This page covers some of the common questions you may have about draft pages in Confluence. You can also read the overview of working with drafts.

On this page:

What is a draft?

A draft is a snapshot version of a page which Confluence saves automatically at regular intervals while you are editing the page. Confluence saves these interim versions even if you do not save the page yourself. This is useful to prevent you losing work if your Confluence site experiences a problem.

How often are drafts saved?

By default, Confluence saves a draft of your page once every thirty seconds. A Confluence administrator can configure how often drafts are saved. (See below.)

How will I know if my draft was saved?

Each time Confluence saves a draft of your page, it displays a message and the time of the last save. The message appears near the 'Save' button on the edit screen.

Screenshot: Message displaying the time when the draft was last saved


Where can I see my drafts?

To see your drafts, go to your name at the top of the Confluence screen. Select 'Drafts' from the dropdown menu.

Screenshot: Finding your drafts

Your drafts will appear, listed on the 'Drafts' tab in your user profile.

Screenshot: Viewing your drafts



I lost my changes before I could add the page. What do I do?

Confluence will save a draft of the page even if you haven't successfully added the page yet.

There are two ways to resume editing the page:

  1. To see your drafts, go to your name at the top of the Confluence screen. Select 'Drafts' from the dropdown menu. (See screenshot above.)
    A draft of the page will be listed with an option to 'Resume Editing'.

    (info) If you had not yet entered a page title, the draft will be listed without a title.

    Screenshot: Untitled Page Draft


  2. If you do not resume editing the page as described above: When you next click 'Add Page' in that space, Confluence will ask you if you want to resume editing the page that wasn't saved. You can choose to resume editing. This will restore the page.

    Screenshot: Resume Editing


What happens if I am editing the draft of a page that has since been updated?

When this happens, Confluence will display a message informing you that you are editing an outdated page. If there are no conflicts between the two versions, Confluence will give you the option to 'Merge and Resume editing'.

If there are any conflicts, Confluence will give you the option to 'View the Conflict' or to 'Discard' your changes.

Screenshot: Editing Conflict in Draft


If I click one of the other page tabs when I am editing a page, will I lose my changes?

No. Whenever you click on any of the page tabs, Confluence will automatically save a draft. When you click on the 'Edit' tab again, Confluence will let you know that a version of the page you are editing was not saved and will give you the option to resume editing.

How do I configure the time interval at which drafts are saved?

A Confluence administrator can set the time interval at drafts are to be saved.

  2. Click 'General Configuration' in the left-hand panel.
  3. Edit the setting for 'Draft Save Interval'.
RELATED TOPICS

Working with Drafts Overview
Concurrent Editing and Merging Changes

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