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How do I recover lost student writing?
How do I recover lost student writing?

Restore previous versions of writing in both Writable and Google Docs.

Kelly Burnette avatar
Written by Kelly Burnette
Updated over a month ago

If a student thinks they've lost their work, you can follow the steps below to help to restore their writing.

Tip! The very first thing you may want to have a student try is "Command + Z" (on a Mac) or "CTRL + Z" (on a PC) to undo their last action. Often, students accidentally delete their work and this will bring it back immediately!

In the article, learn how to recover student work:


Student is Writing Directly in Writable

❗ Note: Follow these steps if the assignment is not using a Google Doc

  1. Log in to the student account, or have the student sign in and follow these steps.

  2. Click the assignment, and then click 'Continue working'.

  3. Click the three dots for more options, and click the clock icon to view previous versions.

  4. Click on the 'Version' dropdown menu at the top of the window to look through saved versions. Click 'Restore Version' to recover the writing from that version.


Student is Writing in a Google Doc

  1. Log in to the student account, or have the student sign in and follow these steps.

  2. Click the assignment, and then click on 'Continue working'.

  3. Click on the arrows to expand the Google Doc and open up the toolbar.

  4. Next, click 'File', then 'Version History'. Finally, click 'See version history' to look through the previous versions of writing and restore the correct one.


Student is Writing in a Graphic Organizer

Note: if a student is typing into a Graphic Organizer, they will need to highlight text in the organizer to bring up the formatting toolbar.

  1. Log in to the student account, or have the student sign in and follow these steps.

  2. Click the assignment, and then click 'Continue working'.

  3. Click inside the writing area of the graphic organizer.

  4. Then, click the clock icon to view previous versions.


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