How to use Version Control in SharePoint Versions

Welcome to this tutorial on using version control in SharePoint. In this video, we will cover everything you need to know about version control in SharePoint, including its benefits, major versions, SharePoint version history, and how to use version control in SharePoint.

SharePoint version control is a feature that allows you to track and manage changes made to a document. This feature is particularly useful for teams collaborating on a document because it allows each member of the team to see the changes made to the document and who made those changes. By keeping track of the changes made to a document, SharePoint version control ensures that everyone is working on the most up-to-date version of the document.

Benefits of SharePoint version control

The benefits of SharePoint version control are many. For one, it makes collaboration easier by ensuring that everyone is working on the latest version of a document. It also makes it easier to track changes made to a document over time, so you can see who made changes and when. This information can be useful for audit purposes or for understanding the history of a document.

Another benefit of SharePoint version control is that it allows you to restore previous versions of a document. This can be helpful if you accidentally delete or overwrite an important document, or if you need to revert to an earlier version of a document for any other reason.

Major versions in SharePoint

In SharePoint, major versions are significant updates to a document that usually require approval. For example, if you make significant changes to a document, you might create a major version of that document, which would require approval from someone else before it can be published. Major versions are typically numbered, starting with 1.0 and increasing by one for each subsequent major version.

Minor versions, on the other hand, are smaller changes that can be made without approval. For example, if you correct a spelling mistake in a document, you might create a minor version of that document. Minor versions are typically numbered, starting with 0.1 and increasing by one for each subsequent minor version.

SharePoint version history

SharePoint version history is a feature that allows you to see all the changes that have been made to a document over time, as well as restore previous versions if needed. To access the version history of a document in SharePoint, you simply need to click on the ellipsis (...) next to the document and select "Version history" from the drop-down menu.

The version history page will display all the versions of the document, including major and minor versions, as well as the date and time each version was created, who created it, and any comments that were added. You can also select a specific version of the document to restore, if needed.

Using SharePoint version control

To use SharePoint version control, you first need to enable version control for the document library in which you want to store your documents. To do this, navigate to the library settings and select "Versioning settings" from the list of options.

On the versioning settings page, you can specify whether you want to enable versioning for major versions only, major and minor versions, or no versioning at all. You can also specify how many versions of a document you want to keep, and whether you want to require approval for major versions.

What are SharePoint version numbers?
SharePoint uses a version numbering scheme to track changes to documents and other items stored in SharePoint. The version number for a document is made up of two parts: a major version number and a minor version number.

The major version number is incremented whenever a new version of the document is published or approved. For example, if a document is created and published for the first time, it will have a major version number of 1. If changes are made to the document and it is published again, the major version number will be incremented to 2.

The minor version number is used to track changes to a document that have not yet been published or approved. When a document is checked out for editing, a new minor version is created to track the changes being made. For example, if a document with a major version number of 1 is checked out for editing, the first minor version would be 1.1. As changes are made and the document is checked in, the minor version number is incremented (e.g. 1.2, 1.3, etc.) until the document is published or a major version is created.

00:00 SharePoint Version Numbers
00:15 What is SharePoint Version Control?
01:00 What are the benefits of SharePoint Version Control?
03:25 What is SharePoint Version History?
06:30 How do i use SharePoint Version control?
07:23 How to enable SharePoint Versioning settings
10:51 How many version are kept in SharePoint?

[chh]

I was aware of the term "Version Control" but I was not aware of how extensive it is, nor how valuable it can be. I started the video and let it run in the background while I attended to small administrative items on my desk. I quickly realized I needed to carefully pay attention as the content had immediate value. Excellent video (again) ... thank you.

[StacyJulien]

Great tutorial! I found it very helpful. Thank you.

[chanman]

Great Video! Wondering what happens to previous versions of documents if I lower the version to say 5 on the library, but the document has 20 versions. Can I assume that versions 6-20 get deleted (recycle bin or permanent)?

[lasvei]

Thanks. I have a case where I want to have a table of contest for multiple word documents in a Sharepoint site. In that table i want to get the version number for the different word documents, as well. Do you have a tips for doing that?

[thegamescout]

Great tutorial, the issue I have is that when I set the feature up, a lot of my documents aren't version 1. For example, one is version 224? Is there a way to manually reset all documents to version 1 to start fresh?

[nigelhertz]

Specifically relating to the number of versions maintained - do you possibly have a workaround or fix for the issue with versions and retention policies? Our retention policies prevent file deletion for x number of years. This, however, results in documents with 200k versions in the history, as the clean-up process cannot delete the old versions when a new one is added (and autosave just compounds the issue)

[Ironsteal]

Hey Dougie - awesome video, but the issue we are having is lots of files in a short time window (less than 30 days) with a decent number of versions (50-100) that are all large in size (200mb-300mbs) that are causing us to go over our storage limit! Automatic doesn't seem to resolve it... my boss is never happy when we receive the daily/weekly email saying we are over our storage limit!!! Any suggestions?

[horza]

If I had two separate pdfs of a document, Version 1 and Version 2. Is there a way to merge these items within sharepoint?

[joaomota]

My problem is that chaging the amount of versions i want to keep, does not delete the ones i have already; for exemple: my storage is full, i have a massive file in store that has 200 versions of it, how do i make it for it to only have 100? ( i have this problem in many files in many sites )

[Ryannz]

Hi thanks for tutorial. I am curious. Is Sharepoint Version part of Microsoft 365? I subscribed to Microsoft 365 and it seems to have SharePoint but UI looks very different from the tutorial. It doesn't have library settings and looks very different. Thanks.

[eulxoce]

Hello do you have any tutorial's on how do add SharePoint version numbers on to Excel documents?

[jonnyspbr]

how to delete all history version of one folder, you have to select file by file ? it was so painful, have to select each by each
Do you know how to do that?

[ghyootceg]

Can you make version comments mandatory ?

[knowledgebase]

Your videos are fantastic Dougie but ask the boss for a good microphone and they'll be even better and you won't sound like you're in a biscuit tin 🙂