How to get an overwritten file back right now, what happens when file names do your version control, and what a cloud drive’s version history cannot do. Each article first says what you can do with the tools you already have, and only then where Octorium fits.
Recover it now
When the document you just saved has overwritten what was there before, here is what you can try right now, in the order most likely to work. At the end is how to make sure you never need this article again.
Recover it now
You deleted slides and saved, or last night’s version was overwritten this morning. If the presentation is today, there is no time, so this starts with what is most likely to work.
Why this happens
That folder is not the result of laziness. It is the worry that there must be somewhere to go back to, carved into file names. Here is why it happens, what it costs, and how the two jobs a file name was doing can be split apart.
Comparison
A cloud drive’s version history is a good feature. It is just a long way from "you can always go back". Here is what it does well and what it cannot do, in seven points, and how Octorium fits into the gaps.
How to
Work → send → feedback → rework. The question that comes up most often in this loop is "what did you change after you sent it?" Here is how to answer it with the programs you already use, and how to answer it from the history.
Recover it now
#REF! has spread, formulas have hardened into numbers, or you deleted a row and the totals went wrong — and you have already saved. Here is how to find the broken cells, how to get them back now, and how next time you can tell straight away which save changed the formulas.
Recover it now
You edited the original thinking "I just won’t save when I close", and it had already been saved. Here is what AutoSave does and when, how to go back now, and how to work safely with AutoSave left on.
How to
thesis_draft_advisor_comments_v3_final_REAL.docx. Advisor feedback, co-author edits, submission and review overlapping in one folder for months: here is how to use a history for that, and why the research data goes nowhere.
Comparison
For work where documents cannot sit on an outside server — legal, accounting, tax, the public sector, healthcare, research — a cloud drive’s version history is not an option from the start. Here is exactly what stays on the computer in Octorium, what leaves it and when, and where the switch is that stops even that.
How to
One of the jobs "_final" at the end of a file name was doing was to say "this is the one that went out". In Octorium that mark goes on the history instead. Here is how to put it there, how to find it, and when it is worth doing.