder is what is used to go back in project time to restore loss of incorrectly modified content. Be aware that rolling back a central file can disrupt workflow and may cause local files to be out of sync with the central file.



To restore old back-up files. Open your file that you want to roll back.
Click Collaborate tab/Synchronize panel/Restore Backup.



Select the back-up folder. This will be your only option here. Click Open.



A new dialogue box will appear.



Select the time and date of the previous version of the file that you need to restore. STOP! Make sure this is the correct point of return to old data. Once you have rolled back the file you cannot go back.



Select Rollback then yes.

You will then return to the rollback page. Click Close.
Save your file. You have now successfully restored a back-up from a Workset Enabled Revit file.