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Restore a schedule to an earlier moment

All plans Project Member

Tried a replan that did not work out? A restore puts the schedule back to how it stood at a moment you choose, an hour ago, this morning or last Tuesday at 14:05, without anyone having captured a baseline first. It reads the project’s change history, shows you exactly what would go back, and only writes once you confirm. If the result is not what you wanted, Undo restore puts everything back again.

What goes back, and what stays

Section titled “What goes back, and what stays”

A restore covers the schedule of every task in the project:

  • start and finish dates
  • duration and remaining duration
  • actual start
  • the scheduling constraint and its date
  • the deadline
  • whether the task is a milestone
  • dependencies: links added since then are removed, links removed since then come back, and a changed type or lag goes back to what it was

It deliberately leaves everything else alone. Status, progress, the assignee, the title and the task’s place in the outline are not touched, even though their history is kept too: putting your own experiment back is one thing, quietly reverting a colleague’s status update is another.

Two kinds of task are left exactly where they are:

  • Tasks added since then stay. A restore never deletes anything.
  • Tasks deleted since then stay in the recycle bin. To bring one back, use the Recycle Bin.

The preview names every task of both kinds, so nothing is decided for you without being shown.

Restore the schedule

Section titled “Restore the schedule”

  1. Open the project, open Tasks, and select Gantt. The restore is on the new Gantt chart; see Switch between the new and classic Gantt if you are on the classic one.

  2. In the toolbar, select Restore schedule….

  3. Choose the moment to go back to. The quick choices are 1 hour ago, Start of today and This time yesterday, or pick any date and time down to the second. The dialog says how far back the history reaches.

  4. Select Preview. The list shows every task and link that would go back, each field as it is now next to what it will be.

  5. Select Restore, then confirm.

The result says how many tasks and links went back. The schedule then recalculates, so tasks that depend on the ones you restored can move too; the result counts those separately.

Undo a restore

Section titled “Undo a restore”

The result carries Undo restore. It puts the schedule back to how it was just before you restored, and asks you to confirm first.

If you have already closed the dialog, you can still get back: open Restore schedule… again and choose a moment just before you restored.

When a task does not land exactly where it was

Section titled “When a task does not land exactly where it was”

The result lists any task that ended up somewhere other than the recorded value, with the reason:

  • Already started, so it finishes from today. A task with an actual start keeps its progress, and its remaining work is scheduled from the project status date (today when none is set).
  • The working calendar changed since then. The same duration can end on a different day under a different calendar.
  • The schedule works it out differently now. The restored dates are the schedule’s inputs; the dates it derives from them follow today’s links and constraints.
  • Could not be written. The task refused the value, for example because of an edit rule. Nothing else is held back by it.

Who can restore

Section titled “Who can restore”

Everyone who can edit tasks in the project sees Restore schedule…, on every plan including Free.

A restore is all or nothing. If you may edit only the tasks assigned to you, the preview names the tasks that are not yours and the restore cannot go ahead. Changing dependencies needs the Manage task dependencies permission in the project; without it, a restore that touches links cannot go ahead either. The preview says which applies, so you find out before selecting Restore, not after.

Common situations

Section titled “Common situations”

“The dialog says the moment is too far back.” A restore reads the project’s history, which is kept for as long as your workspace keeps its audit log. Choose a moment after the earliest one the dialog shows.

“The schedule changed since the preview.” Someone edited the project between your preview and your restore. You get a fresh preview of what would go back now; nothing was written.

“Nothing to restore.” The schedule is already as it was at that moment, or the only changes since then were to fields a restore does not cover, such as status or progress.

“Did my workflows run?” No. A restore does not trigger workflows or notifications for the tasks it changes. Webhooks still receive each task update. Each change is kept in the task’s history and the audit log, alongside one entry for the restore as a whole.

Restore or baseline?

Section titled “Restore or baseline?”

A baseline is a named snapshot you capture on purpose and compare against; it never changes the plan. A restore needs no snapshot, reads the change history, and changes the plan. Capture a baseline for the plans you want to measure against, and use a restore to undo a change you regret.

Section titled “Related”