Say Goodbye to Clutter: How to Delete Version History in Google Docs

Google Docs is one of the most widely used text-editing platforms. All kinds of writers—bloggers, students, researchers, teachers, business professionals—use Docs to write content.

One very useful feature of Docs is that it records the editing history of your document as you continue to edit it. This is called “Version History.” It is useful when you want to go back to a previous version of your content, for whatever reason.

However, in some cases, long documents can end up with too many version histories, which likely records all the changes you made to the document. This means, the version history stores even the mistakes and unwanted changes of the document, which you might not want others to see when you share your document with them.

Other people can see the version history of your document if they have the “Editing” permission. So, if you need to share your document with another person with the editing permissions, how can you delete its version history so they cannot see those trivial yet awkward mistakes you made along the way?

How to Delete Version History in Google Docs

There’s only one way to actually delete the version history in Google Docs, and that is by duplicating your document.

The newly created document will not have any of the version changes you made to the original Docs. Here’s how to do it quickly:

Step 1. Open Your Required Google Docs

The first thing you need to do is, of course, open the specific Google Docs you want to remove the version history of.

Click Google Docs to visit the website and log in to it, or just search for “Google Docs” on your preferred search engine and click the first link. It will take you to the website where you can sign in and proceed.

Once you’re signed in, find and open the required Docs. A quick way to do this is by using the search bar above.

You can also access your Docs files via Google Drive.

Step 2. Click on “File”

Once you open the required Docs, simply click the “File” option from the menu bar, which appears beneath the document title.

If you find the menu-bar options disabled or grayed-out, make sure your internet connection is stable and working. If not, try fixing it and reloading the document afterwards.

Step 3. Make a Copy

Clicking the “File” option will open the file menu with a bunch of options in it. Click on “Make a copy.”

Step 4. Name the Copy

Next, Docs will ask you if you want to edit the name of the document’s copy you’re creating. By default, it adds the “Copy of” phrase before the original document’s name to distinguish it from the original one. You can remove this phrase and rename the file as you wish.

Additionally, it shows some additional options about the file’s location, sharing, and comments and suggestions:

• Click the “Folder” option to change the location of the file before it is created.
• Checking “Share it with the same people” shares the Docs with the people whom you’ve shared it previously who currently have the Editing access. However, if you “uncheck” the option and choose not to share the file with the same people, anybody—whom you have given access to the folder where the new copy version of the file will be stored—will automatically have access to it because they have access to the folder. This is suggested by the text “Copy will be created in a shared folder” under the “Folder” option, if the folder is shared.
• Checking “Copy comments and suggestions” copies the comments and suggestions that are made within the original document. If unchecked, these will be lost.
• Checking “Include resolved comments and suggestions” copies any comments or suggestions that were previously made but were marked as resolved.

Step 5. Make the Copy

Click the “Make a Copy” button in the dialogue box to successfully create a copy of the original document.

This copy will not have the version history of the original document. All that clutter will be cleared. But any changes made to the document afterwards will start recording the version history from anew.

How to Check the Version History in Docs

You can confirm whether your new Docs has the original one’s version history or not through the following steps:

1. Click the Version history button beside the comments button, which appears next to the call and “Share” buttons. It is represented by a clock icon with the outline of an arrow. 
2. Check the version history. It will show the necessary details about the document and will not have any of the original document’s history recorded in it. There will only be one version of the document, if it hasn’t been edited yet, which should read “Current version.” 

The current version just records the creation of the document, unless you make some changes to it. You can confirm this by enabling the “Highlight changes“ option.

So, this is how you delete the version history of Google Docs.

FAQs

Q1: Is there a way to delete a version history in Google Docs?

Although there is no official way to directly delete a version history in Google Docs, you can do this through an unofficial method as explained above: Open the required file > Click “File” option > Click “Make a copy” > Click the “Make a copy” button in the dialogue box to make a copy of the Docs with no recorded history.

Q2. How to change version history in Google Docs?

Google Docs does not allow you to change a document’s version history. You can rename individual versions but you cannot alter their recorded history.

Q3. Can other people see version history on Google Docs?

Yes, editors (people who have the “Editing” permission) in your Docs can see its version history. However, commenters and viewers—people with “Suggesting” and “Viewing” permissions—can’t view your Doc’s version history.

Q4. How to prevent people from seeing version history?

You can prevent people from seeing the version history of your Google Docs by making a copy of it and sharing the copied version with them, which will not have the original Doc’s history.