How to restore previous versions and unresolve comments on Dropbox Paper

Updated Oct 31, 2024

Creators and editors of a Dropbox Paper doc can:

 

Users with only commenting or viewing permissions can't restore changes or unresolve comments. To restore older versions of other files in your Dropbox account, such as PDFs and Word docs, learn how to return to an older version of a file.

 

Not using Dropbox yet? See how Dropbox helps makes it easy to manage your document version history.

 

How to see and restore previous versions of a Paper doc

Before you begin, note that if you restore a previous version of your Paper doc, any more recent versions are deleted from version history. This means that once you restore an older version, you can’t return to a more recent version.

You can undo a restoration as long as the doc wasn’t edited after it was restored (by you or anyone else). Once any edits are made, you lose the option to undo, so make sure the version you restored is the version you want before you make any changes to it.

To restore a previous version of a Dropbox Paper doc:

  1. Open a Paper doc.
  2. Click the “” (ellipsis) icon.
  3. Click Doc history.
  4. Under the Doc changes tab, find the list of previous edits.
  5. Click the version you’d like to restore and click Roll back to this version. Your file will open in full screen.
  6. Click Roll back to this version at the top right. The same file will get replaced by the older version, so its name will stay the same.

How to unresolve comments in Paper

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Note: You can only unresolve comments if you have editing privileges in the Paper doc.

To unresolve comments:

  1. Open a Paper doc.
  2. Click the “” (ellipsis) icon.
  3. Click Doc history.
  4. Under the Comment history tab, find the list of resolved comments.
  5. Scroll to the comment you'd like to unresolve and click Unresolve.

Why can’t I find a previous version of a Paper doc in the doc history window?

In order for Doc changes to appear in the Doc history window, the edit:

  • Must have occurred at least 30 minutes ago
  • Must have changed more than 500 characters in the doc

How to undo after you’ve restored a Paper doc to a previous version

To undo after you’ve restored a Paper doc to a previous version:

  1. Return to the Doc changes tab in the Doc history panel.
  2. Click Undo next to Cancel that change and go back to the version before this revert.
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