DocumentRevisions-V100 is the hidden folder where a Mac keeps earlier versions of your documents. Apps such as Pages, Numbers, Keynote, TextEdit and Preview save versions into it as you work, and you get them back with File › Revert To › Browse All Versions. There's one at the top of each disk.
It belongs to macOS. Your account can't open it, Storage settings counts it as System Data, and it isn't something to delete in Finder. The way to make it smaller is to remove versions you don't need, in the app that saved them, as Apple documents, or to remove documents you no longer need.
It's usually small. It grows when large documents are edited and saved often for a long time, because each document can keep many versions, and when it does, there's no single number anywhere in macOS that tells you so.
This post explains how versions work, where they're kept, why the folder grows, what makes it smaller safely, how it differs from Time Machine, and where it shows up in your storage numbers.
What DocumentRevisions-V100 is
Many Mac apps save your documents automatically while you work, and the ones that support versions let you step back through a document's history from inside the app. The versions themselves go into one shared, hidden folder that macOS manages.
What does macOS save, and when?
Apple's guide says many apps save versions of documents automatically as you work. A version is saved every hour, or more often when you're making many changes. One is also saved whenever you open, save, duplicate, lock, rename or revert a document.
So a document you work on every day for a month can easily have dozens of versions, without your ever choosing File › Save.
| What you do | Is a version saved? |
|---|---|
| Keep working on a document for an hour | Yes, automatically |
| Make many changes in a short time | Yes, more often than hourly |
| Open the document | Yes |
| Choose File › Save | Yes |
| Duplicate, rename or lock it | Yes |
| Revert to an earlier version | Yes |
Which apps use versions?
Apple's own apps do. Pages, Numbers and Keynote each have a guide page on restoring an earlier version, and Pages says every time you save, it saves a new version. Preview saves versions of PDFs and images. TextEdit uses them too.
Many other apps built on macOS's document system do the same. The tell is the File menu: if it has Revert To › Browse All Versions, the app saves versions into this folder. Apps without it keep their own history, if any, somewhere else.
Is auto-save the same thing?
They're related. In System Settings › Desktop & Dock, Apple's setting Ask to keep changes when closing documents is off by default, which means unsaved changes are saved automatically when you close a document. Turn it on to be asked instead.
Versions are the history behind that. Apple doesn't say the setting changes how versions are kept, and there's no setting to turn versions off. Eclectic Light, which has studied the folder closely, notes there's no way to disable versions in individual apps either.
Does every Mac have one?
Yes. Eclectic Light says every APFS or Mac OS Extended volume holds the data versions need, so your startup disk has the folder whether or not you've ever browsed a version. Apps save versions without being asked.
Why is it hidden?
Its name starts with a period, and macOS hides any file or folder named that way. It's also locked: only macOS can read it. On the Mac this post was written on, even asking for the folder's size was refused.
The post on hidden files on a Mac explains how to show hidden items in Finder, and why that still won't open this one.
How to browse, restore and delete versions
Everything you can do with versions happens inside the app that saved them. The steps are the same on macOS 27 Golden Gate and macOS 26 Tahoe.
How do you browse a document's versions?
- Open the document.
- Choose File › Revert To › Browse All Versions.
- Click the tick marks along the timeline on the right to step through versions. Pages and Preview also show a stack of earlier versions you can click through.
The current version stays on the left, so you can compare the two side by side.
How do you restore an older version?
With the version you want on screen, click Restore. It replaces the current version. Pages notes that a restored version replaces the current one.
To keep both, hold down the Option key and click Restore a Copy. The app opens the older version as a new document, and the current one stays as it is. In Pages, you can also copy text or objects from an older version and paste them into the current one.
How do you delete a version?
- Open the document and choose File › Revert To › Browse All Versions.
- Step to the version you want to remove.
- Move the pointer to the top of the screen to show the menu bar.
- Choose File › Revert To › Delete This Version.
That's Apple's documented way, and the catalog's entry for document versions gives the same steps. A deleted version can't be recovered, so check it first.
What are Last Opened and Last Saved?
Choose File › Revert To and you'll see quick options alongside Browse All Versions, such as Last Opened, Last Saved or Previous Save. Apple's guide describes them as ways to go straight back to the version you opened, or the last one saved.
Pages warns that a reverted version replaces the current one. To keep the current version too, restore a copy of the earlier one instead.
Can you save a version on purpose?
Yes. Choose File › Save at a moment you might want to come back to. Apple says that explicitly saves a version, which is handy before a big rewrite.
Why does Browse All Versions show nothing?
A document with no saved versions has no timeline to show. That's normal for a document you've only just created, and Eclectic Light found it's also true of a duplicate made in Finder, a document restored from a backup, and one copied over from another Mac or disk: each starts with no history.
If the File menu has no Revert To at all, the app doesn't use macOS versions, and this folder holds nothing for it.
Keeping versions under control as you work
You don't have to wait until System Data grows. A few habits, all through Apple's own apps and Finder, keep the history of your biggest documents from piling up.
| App | What it keeps versions of | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Pages | Documents | A new version every time you save |
| Numbers | Spreadsheets | Browse All Versions in the File menu |
| Keynote | Presentations | Browse All Versions in the File menu |
| Preview | PDFs and images | Also Revert To Last Opened or Last Saved |
| TextEdit | Text documents | Browse All Versions in the File menu |
Lock documents you've finished
Pages describes locking as a way to stop a document being edited, moved, deleted or renamed by accident. To lock any document, select it in Finder, choose File › Get Info and select Locked, or use the menu beside its title while it's open.
Because a locked document can't be edited by accident, it doesn't pick up new versions from stray edits. Pages adds that locking isn't a password: anyone can unlock it.
Make big documents smaller
Pages can shrink a document that holds images, audio or video. Choose File › Reduce File Size, pick the adjustments, then click Reduce This File, or Reduce a Copy to keep the original as it is. Apple notes some combinations of options can make the file larger, so check the result.
Apple doesn't say how this affects versions. It doesn't remove the ones already saved, but a smaller document has less to store each time a new version is made.
Keep milestones as their own files
If you only ever go back to a handful of moments, such as the draft you sent or the version you presented, save those as separate documents. Choose File › Duplicate, or restore a copy from Browse All Versions.
A milestone kept as its own file doesn't depend on the version history. You can then thin out the history of the working document without losing anything you care about.
Clear the history of large documents now and then
For a document you edit every day, an occasional clear-out keeps its trail short. Once you've kept the milestones you want, delete old versions in the app, or start the history over with the duplicate method below.
Where DocumentRevisions-V100 is on a Mac
There isn't one folder for the whole Mac. There's one for each disk that holds documents, and each document's versions live on the disk the document is on.
Where is it on your startup disk?
At the top of the Data volume, the part of your startup disk that holds your files and apps: /. In Finder, the Data volume and the system appear together as Macintosh HD.
Where is it on other disks?
At the top of each one, as / would be for a drive named Backup. Eclectic Light says every APFS or Mac OS Extended volume has the data that supports versions.
Apple doesn't document whether drives formatted as ExFAT or MS-DOS (FAT) keep versions, so don't rely on them there.
| Disk | Where the versions are | Who changes it |
|---|---|---|
| Your startup disk | /System/Volumes/Data/.DocumentRevisions-V100 | Only macOS |
| An external APFS or Mac OS Extended drive | .DocumentRevisions-V100 at the top of the drive | Only macOS |
| A drive formatted as ExFAT or FAT | Not documented | Not documented |
What's inside the folder?
Apple doesn't document its layout, and it isn't meant to be opened. Eclectic Light describes a database that records each saved version, and a chunk store that holds the versions' data in pieces of up to just over 20 MB.
That design saves space where it can: parts of a document that didn't change between versions don't always need storing again. How well it works depends on the kind of file, as the next section explains.
Why can't you open or measure it?
macOS locks it so that only the system can read it. Finder can't look inside, and neither can a disk analyzer running as you, so its size doesn't show up in any folder size you can check.
Apple's developer documentation for versions calls the place they're kept the version store, and says removing versions frees the storage they used.
Why DocumentRevisions-V100 grows
The catalog describes the folder as usually small, growing when you edit large documents often. Three things make that happen.
Big documents, saved often
Each version takes space in the version store. A text document's versions are small, while a presentation full of images and video carries much more in each one. Combine large files with hourly versions and frequent saves, and the folder grows quickly.
Documents kept and edited for years
A document you've edited on and off for years can keep a long trail of versions. Eclectic Light's record is 230 versions of a single file. Apple doesn't document a limit on how many versions a document keeps, or how long.
Some kinds of file share space poorly
Eclectic Light found that some file types, such as JPEG images, use nearly as much space for each version as the whole file, while RTF text can be far more economical. It also found some Pages files keep substantial storage even with 20 versions.
So a folder of photos you crop and adjust in Preview, or a big Pages or Keynote document, is more likely to grow it than a pile of text files.
Does it ever shrink by itself?
Apple doesn't document any automatic clean-up of versions. Its developer documentation lets an app mark a version as discardable, which gives macOS the option to reclaim that space some time later, and tells developers not to depend on it happening.
So don't count on the folder shrinking on its own. If your largest documents have long histories you don't need, thinning them is up to you.
How big can it get?
Usually it's a small part of the disk. Eclectic Light reports it can become a major part of System Data, in some cases more than 100 GB. Those are unusual Macs, with large documents edited heavily over a long time.
How to make it smaller, the right way
The catalog marks document versions as Managed by macOS: only macOS changes the folder. That leaves a few legitimate ways to make it smaller, all of them through the documents themselves.
Before you start
- Make sure you have a backup. A deleted version can't be put back.
- Save milestones you might want as their own documents first, with Restore a Copy.
- Start with your largest documents: presentations, image-heavy documents and big PDFs.
- Leave everything else alone. Nothing about thinning versions needs Terminal, Recovery or Library folders.
Delete versions you don't need, in the app
Open the document, choose File › Revert To › Browse All Versions, and delete the versions you won't want, one at a time, with File › Revert To › Delete This Version. Start with your largest documents, since their versions take the most.
It's slow for a document with many versions, but it's the method Apple documents, and you choose exactly what goes.
Delete documents you no longer need
Apple doesn't say what happens to the versions of a document you delete. Eclectic Light's method for clearing a document's versions depends on deleting the original, so its versions go with it.
Move the documents to the Trash in Finder. They can come back with File › Put Back until you empty the Trash.
Clear every version of one document at once
Eclectic Light found that a duplicate made in Finder doesn't carry the original's versions. To start one document's history over:
- Select the document in Finder and choose File › Duplicate.
- Move the original to the Trash.
- Rename the duplicate to the original's name.
The duplicate is the same document with no saved versions. Keep the original in the Trash until you're sure you won't need an old version.
Restart afterwards
Freed space may not come back straight away. Eclectic Light found macOS tidies the version store after the Mac starts up, so a restart after removing versions helps it reclaim the space.
| Method | What goes | Can you undo it? |
|---|---|---|
| Delete This Version, in the app | One version | No |
| Delete a document you don't need | The document and its versions | Until the Trash is emptied |
| Duplicate, then delete the original | Every version of that document | Until the Trash is emptied |
| Erase an external drive | Everything on it, versions included | No |
| Delete the folder yourself | Every version of every document | No, and macOS protects it |
Why not delete the whole folder?
Because it holds the history of every document on that disk, and Apple gives no way to delete it. On your startup disk, macOS protects it. Removing it by other means, as some guides suggest, takes every version of every document with it, with no way back.
Versions on external drives
Documents on an external drive keep their versions on that drive. That changes where the space goes, and what happens when files move.
Do external drives get their own versions folder?
Yes, on Mac formats. The catalog's entry covers /, the folder at the top of any connected disk, and Eclectic Light says each APFS or Mac OS Extended volume holds the data for versions.
A drive's versions use that drive's space, not your Mac's. If a nearly empty-looking drive seems full, hidden folders such as this one, Spotlight's index and the drive's Trash are where to look.
What happens when you move a document to another disk?
Apple doesn't document it. Eclectic Light found that versions don't come along when files are restored from a backup or migrated from another volume or Mac. Expect a document's versions to stay behind when the document moves to another disk.
What happens when you erase a drive?
Erasing a drive in Disk Utility removes everything on it, its versions folder included. Copy any documents you need off it first; their versions won't come along. The post on Disk Utility's storage numbers explains what Disk Utility shows for each volume.
Versions, Time Machine and iCloud Drive
Versions look like a backup, because they let you go back in time. They aren't one, and they work alongside Time Machine and iCloud Drive rather than replacing them.
How are versions different from Time Machine?
Apple says Time Machine makes hourly, daily and weekly backups of your files to another disk, and also keeps local snapshots, made hourly and kept up to 24 hours, on the startup disk. Versions are a history of one document, kept on the same disk, and opened from the app.
The catalog adds the catch: versions aren't part of your Time Machine backups. If the disk fails, or the Mac is lost, its versions go with it.
| Document versions | Time Machine backups | Local snapshots | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it keeps | Earlier states of one document | Your files, apps and settings | Earlier states of files on the disk |
| Where | The same disk, in a hidden folder | Another disk | The same disk |
| How often | Hourly or more, and on save | Hourly, daily and weekly | Hourly, kept up to 24 hours |
| How you get things back | File › Revert To in the app | Time Machine | Time Machine |
| Survives losing the Mac | No | Yes | No |
The posts on Time Machine's space on your Mac and APFS snapshots explain the other two in depth.
Can Time Machine bring back a deleted version?
Not the version itself, since versions aren't in the backups. But Time Machine keeps hourly, daily and weekly backups of the document. If you deleted a version you needed, open Time Machine, find a backup of the document from around that time, and restore it.
Do versions survive a restore or a new Mac?
No. Eclectic Light found that restoring from a backup or migrating to another Mac loses every saved version. Time Machine backed up the folder until macOS Catalina, but never restored it. Your documents move to the new Mac, but each starts with no history.
That's one more reason to keep real backups. Versions protect you from your own edits, not from a lost disk. Before any big clean-up, back up your Mac, so a mistake is something you can undo.
What about documents in iCloud Drive?
Apple documents one kind of version for iCloud Drive: when the same document is edited offline on two devices, you're asked which versions to keep, and the ones you don't keep are deleted from iCloud Drive everywhere. Its developer documentation says a file in the cloud usually has only one version at a time.
How the Browse All Versions history of an iCloud Drive document is stored on the Mac isn't something Apple documents. iCloud's own local data is a separate story, which the post on bird and iCloud's local cache explains.
Shared documents
Pages notes that when you share a document, people with editing permission can copy and restore only versions created after you shared it. People with view-only permission can't see earlier versions at all.
Versions and your storage numbers
Versions don't get a category of their own in macOS. That's why a large versions folder is easy to miss, and hard to prove.
Where does Storage settings count it?
In System Settings › General › Storage, the folder's space is part of System Data, the category for what doesn't fit the others. Nothing there names it. The post on what System Data is made of goes through the other parts that share that number.
How can you tell if versions are the cause?
Indirectly. Look for the usual suspects first: Time Machine snapshots, caches, developer files and Spotlight's index explain far more large System Data figures than versions do.
Then ask whether you keep large documents in Pages, Keynote, Numbers or Preview and edit them heavily. If you do, and System Data is large with nothing else to explain it, removing old versions of those documents is worth trying.
Why do disk analyzers show space they can't open?
Because the folder is locked to everyone but macOS, a disk analyzer running as you can't read it any more than Finder can. It sees that the disk's used space is larger than everything it could open.
That gap isn't only versions. Spotlight's index, Time Machine's local snapshots and other folders macOS keeps to itself show up the same way, so treat the gap as a clue, not a measurement.
Old versions keep old content
Versions are also a privacy question. Text you removed from a document is still in its earlier versions until you delete them. Pages notes that a password you add applies only to that version and later ones, so earlier versions don't have it.
To stop people you share with from restoring an older, unprotected version, Pages suggests stopping sharing, adding a new password and sharing the document again.
Mistakes to avoid
Versions are easy to forget about until System Data grows. Most mistakes come from treating the folder as clutter rather than as history macOS keeps for you.
Deleting the folder from Recovery or Terminal
Some guides do it to recover space. It removes every version of every document on that disk at once, and none of it can be put back. Delete versions you don't need in the app instead.
Treating versions as a backup
They're on the same disk as the document. A failed drive, a lost Mac or a move to a new Mac takes them away, and Time Machine doesn't restore them. Keep a separate backup.
Expecting Delete This Version to go to the Trash
It doesn't. The catalog's note is plain: removed versions can't be recovered. Check the version on screen before you delete it.
Confusing versions with iCloud Drive conflicts
When iCloud Drive asks which version of a document to keep, that's a sync conflict, not the Browse All Versions history. Versions you don't select there are deleted from iCloud Drive on every device, so pick carefully.
Clearing other system files at the same time
Versions, Spotlight's index and app preferences all look like leftovers when you find them. Each is something macOS or an app manages, and none is worth deleting by hand.
A worked example
Say someone keeps a large Keynote presentation, full of photos and video, and has edited it most days for a year. System Data in Storage settings is larger than they can explain, and Time Machine snapshots and caches are already ruled out.
Checking the history
They open the presentation and choose File › Revert To › Browse All Versions. The timeline is long: versions from almost every day of the year. They don't need most of them.
Thinning it out
They restore a copy of two versions worth keeping, a version from before a big redesign and the one they presented, as separate documents. Then they want the rest gone.
Deleting them one by one would take a long time, so they use the duplicate method: duplicate the presentation in Finder, move the original to the Trash, and rename the duplicate.
The result
After a week with the original in the Trash, they empty it and restart. The presentation and its two kept copies now have no long history behind them. They can't see exactly how much the versions folder shrank. If the versions were the cause, System Data in Storage settings is smaller afterwards.
What they didn't do
They didn't delete the versions folder, go into Recovery or paste a command from a forum. Every step used Keynote, Finder and the Trash, and until the Trash was emptied, every step could be undone.
How the app does it
Wombit scans your disk, reading only names, sizes and dates, and explains every item in plain language. File names and paths never leave your Mac.
System Data, explained splits that number into named buckets and shows how much it couldn't explain instead of hiding it in a total. Folders macOS didn't let it read are listed, not skipped.
Document versions have an entry in the catalog, written and checked by hand with sources:
/
System/ Volumes/ Data/ .DocumentRevisions-V100 Earlier versions of documents that apps like Pages, TextEdit and Preview save as you work, so you can go back to them.
Managed by macOS · Explained only: the app shows you how
They're Managed by macOS: explained, handled through macOS's own mechanism, and never moved. The entry gives the steps above for deleting a version in its app, and notes that removed versions can't be recovered and aren't in your Time Machine backups.
Scanning, the map, the explanations and System Data, explained are free. Cleanup, for the items the app does remove, is PRO: one payment of $4.99 with lifetime access. Every Pro tool's review is free to open, so you see what would go and why before you buy.
Frequently asked questions
What is .DocumentRevisions-V100 on a Mac?
It's a hidden folder at the top of each disk where macOS keeps earlier versions of documents. Apps such as Pages, Numbers, Keynote, TextEdit and Preview save into it as you work. You reach the versions with File › Revert To › Browse All Versions in the app.
Is it safe to delete DocumentRevisions-V100?
No. It holds the history of every document on that disk, macOS manages it, and on your startup disk it's protected. Delete versions you don't need in the app instead, with File › Revert To › Delete This Version, or delete documents you no longer need.
How do I delete old versions of a document?
Open the document and choose File › Revert To › Browse All Versions. Step to the version you want to remove, move the pointer to the top of the screen, and choose File › Revert To › Delete This Version. A deleted version can't be recovered.
Can I turn off versions on a Mac?
macOS has no setting for it, and apps that support versions don't offer one either. The Desktop & Dock setting Ask to keep changes when closing documents only changes whether you're asked to save when you close a document.
Why is DocumentRevisions-V100 so big?
Usually it isn't. It grows when large documents, such as presentations full of images and video, are edited and saved often over a long time. Some kinds of file, such as JPEG images, use nearly as much space for each version as the whole file.
Are document versions included in Time Machine backups?
No. Versions stay on the disk the document is on, and they aren't part of your Time Machine backups. Restoring from a backup or moving to a new Mac brings your documents back without their history.
Does an external drive have its own DocumentRevisions-V100?
Yes, on drives formatted as APFS or Mac OS Extended: the folder sits at the top of the drive and uses the drive's space. Apple doesn't document whether drives formatted as ExFAT or FAT keep versions.
How can I see how much space document versions use?
macOS doesn't show it. The folder is locked so only the system can read it, and Storage settings counts it as part of System Data without naming it. If you edit large documents heavily and System Data is unexplained, removing their old versions is worth trying.
Sources
- View and restore past versions of documents on Mac · Apple
- Restore an earlier document version in Pages on Mac · Apple
- Revert changes to PDFs and images in Preview on Mac · Apple
- Change Desktop & Dock settings on Mac · Apple
- NSFileVersion · Apple Developer
- Managing macOS versioning and the DocumentRevisions-V100 folder · The Eclectic Light Company