How often does Skarvia save a version of my document automatically?

Skarvia snapshots a document it is holding on a ten-minute cadence while you work, and skips the snapshot when nothing has changed since the last one. It keeps the twenty most recent automatic checkpoints per document and prunes older ones. Versions you name yourself are never pruned.

Why won't Skarvia save a named version of my document?

Two reasons. If the document has zero retention turned on, Skarvia holds no copy to snapshot, so version history lives in your cloud .versions/ folder instead and the Save version button refuses with a message saying so. If the document simply failed to save first, the status bar reads "Could not save the document, so no version was kept", and nothing is kept rather than a version of the wrong text.

Is restoring an old version dangerous? Can I undo it?

Restoring is not destructive. Before the restored text replaces what is on screen, Skarvia saves your current text as a version called "pre-restore backup". If you restored the wrong one, open Versions again and restore that backup. If the restore fails for any reason, the manuscript is left exactly as it was.

Chapter 7 · Where Your Work Lives

Versions: Checkpoints, Named Saves, and Restoring

Version history is the part of a writing tool nobody thinks about until the afternoon they need it. Skarvia keeps two kinds of version, one you make and one it makes for you. This chapter covers what each holds, how far back it goes, and what restoring does to the document on your screen.

Two kinds of version

	Automatic checkpoint	Named version
Made by	Skarvia, while you work	You, when a moment deserves a name
How often	On a ten-minute cadence, and only when the document has changed since the last one	Whenever you ask
Shown in the list as	checkpoint	The name you typed
How many are kept	The twenty most recent per document	All of them. Named versions are never pruned

The "has it changed" test covers structure as well as words, so splitting a row, moving a scene, or repositioning an image counts as a change even when the plain text is identical. A document with nothing in it yet is never checkpointed, which is why a brand new file shows no history for the first few minutes.

The practical reading of that table: checkpoints are a safety net measured in hours, and named versions are the ones that will still be there in March. Name the drafts you would grieve.

Versions ▾ sits in the editor's top bar, beside Share ▾ and Export ▾. It appears on documents you own. If you are working in someone else's draft through a share link, there is no Versions menu, because the history belongs to the person whose document it is. Part VII covers what a reviewer or an editor can do instead.

Open the menu and you get Save version… at the top and the list below it, newest first. Each row carries:

The version's name, or the word checkpoint for an automatic one.
The date and time it was taken, in your own timezone.
Its word count. This is the fastest way to find the version from before you cut forty pages.
A Restore button.

The menu lists the 80 most recent versions. Between the twenty-checkpoint limit and the fact that named versions are kept forever, hitting that ceiling means you have saved a lot of named versions, which is a good problem.

Saving a named version

Click Save version… and type a name at the prompt, which suggests something in the shape of "Draft 2 before notes". Names are capped at 120 characters, and a longer one is trimmed rather than refused.

Skarvia flushes any unsaved typing before it takes the snapshot, and it waits for that flush to land. That ordering matters: a version saved without waiting would capture the document as it was before the change you just made, which is the one state you did not mean to keep.

If the flush fails, no version is kept, and the status bar says so in as many words: "Could not save the document, so no version was kept". That is the correct outcome. A version of the wrong text, filed under the right name, is worse than no version. Wait for the sync chip in the status bar to settle, then try again. Chapter 3 explains what the chip is telling you.

Name versions for the decision rather than the date. The date is already on the row.

Restoring

Click Restore on any row. A confirmation asks: "Restore this version? Your current text is saved as a backup version first." That sentence is literal. Here is the full sequence:

Your current text is saved as a version called pre-restore backup.
The document on screen is replaced with the restored text.
The document's storage state returns to pending, and the restored copy is pushed back to your Dropbox or Google Drive.
The per-chapter text files beside your document are rewritten to match the restored draft, so they describe the manuscript you now have rather than the one you just replaced.
For a document saved to a folder on this computer, the restored text is written straight back into that folder. See Chapter 6.

If the restore fails at any point, the manuscript on screen is left exactly as it was and the status bar tells you nothing was changed. Skarvia will not hand you a blank page in place of a draft.

Restoring the wrong version costs you about four seconds: open Versions again and restore the pre-restore backup sitting at the top of the list.

The versions you did not make

Two named versions appear in the list without you asking, and both are there to catch something:

Name	Where it came from
`pre-restore backup`	The text that was on screen immediately before a restore.
`conflict backup 2026-08-14 09:12`	Your unsynced working copy, kept at the moment Skarvia found a newer file in your cloud and adopted it. Both drafts survive and you choose between them here.

Because they carry names, neither is treated as an automatic checkpoint, so neither is ever pruned. If a conflict backup turns up you did not expect, something edited that file outside Skarvia: another machine, another editor, or a collaborator with access to the same folder. Chapter 3 covers how that adoption works.

What lands in .versions/

Saving a named version on a Dropbox or Google Drive document also uploads a copy into the .versions/ folder beside the document, named title-date-time-version name.skarvia.json. Every one of those files is a complete document you could open without Skarvia in the picture.

Automatic checkpoints for an ordinary cloud document are not uploaded. They live on Skarvia's side and appear only in this menu. The exception is zero retention, below.

For a document saved to a folder on your own machine, your browser writes named versions into a .versions folder inside the folder you chose, using the same shape of filename. Checkpoints for those documents stay on Skarvia's side.

The folder name starts with a dot, so most file browsers hide it by default. Leave it where it is. Deleting .versions/ during a tidy-up throws away your own copies of the history.

Zero-retention documents

Zero retention is the setting that stops Skarvia holding a copy of your manuscript at rest. Version history has to follow that promise, so it works differently:

Save version… is refused. Honouring it would mean storing the manuscript, which is the one thing the setting forbids. The status bar explains that this document's history lives in your cloud .versions/ folder instead.
Automatic checkpoints still happen, written straight into that .versions/ folder and filed under the name auto.
A zero-retention document with no storage path set gets no checkpoints at all. There is nowhere to put one that keeps the promise, so none is taken. Give the document a home before you rely on its history.

One sharp edge is worth planning around: turning zero retention on deletes every version Skarvia is currently holding for that document. The checkbox is a claim about what is stored, and leaving a table full of old copies behind would make it a false one. Copies already in your cloud .versions/ folder are untouched. If there is a draft in the list you want to keep on hand, restore it or export it before you turn the setting on.

Using a version as a revision mark

Versions do more than rescue you. Under Export ▾, PDF with revision stars… asks which version to compare against, offering the nine most recent, then asks for a revision name to print in the page header. What changed since that version comes out marked in the margin, which is how a production draft is circulated.

With no versions saved at all, that export declines and tells you to save one first, so a script heading into revisions is worth naming a version before the notes arrive. Part VIII covers the export itself, including watermarked drafts for named recipients.

Updated 2026-08-14 · Full contents · Something wrong or missing?

Start writing free