Find and restore an earlier version

By the end of this workflow the project's tasks, dates and links are back the way they were at an earlier point, keeping today's progress and other records, and today's bookings unless you choose otherwise — or that earlier point sits beside it as a project of its own. Saving a version before a big change gives you a named point to come back to.

Who does this#

• Any Editor or Admin who can open the project saves versions, looks at them, compares them, and restores a project that is in Draft.
• Restoring a Live project — and every project is Live unless it is in Draft — takes Master planning, which company admins have by role, because crews see a restore at once. Anyone else still gets Restore… and can read what it would do, but the confirm says "Only an admin or a master planner can restore a Live project." and who to ask. In Training, a student's copy, the class board and the projects students create there can be restored without master planning: anyone who can edit them restores them.
• A Field account never opens History.
• Without a company account, and in the demo, whoever uses the browser can do all of it.

See Who can see and do what.

Before you start#

• Ganttry saves as you work; there is no need to press Save. The save chip in the top row shows "● Unsaved changes", then "… Saving", then "✓ Saved" with the time. To keep the plan as it stands under a name, save a version (step 1).
• Know roughly when the project was last right: the date, who was working on it, or the name of the version.

Steps#

Save a version before a big change#

1. 1
   Choose Save a version. Click the save chip and choose Save a version…, or choose Tools ▾ → Save a version….
2. 2
   Name it. Type a Name of up to 40 characters that no other saved version of this project uses, and a note if you like. What's saved shows how many tasks the plan has and when it finishes. Press Save; the status bar reads Saved "Plan A" in History.

A project keeps 20 saved versions. At 20, the dialog says so and saves nothing: delete one in History first.

Find the version#

3. 3
   Open History. Choose Tools ▾ → History…, or click the save chip and choose History…. A company admin can also press History… on the project's row on the Company page.
4. 4
   Find the version. History has two lists, newest first:

   • Saved versions — the versions saved by name, each with its note, who saved it, when, the day it finishes and its number of tasks. The "Before restoring …" rows that restores save are here too.
   • Automatic saves — what Ganttry saved as people worked. Each row reads "Revision" and a number, the newest marked latest, with when, by whom and the number of tasks.

5. 5
   Look at it. Look opens the version read-only over the editor, under an amber band that names it. Scroll and read; nothing you do there changes the project. Close, or Esc, brings you back to the editor as you left it.
6. 6
   Compare it with now. Compare with now sets the version against the plan on your screen: how the finish moves, then the tasks that moved, the tasks added and removed since, and the bookings that differ.

Restore it#

7. 7
   Open the confirm. Press Restore… on the row or in Look's band, or, at the foot of Compare, the button that names the version ("Restore Plan A…", or "Restore the earlier plan…" on a "Before restoring …" row). Nothing changes yet. The confirm, "Restore Plan A?", saves your newest edits, reads today's plan, says how the finish moves and lists what the restore does:

   • Kept from today — on the tasks in both plans, today's bookings and everything recorded on them: progress, actuals, checklists and attachments, whoever entered them, and the office's notes;
   • Kept because it has progress, a checklist tick or an attachment — a task only in today's plan that has progress, a status other than To do, an actual date, remaining days, a ticked checklist item or an attachment (a note alone doesn't keep it);
   • Comes back unbooked — tasks only in the version, back without their people, who may be busy elsewhere by now; People shows them as needing people;
   • Dropped · only in today's plan — the other tasks only in today's plan go, with their bookings and their notes.
8. 8
   On a Live project, choose when crews see it. Under the lists the confirm says the project is Live and offers two choices. Switch to Draft first is picked when it opens: the project goes to Draft, and crews keep today's plan until someone publishes (see Publish the plan crews see). Restore now restores it with crews seeing it at once. When the confirm offers no such choice, as on a project in Draft or one a course uses as its template or answer key, skip this step.
9. 9
   Decide about bookings. Keep today's bookings is ticked each time the confirm opens. Leave it ticked to keep who is booked now. Untick it to bring back the bookings and Assigned To the version had; the confirm then lists today's bookings that go and the version's that come back and, signed in, checks whether those people are booked on another project on those days. Progress, actuals, checklists, notes and attachments stay either way.
10. 10
    Restore. The confirm says "Today's plan is saved first, as "Before restoring Plan A". You can restore it from History." Press the button. With Switch to Draft first picked it reads Switch to Draft and restore; otherwise it names the version ("Restore Plan A"). The project takes the restored plan at once, and the status bar reads Restored Plan A · today's plan is in History (after a switch to Draft, Bridge 12 is in Draft · Restored Plan A · today's plan is in History).

Undo a restore#

11. 11
    Restore the plan from before. A restore can't be undone with Ctrl+Z. Instead, open History and press Restore… on the "Before restoring Plan A" row. Its confirm asks "Restore the plan from before Plan A?", the tasks it brings back keep the bookings they had (Comes back with its bookings), and its button is Restore the earlier plan. That restore saves its own "Before restoring …" row, so you can change your mind again.

Or copy it instead#

12. 12
    Make it a project of its own. In the row's ⋯ menu, New project from this makes the version a separate project, named after it — "Bridge 12 (Plan A)" — and opens it. This project stays exactly as it is. The copy has no bookings and no one on Assigned To, and the status line says so. Use it to rescue part of an old plan.

Copy, archive or bring back a whole project#

13. 13
    Open your projects. Go to Home, or choose File ▾ → Open project… (Ctrl+O) for the Open a project page. Each project's row ends with ⋯, its menu.
14. 14
    Copy a project. Make a copy… in a project's ⋯ menu asks for a name and makes an independent copy, without bookings or assignments. The original is untouched.
15. 15
    Archive a finished project. Archive hides it from the lists without deleting anything. Tick Show archived in the Sort ▾ menu to see archived projects, and Unarchive to bring one back.

Good to know#

• How long History keeps them. Saved versions stay until someone deletes them; a project keeps 20. Besides them, it keeps the newest 3 "Before restoring …" rows and the last 30 automatic saves, a new one every 5 minutes or when someone else saves; older ones roll off. Keep this one…, in a row's ⋯ menu, makes an automatic save or a "Before restoring …" row a saved version that stays.
• Unsaved work comes first. Save a version… and a restore both save your newest edits first, and refuse if they can't, so nothing you typed is lost.
• Teammates. While you have History, Save a version…, Look, Compare or the confirm open, a teammate's save waits, and lands when you close them.
• When two people save. If a teammate saved the same project while you had unsaved changes, a review dialog shows exactly what differs and lets you keep their version, keep yours, save yours as a separate copy, or decide later. When their save was a restore, the review says so: "Since your last save, Kim Walsh restored Plan A. Keep yours puts back the plan from before that restore." Nothing is ever overwritten without asking.
• Copies have no bookings or assignments. A copy, from New project from this, Make a copy… or a review's separate copy, keeps what crew and equipment each task needs but none of the people and machines booked on it, and no one on Assigned To. The status line ends · the copy has no bookings or assignments, or names only the bookings or only the assignments, by what the source had. On People the review offers no copy for a project People saves on its own, since the copy would drop the bookings People saves. For the project open in the editor, the review is the editor's own and offers the copy, without the bookings made on People.
• If a save fails. When you leave a project whose save failed, Ganttry asks whether to stay, and tries the save once more as you go. If that fails too, it keeps your changes, and the status bar shows Couldn't save with the project's name and click to recover. Clicking it reopens the project and puts your changes back; if someone else saved it meanwhile, the review opens instead, comparing your changes with theirs.
• Delete is permanent. Delete… in a project's ⋯ menu, shown only where you are allowed to delete, removes a project and its history for good, saved versions included. Archive is the safe choice. Delete… on a saved version in History can't be undone either.
• A file of your own. File ▾ → Save a copy (JSON) (Ctrl+S) downloads today's plan as a file you can import later. It holds none of the project's History.
• Draft projects. Discarding unpublished changes also keeps your current plan in History first, as an automatic save; see Publish the plan crews see.
• Without a company account. History lives in your browser: 5 saved versions per project, 3 "Before restoring …" rows and the last 5 backups, 4 minutes apart, under Automatic saves, where each row reads "Backup" and names no one. Saving or keeping a version, and a restore, refuse and change nothing when the browser is nearly out of room (delete a saved version in History, then try again); saving a version and a restore also refuse while another tab has saved a different plan of the project. Another browser or device has none of them. The public demo erases them, with your changes, every time the page is refreshed.