WordPress Revisions Not Showing: Here’s How To Solve It

Revisions is a WordPress feature that enables you to automatically save revisions of your posts, pages, or custom post types after 60 seconds while working on your site. However, as with all the features, sometimes revisions might not be showing and that can be quite annoying. So, why does this happen and how can you solve it?

The ‘Revisions’ section might not be showing on your post or page because the revision metadata box has not been enabled. To resolve this issue you need to go to the ‘Screen Options’ in the top right corner and click the ‘Revisions’ check box. Then, you will see them at the bottom of the page. 

I will discuss the issue that appears when the revisions feature cannot be seen on your post or page. Also, I will explain how to solve it in a few quick steps. It usually takes a few minutes, therefore you do not need to panic about your content and changes being lost during the process of work. 

Why Are My WordPress Revisions Not Showing? 

When you change posts or pages while building your website, you may often come to a realization that the previous version was better so you want to go back. So, instead of wasting time on building the same posts or pages once again, WordPress has an option that allows you to automatically go back to your previous versions. WordPress autosaves all of the things you do on your website, so the only thing you need to do is find them. 

That feature of WordPress is called ‘Revisions’ and it can be found on the bottom of your page or post editing screen. So, you just need to scroll down to the end of your page and you will find the section ‘Revisions’. Then, the only thing you have to do is find the date of your older version you want to restore and click the restore button. 

However, it is possible that you scroll down to the bottom of your page, but the ‘Revisions’ section is nowhere to be seen. You do not need to panic, because that does not mean that your previous changes have not been saved. It only means that you have not enabled this feature to appear on your screen. 

Enabling this feature is easy and it comes in a few quick steps. Below, I have explained what you have to do to make the Revisions appear and why you will find them useful. By following these steps, you should not have any problems in the enabling process. 

How To Solve WordPress Revisions Not Showing? 

If you are a beginner in using WordPress, the ‘Revisions’ section might be truly helpful to you. However, it is also convenient for people who use this website builder regularly since getting back the older versions of your content might take a lot of your time. 

What Is Post Revisions? 

‘Post Revisions’ or just ‘Revisions’ is a feature installed in WordPress that allows you to go back to the previous versions of your posts or pages. For each section that you are working on, WordPress automatically saves the revisions. In other words, everything that you do is saved after 60 seconds. 

The so-called auto-save feature helps you restore every version that you have done earlier. This is not only helpful in cases when you change your mind about getting back to the older versions of your content. It is also great if something goes wrong in the process of creating content. 

Let’s say your computer crashes or your screen freezes in the middle of working on a post. This means that you will have to restart your device and you will lose all of your work. But, your content will still be here because of the previous autosave that WordPress has done. 

However, the ‘Revisions’ feature is different from the autosave feature because the former stores content permanently in the WordPress database. The ‘Revisions’ feature enables you to locate, browse, and restore any version that has been made previously. Therefore, you will never have to worry about getting your old posts or pages back. 

How To Enable Revisions? 

In some cases, the Revisions might be already be enabled by default. This usually depends on your host and the way you install WordPress. If this does not happen in your situation, you can add or change a line in your website’s wp-config.php file. Once you enable this feature, all of your data will be saved. 

However, there are people who do not use Revisions on regular basis, therefore they end up with a lot of stored, needless data. If there is not a revisions limit, the amount of data can grow quite large. Therefore, the revisions will take a lot of extra space and can result in your website responding slowly. 

So, if you plan to enable this feature, these are the steps you need to follow: 

1. You should open the WordPress configuration file in a text editor. 
2. You need to search for ( ‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, FALSE ).
3. You should replace it with ( ‘WP_POST_REVISIONS’, TRUE).
4. If you do not get any results, you should add the line above. 
5. Lastly, you need to click ‘save’. 

Another way to enable ‘Revision’ is by opening your ‘Screen Options’ and then check the box ‘Revisions’. Usually, this is the way to enable this feature when you already have ‘Revisions’ enabled by default. 

Why Should You Use Revisions? 

Everyone who uses WordPress for building websites finds the feature ‘Revisions’ useful and convenient. It is commonly known that you cannot create something extraordinary and creative from the first try. So, you have to work on it and then compare everything you have done so far. 

Sometimes older versions of something might be better, or they can help you decide what should be changed. ‘Revisions’ allow you to switch easily between different drafts and make changes until you make your post the way you desire. 

The ‘Revisions’ enable you to manage the work of multiple authors and see who has made changes and what changes have been made on different posts. This feature can drastically improve the way you work, and make your content more unique. 

How To Undo Changes Using Revisions? 

On your post/page edit screen you can see the ‘Document’ panel which displays a number of revisions. This ‘Document’ panel can be found on the right side of your screen. By clicking on ‘Revisions’ you will get to the list of revisions on the screen. 

This screen will show you the latest revisions made to your posts. Scrolling down you will see the earlier changes you have made to the same post. Each change that has been made to the post will be highlighted in pink and green. 

Furthermore, at the top of this section, you will be able to see who has made the changes, the time when they were made, and some other info. Here, you can use the ‘next’ and ‘previous’ buttons to switch between the revisions. Also, there is an option ‘Compare any two revisions’ which will allow you to clearly see how the changes have been implemented and what should be improved. 

To restore a single revision you will be required just to click on the ‘Restore this Revision’ button, or you can choose ‘Restore this Autosave’. Once you do that, WordPress will make your post a current revision, and finally, you can click ‘save’.  

You should remember that switching the revisions will not delete any other revision that has been previously made. Instead, every revision will be stored in the WordPress database. 

How To Do a WordPress Revisions Cleanup? 

The older revisions that are stored in the WordPress database are in no way harmless. They will not delete or change any of your website’s content. However, having a large number of revisions stored in the database may slow your website’s responsiveness. Therefore, deleting some of the older versions of revisions might help you reduce backup sizes. 

In order to delete some older versions of revisions, firstly you will have to install and activate the WP-Optimize plugin. Once you are done with the activation, you should choose the section ‘Database’ and check the box that says ‘Clean all post revisions’. Then, you will have to click on the ‘Run optimization’ button so your older revisions will be deleted. 

Once you are done, you can delete the plugin, so you can save up some space in your database. 

If you are an advanced user of WordPress, you can delete old revisions by using phpMyAdmin. This process is usually done through the WordPress hosting control panel. You will have to use the SQL interface to manually run commands on your WordPress database.  

As you could see, the ‘Revisions’ feature is quite useful and popular among WordPress users. If you encounter a problem with revisions not showing then the steps I have listed above would be quite helpful. This feature might improve your workflow, so be sure to try it in your process of building a website.