Excel's version history lives under File → Info → Version History, and only for files saved on OneDrive or SharePoint. It records a snapshot every time AutoSave fires, with a timestamp and the name of whoever triggered it. It records every keystroke, error, what-if update and mistake.
Where to find it
- Open the workbook. It must be on OneDrive, OneDrive for Business or SharePoint — local files have no history.
- File → Info → Version History. A panel lists versions with date, time and author.
- Click a version to open it read-only in a new window. Restore replaces the current file with it.
- Alternative: in OneDrive on the web, right-click the file → Version history.
How far back it goes depends on your plan's retention settings — commonly 25 to 500 versions for business accounts, and a version is created on each autosave, which on an active file can be every few minutes.
What it captures
Whole-file snapshots. Each version is a complete copy of the workbook at that moment, with who saved it and when. It's excellent insurance against a corrupted file or an accidental "delete all", because you can roll the whole thing back.
What it misses
Which cells changed. Two versions ten minutes apart could differ by one cell or a thousand. The panel doesn't say. You open both and compare.
What a cell used to be. No diff, no "was 1.2M, now 12M". You find the old value by opening enough old versions to spot it.
Why. Nothing in Excel asks the person changing a number to say why. So the history can never tell you.
Decisions versus keystrokes. Six hundred autosaves are six hundred versions, and one of them is the number the team agreed on in Tuesday's meeting. Nothing marks which.
Local files. If the workbook lives on a laptop or a network drive, there is no history at all.
The other two features people mean
Track Changes — the legacy feature that highlighted edited cells and let you accept or reject them. It only works in the deprecated Shared Workbook mode (see how to turn that on), is hidden from the ribbon by default, and disables tables and other modern features. Microsoft is not developing it further.
Show Changes — the modern replacement, on the Review tab in Microsoft 365. It lists cell-level edits with author and time for workbooks that are being co-authored on OneDrive or SharePoint. It's a real improvement. Its limits: it covers a limited recent window, not the file's life; it only works for co-authored files; you can filter by sheet or range but not search; and it still has no "why".
History as a list of decisions
The gap in all three features is the same. Excel records that a file was saved. What a team needs to know is that a number changed, from what to what, by whom, and for what reason — at the moment it happened, not reconstructed a month later.
Symphony records history that way. Nothing is shared until you Submit, and Submit asks for a reason — one line is enough. Each Submit is a transaction with an author, a time, the cells that moved and that reason. The Changes command shows the full chain for any cell, row, worksheet or workbook, as far back as you like, and you can compare any two Submits directly. Six hundred autosaves become the handful of moments where someone decided something.
You can use Symphony history to restore older formulas, older values, fix mistakes or simply to compare versions to understand delta changes.
Related: how to share an Excel file with multiple users · the five ways shared Excel breaks down · how Symphony's transactions and merging work
Frequently asked
Where is version history in Excel?
File → Info → Version History, for workbooks saved on OneDrive or SharePoint. You can also right-click the file in OneDrive on the web and choose Version history. Files on your local disk have no version history.
Does Excel version history show what changed?
No. It shows a list of saved versions with a date, time and the name of who saved. To see what changed you open two versions side by side and compare by eye. The newer Show Changes feature (Review tab, Microsoft 365) lists cell edits for co-authored files, but only for a limited window and without reasons.
How do I see who changed a cell in Excel?
Show Changes (Review → Show Changes) lists recent edits by cell and author for co-authored workbooks on OneDrive/SharePoint. For anything older, or any file not co-authored, Excel has no answer. Symphony's Changes command shows the full history of any cell with author, time and the reason given at Submit.
Can I restore an old version of an Excel file?
Yes. File → Info → Version History, pick a version, then Restore. Everything since that version is lost unless you saved a copy first — restoring is all-or-nothing, not per cell.