Configure versioning for co-authoring in SharePoint 2013
APPLIES TO: 
2013 2016 2019 Subscription Edition 
SharePoint in Microsoft 365
Document library versioning is the method by which successive iterations of a document are numbered and saved. By default, versioning is disabled in SharePoint Server 2013 document libraries . We recommend that you enable this feature for document libraries in which users plan to co-author documents or presentations.
Before you configure versioning for co-authoring, review Overview of co-authoring in SharePoint Server.
Configure versioning for co-authoring in SharePoint Server 2013
SharePoint versioning helps protect documents and prevent data loss by allowing authors to roll back to a previous document version when the current version contains unwanted changes.
Do not enable minor versioning in document libraries that contain OneNote notebooks. Minor versioning can result in synchronization errors that prevent edits from being saved.
When multiple authors work on the same document, edits are retained on the server as document versions. To limit server storage usage, you can limit the number of retained versions. If you enable major versioning in a document library that contains OneNote notebooks, we recommend that you specify the maximum number of versions so you can use disk space more efficiently.
To enable versioning
Browse to the document library that you want to configure.
In the toolbar, on the LIBRARY tab, in the Settings group, choose Library Settings.
In General Settings, choose Versioning settings.
In Document Version History, select Create major versions.
To specify a version retention limit, select Keep the following number of major versions and in the text box, type the number of versions.
Configure Require Check Out in SharePoint Server 2013
When a document is checked out of a document library, the document is locked. This makes it unavailable for co-authoring. Therefore, the Require Check Out setting should not be enabled in document libraries that are used for co-authoring. By default, for SharePoint Server 2013 document libraries, this setting is not enabled.
To disable Require Check Out
Browse to the document library that you want to configure.
In the toolbar, on the LIBRARY tab, in the Settings group, choose Library Settings.
In General Settings, choose Versioning settings.
In Require Check Out, select No (default).
See also
Concepts
Overview of co-authoring in SharePoint Server
Configure the co-authoring versioning period in SharePoint Server