How to use version history

Open a journey map's earlier versions, preview any of them, and roll back to one without losing your current work.

Every journey map keeps a running history of itself. Open the Version history panel to see earlier versions, preview any one of them, and restore it as a fresh working copy if you need to step back.

Plan availability

Version history is available on the Governance plan.

How version history works

Smaply saves a version of your journey map automatically every 10 minutes while you are editing. There is no save-version button to press and no way to create a version on demand. The history builds itself in the background as you work.

Version history covers journey maps only. Personas, portfolio items, and metrics do not have their own version history.

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How to view and restore an earlier version

1

Open the Version history panel

In the journey map editor, click the history (clock) icon in the top bar, to the left of the Share button. The Version history panel opens with Current version at the top, followed by earlier versions listed by date and time. Each entry shows the people who edited it.

Version history panel, opened from the clock icon

2

Click a version to preview it

Clicking a version opens it as a read-only preview, so you can check its contents before deciding to restore. An Editing locked banner across the top confirms you are looking at a past version rather than the live map.

Read-only version preview with the floating toolbar

To leave the preview without changing anything, click Close version preview in the floating toolbar at the bottom.

3

Restore the version

With the version you want open in the preview, click Restore this version in the floating toolbar. A confirmation dialog explains what happens next; confirm it to restore.

Restoring is non-destructive. It creates a new working version from the one you picked and leaves your current version untouched. The restored copy opens in a new browser tab, where you can carry on editing.

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What a restored version does and does not bring back

A version stores only the journey map's own layout and content. Anything that lives outside the map is linked in, not stored, so it always appears as it is today rather than as it was when the version was saved.

Important: linked items do not roll back

Restoring a version does not revert these. They show their current state, not their state at the time of the version:

• Portfolio items

• The content of metric cards

• The content of embed cards

• The content of planning cards

• Personas

• Tags

Tip: restore and rename before a major change

Before a big round of edits, restore the current version and rename the restored copy. You get a clean checkpoint to work from and a clear way to tell the two apart later.

Related topics

How to archive a journey map

Move a journey map out of the active list and bring it back later.

How to create a journey map

Start a new journey map with Smaply AI, from scratch, or from a template.

What's included in each plan

See which features, including version history, are available on your plan.