How to recover previous version of saved Notepad++ file?
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Hey Guys,
Can someone help me, how to recover the previous version of saved Notepad++ file. I haven’t any backup of it:(
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Unfortunately for you, Notepad++ does not double as backup software with version control (by default).
There is a microscopic chance that following the “Possible File Recovery” section of this FAQ would help you… IF you had Settings > Preferences > Backup > Backup on save = ☑ Verbose backup, then every time you hit Save in NPP, it would create a backup copy of the file with a different timestame (see NPP Wiki: Document Management, search for “verbose”) – but that’s not enabled by default. (If you had ☑ Simple backup, only the most recent version is saved.)
Windows has an option: if you right click on a file, there’s a “Restore Previous Versions” option – if you happen to have configured Windows in the right way (I don’t know what that way is), then maybe that would help.
The best advice (mentioned in that FAQ I linked earlier) is to proactively control your own destiny, especially with important files. If you only ever need the most recent version of a file, then most automated backup software will cover you. Some automated backup programs will even keep multiple versions of the same file, so you can go back in time to a certain extent. Some cloud file services might keep a few versions going back, as well, so if you’re editing files in your cloud folders, there might be some historical versions – see your cloud provider’s documentation. But if going back through the change history of a file is very important to you, then the best bet is version control software (like Subversion or Git) and remembering to “commit early, commit often”.
Unfortunately, most of this advice requires that you already knew how to set up all those various options, and had decided to do so. If the hints above don’t help you recover this file, hopefully they will at least encourage you to set up a backup and file-history system that will meet your needs.
