Notion: restore the right content after an AI edit

AI has updated the project tracker in Notion, but one delivery date is wrong. Meanwhile, a colleague has added next week's tasks. Restoring the whole tracker could remove work you want to keep.

Notion's October 13 update brings clearer version history for pages and databases, with highlighted edits and information about who changed what. Use it to find the mistake and choose how much to restore.

Source: Notion 3.8: Context for your agents.

Open version history on your computer

Open the affected page, click •••, and choose Version history. You need at least Can edit access. Compare versions on the web or in the desktop app; detailed version comparison is not available on mobile. The menu names here follow the English documentation.

Select a version from before the change. Read the highlights and check who made the edits. History shows text edits, added and deleted blocks, and some table and database changes. It does not capture every single change.

Notion records a version every ten minutes during active editing and another two minutes after the last edit. Do not expect a separate recovery point for every action AI has taken.

Source: Notion Help: version history, permissions, and comparison.

Decision checklist: restore the right part of the tracker

This is our suggested routine for a shared project tracker. Carry out these steps yourself in Notion; they are not instructions for an agent.

1. Identify the mistake. Note which task, date, or passage is wrong. Check the correct information against the project's decisions or another current source. An older version is not automatically correct.
2. Find the work you need to keep. Read the changes made after the version you are considering restoring. Are there new tasks, reassigned owners, or colleagues' corrections that still apply? Save them separately before a broad restore.
3. Choose the narrowest suitable action. For an incorrect date, manually correcting the field is often enough. If a text block is missing, copy it from the older version and paste it into the current page. Choose Restore only when the entire earlier version should replace the current one.
4. Read the preview if you restore. Check what will be affected. For a database, distinguish task properties from the text inside each task's page; these are not restored together.
5. Check the result in the current tracker. Is the date correct, are the new tasks still there, and are owners unchanged where they should be? Leave a short note explaining what you corrected and which source you used.

Source for the controls: Notion Help: restore previous versions and copy individual blocks.

Restoring a database does not restore all its text

Restoring a database restores its pages and their properties. It does not restore text and other content inside those pages. To recover a task description, you need to restore an earlier version of that individual page separately.

If the database sits inside a regular page, you can choose whether to include the database's pages and properties in the restore. Restoring can also affect existing database views and how colleagues see the database. Check the view your team actually uses afterward.

Source: Notion Help: restoring databases and inline databases.

Check how far back your history goes

History goes back seven days on Free, 30 days on Plus, and 90 days on Business. Enterprise has unlimited version history. Check your plan before adopting a routine where edits are reviewed weeks later.

Source: Notion Help: history by plan and bookmarked versions.

Try the checklist on a copy of a project tracker before you need it for real. Change a date, then add a new task. Practice correcting the date without losing the new task. You will know which action works for your particular tracker.