Documentation › Restore previous version of SharePoint form

How to restore previous version of SharePoint form designed with Plumsail Forms

This guide will show you how to enable version history, which allows you to keep past versions of your forms and restore them anytime.

Note

While this method is secure, for the most important and/or complex forms, we recommend to export them and store the form schema in a separate location.

Enable version history for forms

All form schemas that the editor opens and interprets as forms are stored in the PlumsailForms folder in the Site Pages library of the target SharePoint site:

Folder

To enable version history for your forms, enable versioning for the Site Pages library by following these steps:

  • Open Site Pages library Settings and select Versioning settings:

    Versioning settings

  • Enable creating a major version each time you edit a file in the Site Pages library and specify the number of versions you want to retain:

    Create a version

Once you enable versioning for the Site Pages library, it starts tracking changes to your form schemas. This allows you to restore a previous version of a form at any time.

Learn more in Microsoft’s article: Enable and configure versioning for a list or library.

Restore previous version of form

When version history is enabled for the Site Pages library, you can restore a previous version of a form by following these steps:

  • Go to Site Pages library → PlumsailForms folder

  • Find the specific form that you want to return to a previous version.

    The file names have the following structure:

    {ListName}_{ContentTypeName}_{FormType}

    Note

    In SharePoint Online, the form file extension is .designer.json.

    In SharePoint 2019/SE, the form file extension is .xfds.

  • Click the ellipsis next to the file name and select Version history:

    Version history

  • Restore the previous version of the file:

    Restore

  • After restoring the desired version of the form, open the form in the designer. You’ll see the restored version of the form. Save it, and you’re all done!

Restore deleted form

If you’ve deleted a form using the Restore default SharePoint forms functionality, you can revert it by following these steps:

  • Go to the Site Contents → Recycle Bin:

    Recycle Bin

  • Find the form file and restore it:

    Recycle Bin restore

    Note

    In SharePoint Online, the form file extension is .designer.json.

    In SharePoint 2019/SE, the form file extension is .xfds.

  • After restoring the desired versions of the form, open the form in the designer. You’ll see the restored version of the form. Save it, and you’re all done!