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View and restore earlier versions
StoryFolder records a restore point before each change you make to a project. Version history is where you read that record, preview any point in it, and put the project back to it.
The unit is a project's state — its metadata, transcript, titles and notes, and the settings that determine the cut. It is not a version of your video file, and it is not a backup.
Version history is free on every plan.
Open Version history
- Open a video in the editor.
- Choose Version history in the toolbar.
- Select an entry to preview it.
It opens as two panes: the list of entries on the right, and the selected version's storyboard on the left.
Read a history entry
Each entry carries:
- What changed, in the app's own words — Metadata edit, Merge shots, Change shot detection, Move to folder.
- When, relative to now.
- How big it was — a three-step bar, from Minor change to Major change, with the number of fields and the size of the change beside it. A title typo and a re-cut at a different sensitivity are distinguishable without opening either.
- Who did it. An entry with no badge is yours. An entry made by a connected AI assistant carries that client's name.
The entry stores what is needed to rebuild that state. It is not a second copy of your media.
Preview an earlier version
Selecting an entry rebuilds that version's storyboard in the left pane, with the shots this version cut differently — or whose metadata differs from what the project holds now — marked as changed.
Nothing is written while you look. The preview is worked out in memory and thrown away, and the pane says so. Move between entries freely.
Three states you may meet: Deriving this version… while it builds, StoryFolder could not rebuild this version if it fails, and No edits have been recorded for this project yet for a project with no history — which is a different thing from a history that failed to load, and the modal distinguishes them.
Restore a version
- Select the entry and read the preview.
- Click Restore this version.
- The project is written back to that state and the storyboard is re-derived.
- Check the board, the metadata and the transcript before carrying on.
A restore is itself undoable
Restoring records the state you are leaving as a new restore point first. So the way back from a restore is the entry it just made — you can always get out again.
If a restore fails, the modal says so and your project is left as it was.
What Version history records
One restore point per change, taken the moment you make it:
- Shot metadata edits — the fields you type into
- Video metadata edits
- Transcript corrections, including speaker renames, merges and reassignments
- The project title and its notes
- Moving a project to a folder
- Splitting and merging shots
- Changing shot detection sensitivity and minimum shot length
That last group is the one people are surprised by. Changing sensitivity on a finished board rewrites every boundary in it — and it is recorded, so it can be put back.
One change is one entry, not one per shot. A value written across forty shots is a single edit and becomes a single entry with a single undo, exactly as it felt when you made it.
What it does not record
- AI Autofill runs. Autofill writes directly and creates no restore point. There is nothing here to roll one back, which is why the Autofill dialog says so before an overwrite. Its guards are Only fill empty fields and reviewing small runs.
- Imports. Bringing a video in is not an edit.
- Exports and shares. They produce files and links; they do not change the project.
- Your media. Version history knows what you told StoryFolder about a video, never the video itself. A file you deleted or overwrote on disk is not recoverable here.
- Library structure and app settings. Collections, quick filters and preferences sit outside the project, so they are not part of its history.
Undo vs Version history
They are two ways at the same record.
- Undo (Cmd+Z / Ctrl+Z) walks straight back from the most recent change. It is the fast path for "that was wrong", and it needs no dialog.
- Version history is for looking: which change, when, by whom, and what the board looked like then. Use it when you want to inspect before committing, or to reach a point several gestures back.
See Undo and redo.
Review changes an assistant made
A connected assistant writes through the same path your own edits do, so its changes land here badged with its name.
To audit one: find its entries in the list, preview the state before or after, and restore if you want it gone. Remember that restoring puts back a whole whole earlier state of the project — not just the field the assistant touched — so read the preview and note anything else you have changed since.
You can also just ask the assistant what it changed. If you would rather it never wrote at all, connect it in read-only mode: Connect AI assistants.
Limits and retention
- History is kept per project, roughly the last hundred restore points, plus everything from the time since you last opened StoryFolder.
- When it thins, it drops the least significant points first — a title typo goes before a re-cut — and never a project's oldest point, which is the floor of what can be recovered.
- History lives on your computer, with the project. It is not a cloud backup and it is not versioned collaboration: there are no branches, no named versions and no merging.
- A project in the Trash keeps its history, so restoring the project gives you back something you can still undo in. Deleting a project permanently deletes its history with it.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What is happening |
|---|---|
| No edits have been recorded | Nothing capturable has happened yet in this project |
| Could not load this project's history | A load failure, not an empty history. Reopen the modal |
| Could not rebuild this version | The preview failed. Your project is untouched; try another entry |
| The change you want is not listed | It is probably one of the kinds StoryFolder does not record — Autofill, an import, or an export |
| A restore did not bring back your footage | Version history restores project data, never media files |