I have one particular note that I’ve been working on since October 1st. I know for a fact that it had hundreds of versions, but now it only has 43 versions with the oldest version being from December 8th. What could have happened? I know I didn’t click Clear versions. My phone was running very low on storage, but that’s never caused me to lose any data in Drafts that I’m aware of. Could it be corrupted but still somewhere in Drafts’ data directory, such that I could access it by backing my iPhone up to my computer?
There are no automatic processes in Drafts that remove versions, and I’m not aware of any general issues that could result in something like that.
There are actions that can be run that would clean up versions, and a maintenance task “Remove excess versions” in Settings > Maintenance that can be used to remove extra versions to save space. Possible you ran anything like that?
Is there a pattern to the versions that remain? e.g. are they the most recent ones?
My version of Drafts has no such setting under Settings > Maintenance, so I could not have had a background task run that did this, especially given that other drafts still have all of their versions.
The versions remaining are all the most recent ones.
What about running on low storage?
Just noting that the versions tidying up option has been around for some time now. Unless you are on a very old version of Drafts, you should see it available. Third option for me on iOS and first option for me on macOS.
Drafts is using a database rather than files for drafts and draft versions, so the sorts of observations of removal don’t really translate to how table entries in a database would be handled. It would be more likely to just stop everything and throw errors rather than specifically some versions from a draft. I’m not saying it is impossible, but I don’t see any logical path to relate them.
A few things I think are worth considering…
- Is there any chance you are looking at a copy, and at some point on 8 December or after, you took a copy and you are now either looking at the original or copy, but there is another draft in your list of drafts that is a more up to date copy?
- Is there anything unusual about your run of versions that you can see? If Is it one continuous run up to 9 December, our are there any gaps in that list.
- How often are you running a backup of your drafts in Drafts? Are you able to restore a more recent version from there?
- Did you have any other issues apart from storage during that period?
(I don’t see a quote button, so I have to reply like this. Please tell where the quote button is.)
I am running version 39.2.2 of Drafts.
I am not looking at a copy. It is the one that was created on the day that it was created on.
It is not a continuous run up to December 9 because there are 0 versions listed from December 9 or earlier. There are no other gaps than that, unless I’m missing one or two from days where I saved multiple versions.
I am not using iCloud backups, so that won’t work.
Only storage is the problem I can think of.
When you select text you should see an option to quote it.
There is also a double quote mark on the middle of the editor line in the browser or the Discourse app.
You can also add a basic quote by using the standard Markdown > prefix for a line.
I think that version is from back in 2023 and is therefore a relatively old version. That being said, the Maintenance tasks were implemented in 31.0, so you should absolutely have those in your settings - probably worth another look. It would also be worth considering updating to a newer version - assuming your OS will support it (Drafts 33.0 had an iOS 14.7 minimum).
… and there is no chance you could have been working on another one in the interim? You have tried searching for key phrases across all of your Drafts including trashed. I am guessing you have, but I’m just trying to really nail down what could be the cause. This select version removal from inside the Drafts database is a unique issue as far as I am aware - which makes it very interesting 
Apologies, I misread something in the original statement. So, from December 10 onwards you have 100% consistent version saving with no gaps, but the earlier versions from December 8 you know should be there are not available. All are effectively gone.
Hindsight is always 20:20, but it is always recommended that you take backups. It is just unfortunate you cannot utilise them in this instance. If you have not enabled them now, then perhaps consider the benefits of having such a backup available.