Saving, Backups, and File Versions

Every year, students lose essays, dissertations, or presentations because they:

• Accidentally save to a campus computer desktop (which deletes files after logout).
• Work on a USB drive that gets lost, corrupted, or broken.
• Forget to back up work across devices.
• Don’t realise that OneDrive automatically backs up and saves versions of their work.

Good saving habits reduce stress, protect your work, and help you avoid last-minute disasters.

• Saving to the desktop on campus computers — files are deleted when you log off.
• Relying only on a USB drive — USBs are easily lost, damaged, or corrupted.
• Not understanding AutoSave — accidentally working with it off, or not realising it saves automatically.
• Not using OneDrive properly — working on local copies instead of cloud-synced files.
• Not knowing about version history — can’t recover an earlier version if something goes wrong.

• Always save to OneDrive — whether working on campus or at home.
• Turn on AutoSave in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel so changes are saved automatically.
• Check OneDrive is syncing — look for the green tick icon to confirm your files are backed up.
• Use version history to recover previous versions of a file if needed.
• Avoid USB drives for primary storage — use them for copies only, not for working files.

These Microsoft help guides show you how to save safely, check syncing, use AutoSave, and recover previous versions of files in OneDrive.

• Get to know OneDrive (video) 
• Save, back up, and recover a file in Microsoft Office
• Back up your folders with OneDrive
• Turn on AutoSave
• Restore a previous version of a file in OneDrive

• Always check you’re saving to OneDrive — look for the green tick in File Explorer.
• Turn on AutoSave in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Never rely on USB drives alone — they are for backups or transfers only.
• Use version history if something goes wrong — it’s built into OneDrive.
• Don’t save to desktop on campus computers — files are deleted when you log off.