Have you ever updated a WordPress post and immediately realized that you deleted something important? Or maybe someone else edited a page and accidentally overwrote content you needed?
Before you panic, check your WordPress revisions. WordPress automatically saves previous versions of your posts and pages, allowing you to review what changed and restore an earlier version.
In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to use post revisions to undo changes in WordPress.
💡 Quick Answer: To undo changes you already saved, open the post or page and click the ‘Revisions’ option in the right-hand panel. Move through previous versions to see changes and find the version you want. Then click ‘Restore.’
Explained: How WordPress Post Revisions Work
WordPress 7.0 introduced Visual Revisions, which lets you review changes directly in the post editor. You can move through previous revisions to see what content was added, removed, or changed.
However, if your post uses classic meta boxes added by a plugin, such as WooCommerce or an SEO plugin, WordPress will use the Classic Revisions interface instead. You can still browse and compare previous versions of your post, but the interface looks different.
We’ll show you how to use both Visual Revisions and Classic Revisions in the steps below.
How to Use Post Revisions to Undo Changes in WordPress
Now that you know how WordPress handles post revisions, let’s look at how to use them to find and restore an earlier version of your content.
First, open the post or page where you want to undo changes.
Next, in the WordPress block editor, open the Post or Page and click the ‘Revisions’ option in the right-hand panel. Now you’ll see the Visual Revisions screen.
At the top of the screen, you’ll see a slider that lets you move through your saved revisions. As you select different versions, WordPress shows you what changed in the content.
You can also use the markers along the scrollbar to quickly jump to places where changes were made.
The changes made in each revision will be highlighted. New content that was added is highlighted in green, deleted content is shown in red, and changed content, including formatting changes, is highlighted in yellow.
On the right side of the screen, you can also see which WordPress user made the changes and the time of the selected revision.
This makes it easier to see what changed in each revision and choose the version you want to restore. When you’ve found the version you want to restore, simply click the ‘Restore’ button.
WordPress will then restore that version as your current content, which you can then review and save as normal.
Restoring an earlier revision doesn’t delete your most recent one. Instead, WordPress saves the restored content as a brand-new revision.
ℹ️ Note: If you’d rather use the older interface, you can click the ‘Open classic revisions screen’ link in the top-right corner underneath the Restore button.
Restoring from an Autosave
If WordPress has an autosave that’s newer than your last manual save, you’ll see it at the top of your revision history, labeled as an ‘Autosave’ rather than a saved revision.
You can review it the same way you’d review any other revision. If it’s the version you want, click ‘Restore’ to bring it back into your editor.
Using Classic Post Revisions
If a plugin you’ve installed on your WordPress site is loading a classic meta box on the post you’re editing, you will see the Classic Post Revisions interface instead of the new Visual Revisions.
The classic screen shows a scrollbar you can slide through to browse older revisions, with removed content marked in pink and added content marked in green. Underneath the scrollbar, you’ll also see who made each change and when.
With classic revisions, you can also check the box on top that says ‘Compare any two revisions’.
Doing so will split the scrollbar button into two, and you can take each button to a different revision and compare the difference between two distant revisions.
Note: This feature is not currently available in Visual Revisions.
To restore a version from here, simply click the ‘Restore This Revision’ button.
If you are restoring an autosave, the button will read ‘Restore This Autosave.’
That’s it! Either way, once you’ve clicked restore, WordPress saves your recovered content as the newest revision, and you’re free to save or publish it right away.
Video Tutorial
If you don’t enjoy written instructions, then you can watch our video tutorial on how to undo changes in WordPress instead:
Frequently Asked Questions About Undoing Changes in WordPress With Post Revisions
Here are some questions that our readers have frequently asked about undoing changes in WordPress:
How do I restore a previous version of a page or post in WordPress?
Restoring a previous version is what undoing changes in WordPress actually means, and it’s exactly what post revisions are built for.
Just open the post or page in the editor, click the ‘Revisions’ link in the right-hand panel, and use the slider to find the version you want. Then, click the ‘Restore’ button to bring it back.
How do I undo edited changes in WordPress?
The easiest way to undo edited changes is with the built-in Revisions feature. Click on ‘Revisions’ from the WordPress editor settings sidebar, use the slider to find the point in time you want to return to, and click ‘Restore’ to revert your content.
What if I don’t see post revisions in WordPress?
If you’re not seeing post revisions, first ensure they are enabled in your wp-config.php file (they are by default).
Also, revisions only appear after you’ve saved or updated a post at least twice. If you’ve just started a new post and haven’t saved it multiple times, you won’t see any revisions yet.
How do I limit the number of revisions WordPress saves for each post?
If you’d rather WordPress not keep an unlimited number of revisions for every post, you can cap it by adding this code to your site’s wp-config.php file, typically just above the line that says /* That's all, stop editing! Happy publishing. */:
define( 'WP_POST_REVISIONS', 10 );
Just replace 10 with however many revisions you’d like WordPress to keep for each post.
How do I delete old post revisions in WordPress?
Before deleting anything, we recommend creating a backup your site, since this permanently removes data from your database.
After that, you can install and activate the WP-Optimize plugin, head to WP-Optimize » Database, and check the ‘Clean all post revisions’ box. Then, click the ‘Run optimization’ button to clear them out. This only removes your existing revisions though, WordPress will still save new ones as you keep editing.
We hope that this article helped you understand how to use post revisions to undo changes in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to auto-schedule your WordPress blog posts or our expert picks of the best Gutenberg-friendly WordPress themes.
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Jiří Vaněk
Regarding revisions, I’m unclear about one thing. You mentioned that revisions don’t slow down the website. However, I’ve encountered several sites with hundreds of published articles and a large number of stored revisions. This meant that there were more than 10,000 revisions (sometimes more) in the database. Not only did it fill up the database, but the website actually started to slow down and experience errors, possibly due to the overloaded database. After using the Sweep plugin to delete the revisions, the site significantly sped up and stopped generating errors. So, it seems that if there are too many revisions, they can fill up the database and cause the site to slow down or generate errors when the database runs out of space. Wouldn’t it be better to regularly monitor the number of revisions and keep them at a reasonable level?
WPBeginner Support
It would depend on the size of the site, if the server is running out of space due to the revisions then there is a good chance that the site is large enough that you may need to consider a new hosting provider as that could mean that soon you may run into the error again with new posts in general. For the short term you could look to remove and limit revisions but in the long term we would recommend taking a look at our article below!
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/when-should-you-change-your-wordpress-web-hosting-top-7-key-indicators/
Admin
Jiří Vaněk
Thank you for the link to the article. I’ve always seen revisions as more of a boogeyman than a helper, so I got into the habit of regularly deleting them. However, during my work, I’ve come across websites with around 20,000 revisions, and there I noticed some slowdowns. I’ll definitely read the article because it’s good to know when you might hit the limits of your hosting.
Madeleine Eames
What if it says that revision was removed?
WPBeginner Support
If your site says that the revision was removed then the revision may have been deleted which would prevent you from using it.
Admin
Mona
What if my first developers did not have revisions turned on. Then I got a new developer, I messed up my site then had revisions turned on. Will they still work to revert back to the date before they were turned on?
WPBeginner Support
If revisions were disabled, you would not have revisions from before it was active.
Admin
Sunil
Thank you so much, very informative, I accidentally removed all my content and updated the site but I followed your steps, and yes it’s again back…
WPBeginner Support
Glad our guide was able to help
Admin
Reggie
Thanks so much for this. I accidentally overwrote a post when I thought I was working in a clone of it. I felt so sick, but this saved me!
WPBeginner Support
Glad our guide was helpful
Admin
Milosh
I’ve just applied a ton of changes and saved, and accidentally pressed wrong key where all my changes were rolled back. THIS SAVED MY DAY! Thanks a lot!
WPBeginner Support
Glad our guide was able to help
Admin
marybeth
Thank you so much. This plugin saved me hours.
WPBeginner Support
Glad our recommendation could help
Admin
Mark Hallowell
When I click on the 26 revisions, it takes me to the Compare Revisions of “page”, but it is completely blank. Any ideas how I can see my revisions?
WPBeginner Support
We do not have a specific reason for that issue at the moment, for a starting point we would recommend going through our troubleshooting guide below:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/beginners-guide-to-troubleshooting-wordpress-errors-step-by-step/
Admin
Terri Zwierzynski
I’m not finding the Revisions section when editing a page.
I see the Status and Visibility block on the right (Visibility, Publish Date, Author, Move to Trash) and then the Permalink block. No list of revisions anywhere…did something change in WordPress 5.5??
WPBeginner Support
You would want to ensure the post has saved versions of if to revert to. You may have plugins or settings that are limiting or removing the post revisions from your site.
Admin
Chloe Young
Is it possible to take something from a previous revision and bring it to your current one without changing the whole thing?
WPBeginner Support
You could copy the content and paste it into the current version, but currently reverting to a revision would take all of the previous version’s differences.
Admin
dd solei
suggestion – it would be great if you could include a screenshot of “WHERE” to go to get to ‘Revisions’ I used it before, but can’t remember how to get back to it. I was hoping your article would help me, but unfortunately it’s useless to me because I have no idea where “the ‘Document’ panel on the post/page edit screen” is. There is a tab for Pages and a tab for Posts. Where is post/page edit screen??
WPBeginner Support
When you edit a specific page or post with the block editor you should see the document editing on the right-hand side of the page
Admin
Chris Feddersen
Good day,
I am a complete beginner. I work for a small business, which had an existing website. I was trying to change the look of the website, and lost the original website and all it’s content by saving and publishing to the new theme. Is there any way I can restore the original website?
WPBeginner Support
Yes, you can connect to your website using an FTP client. Go to /wp-content/themes/ folder and download all files and folders inside it to your computer as a backup. After that delete all theme folders (using FTP) except the one that last worked on your site.
Admin
nabhdeep
Undo revision for front page??? Please help.
Vicki O'Dell
Is this something that has been discontinued? It does not exist in the current version that I have. I just lost a good 1,000 word post and I don’t even know how it happened. I’m so bummed.
Philip
I restored a older version by using Revisions. Is there any way to undo that and go back to the newest version again?
WPBeginner Support
Yes your new version is also stored as a revision.
Admin
Graeme
I cam to this page seeking help in undoing revisions to themes and other changes. This page is helpful in affirming that posts or pages can have be “revision-ed” but that is not what I need.
How do I undo other kinds of saved changes?
mannat kaur
I need to know how to undo the changes made on home page?????// please help me at earliest
Salvador
Is there a way to undo publish in general?
I was in the themes section, clicked ‘customize’ and by mistake clicked on ‘save & publish’… the page wasnt even close to finished so the original website is gone and I’m stuck with a website with no content yet.. help!
Charlie Sasser
I always knew this was there but never really used. Thanks for bring this up.
What is the impact and performance hit on the database? Is there a build in way or a good plugin that will selectively flush the old versions for the database?
WPBeginner Support
impact on database is not that significant unless you have many authors working on multiple posts at any given time. You can easily delete old post revisions.
Admin
Ralph Ferro Jr., Esq
This is a very practical and great instructional article – wish you had more of these which is geared for the novice. e.g. when doing testimonials – it is cutting off and not allowing two pages – how can this be fixed?
how do you change your menu to have a button look using an object to insert in your page descriptions rather than plain test.
this was written well and very easy to follow – some are written for programmers…