How to get back your articles if you lose them?
Last week, one of blogger friend pinged me and told that he is facing some problems with his WordPress self hosted blog. We have tried to recover his blog and came to know that his blog is under the attack of some hackers. Meanwhile, the problem actually started in his WordPress MySQL database. Yes! He lost the data and hence he don’t have any of his blog posts.
I have advised him to move to a good hosting provider for security reasons and he did that. But what about those deleted posts/articles? Of course, we have the solution.
Loss
- The loss of those articles will lead his blog to a major traffic loss.
- The blog will face problems since those old post’s url will lead to a 404 error which is hated by all search engines.
Solution
For every problem, there is a solution and here it is.
It’s simple. We can get the support of search engines for this problem. Yes. You all know search engines like Google will have an index base of your web pages and hence your blog posts will be in the index. For an example, I will give you a solution using Google.
- In Google, type the query site:yourwebsite.com
- Now you will see the entire list of web pages that are indexed in Google. Try to find what you have lost from the results page.
- Click on the Cached link to get the cache page of those web pages.
- In the cached page, click Text-only version to get the text only web page.
- Then copy it and rewrite them as articles.
Note
- This trick will be good as enough if your loss of articles is moderate. If it is huge, this trick will take a lot of time to finish.
- Search engines will normally remove those urls which lead to 404 error from it’s cache thereby you will lose those articles permanently. Try to apply this method as soon as possible.
- The best solution is try to create a backup of your data always.
Well. I hope many of you will be able to enjoy with this trick since I am getting such requests for many days. If you have further doubts, feel free to contact me at anytime.
What are you thinking right now? Share with us. Definitely yours will be wonderful than mine!
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Article by Karthikeyan
Karthikeyan has written 55 wonderful article(s) in this blog.
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Editor of BlogrPro - A technology addict who did projects like an Operating System, Search Engine, Content Management Systems, etc. He is specialized in Web design, Web development, Wordpress, SEO, etc.
Oct 24, 2009 @ 3:04 PM
I use this trick earlier this month when my host suspend my account with out a proper reason. They told be my blog using huge resource. I don’t know how a blog can use huge CPU resource specially all plugin is tested well by good programmers. By the way I use one more trick with it.
I actually created a whole backup site of my blog on blog.co.in. I update it in every month using import method. Though I block search engine so that my content wont count as spam. In this way I need to use Google for small amount of data. This trick saved me last time.
I will write a brief note about it with other tips soon in my blog. Thanks Karthik giving me a topic for writing.
WorthyTips´s last blog ..Idea to read, write, update, delete and backup your SIM card contacts
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:06 PM
@WorthyTips,
That’s what I too follow Piyada! I will let you know in detail about how a blog can use huge CPU. Keep watching for that post.
Oct 24, 2009 @ 3:34 PM
He did not do any database back-ups. Thats bad. I hope he was able to get back his articles using your tips.
Agent 001´s last blog ..Upgrade to WordPress 2.8.5 and Check Out the Upcoming WordPress 2.9 Beta Version
Oct 28, 2009 @ 2:41 AM
I am taking regular back up’s. once in a week.
Anish K.S´s last blog ..Bayttaab Dil Kee Tamanna Hai On 27 Oct At 10:00 P.M on Sony
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:26 PM
@Anish K.S,
That’s pretty good.
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:07 PM
@Agent 001,
Yes. All should take a backup. Or else, they have to face problems like these.
Oct 24, 2009 @ 4:35 PM
This is a useful post. But I doubt that he can only get those article, which were indexed by the search engines
John Samuel´s last blog ..Wordpress Logo Contest: The Final Five Categories
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:08 PM
@John Samuel,
Yes. He can get only those articles indexed by Search Engines.
Oct 24, 2009 @ 5:41 PM
One should keep a copy, related url and category. Then he will be on safe side.
Tech Buzz´s last blog ..Lunascape Web Browser Review
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:08 PM
@Tech Buzz,
That’s correct. Better thing is taking a copy.
Oct 24, 2009 @ 6:04 PM
how to take backup of a blog. i had many blogs but i had never done a backup as i dont knew how
Oct 24, 2009 @ 8:16 PM
@crazy blogger : You can read this article on Wordpress database backup – http://codex.wordpress.org/Backing_Up_Your_Database
Arafat ´s last blog ..How to protect your blog from data lose and later restore it without core database backup?
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:11 PM
@crazy blogger,
That’s not a big thing buddy. There are plugins to create a backup. I am using WordPress Database Backup plugin. For complete backup of database and files, use Backup option in cPanel.
Oct 24, 2009 @ 9:38 PM
Wow! That’s a very Smart Way!
Actually i use site:chaaps.com to check how many of my pages have been indexed by google
Chethan´s last blog ..Hrithik Roshan with Flute in Simply Reliance TV Advertisement
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:14 PM
@Chethan,
There are many ways to use any method. It’s all depends on the way that we are thinking. Think more and share Chethan.
Oct 24, 2009 @ 11:36 PM
That’s bad that he did not take a backup. I use a plugin which automatically takes backup and mail them to my mail ID.
Sahil Kotak´s last blog ..30 Plugins That Can Change Your Wordpress
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:15 PM
@Sahil Kotak,
Me too using that type of plugin. Glad to know that you are so care about your blog.
Oct 25, 2009 @ 2:33 PM
Good idea. I guess your friend must be very pleased. Why 404 error? He can get the links to those article as well. I am not sure about it though. I also doubt that he will get the same traffic for those posts.
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:18 PM
@Ricky,
Yes. We can create the same links for those articles. But that highly depends on the type of permalink that he is using in his blog. He almost lost his traffic.
Oct 26, 2009 @ 12:27 PM
One should always have a backup plan other than Google cache. Periodic (at least once a week) WordPress DB backup and storing all your draft post in a Word or text document will help.
If your blog/website is regularly updated and want to have long lost (very old content), you may also checkout the wayback machine (archive.org)
Ajith Edassery´s last blog ..Make Money from Referrals: How to sell more?
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:22 PM
@Ajith Edassery,
That’s true. I am also using the same plugin like what you use and it produces a good result. WayBack Machine is not suitable for the new blogs as it will show the websites which are older one.
Oct 26, 2009 @ 12:55 PM
Thanks for the post karthik… i tried to do that… but it was too late. I had my sessional exams and i didn’t give time to my blog.. Now what happened is that i am getting only 6 to 7 visitors from google… i dont know why … at the beginning when i set up my blog to a new host… i used noindex,nofollow for 2 days.. probably this may be the reason… what do you think ?
Shekhar Saxena´s last blog ..All about Movie Tags(What is DVDRip, Cams etc)
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:23 PM
@Shekhar Saxena,
No indexing is one of the thing to watch for your problem. You can resubmit your robots.txt file in Google Webmaster tools for the solution.
Oct 26, 2009 @ 1:58 PM
Thanks for this tip. Once i also lost all my posts, but when I contacted the hosting provider, they corrected it. I now do the backup very often.
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:24 PM
@a_usman,
That’s a good thing to hear that you are now taking care of your blog with backups.
Oct 26, 2009 @ 5:00 PM
this is one of the reason why you need to backup and backup.
cache do help me before, but writing the same post on my localhost help me even more..
izzat aziz´s last blog ..Trust your instinct
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:24 PM
@izzat aziz,
I am always using that localhost backup option like you Aziz.
Oct 27, 2009 @ 10:33 PM
I take backup everyday. But I will take care of your tip , if I face any problem with my post. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Ruchi´s last blog ..Pros and Cons of Automatic Software for Website Submission
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:25 PM
@Ruchi,
You are most welcome Ruchi.
Oct 29, 2009 @ 3:03 AM
Thank you for the god tip, I believe this will solve lots of problems when someone lost his blog posts!
but my case was different, as I lost a database with more than 300 members and all of their profiles and entries on My Life Thinking community, so I recommend that everybody has to do a backup for their database as the best solution!
Hesham´s last blog ..Thanks to GoDaddy I have lost My Elgg Life Thinking Community!
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:26 PM
@Hesham,
That’s a sad news to hear Hesham. I hope that you will be more careful from now onwards.
Oct 29, 2009 @ 12:58 PM
yea this can be very critical situtaion but we can schedule dailly back up and i do but your tiips is very gud if we dont have backups.
nice post.
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:27 PM
@nitesh patel,
I always recommend taking backups than this tip like you.
Oct 29, 2009 @ 3:30 PM
I met your friend at devilslab who had a problem with his blog. I see that everything is fine now. Good job Karthikeyan
Ricky´s last blog ..New Wordpress Theme-Right Sidebar With 3 Column Footer
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:27 PM
@Ricky,
Thanks Ricky.
Oct 30, 2009 @ 2:41 PM
Nice article dude..actually I used Cache version of my articles to get some valuable lost comments! Cheers!
S.Pradeep Kumar´s last blog ..PageRank Update: PR 3 for HellBound Bloggers
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:36 PM
@S.Pradeep Kumar,
I am not sure about the lost comments get back via cache.
Nov 01, 2009 @ 12:02 AM
Congrates on pr3.
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:37 PM
@Ricky,
Thanks for letting me know about my blog’s PR ricky. I came to know only from you.
Nov 01, 2009 @ 2:28 PM
This is a pretty long procedure and may also cause problems like Content duplication. Is there any other method?
Tech-Freak Stuff´s last blog ..Tech-Freak Stuff gets Google PageRank 2
Nov 03, 2009 @ 3:38 PM
@Tech-Freak Stuff,
The only best method is taking backups. Well you said that this tip may cause problems like Content duplication. That will occur, if the url of those posts are changed.
Nov 14, 2009 @ 4:09 PM
Not sure if your commenting system told that my email was invalid
trying again.
Nov 15, 2009 @ 11:32 PM
@TechChunks,
May I know what happened? I will be glad to solve the problem perhaps if you have experienced anything so.
Nov 14, 2009 @ 9:48 PM
thanks for sharing with us , backup is important i am taking on weekly backup of my blog.
mostlyblog´s last blog ..How to Enable or Disable Hibernate in Windows 7
Nov 18, 2009 @ 7:58 PM
i dint know tis was possible dude.. gr8 post.. thz
neo´s last blog ..
Nov 20, 2009 @ 10:38 PM
@neo,
Everything is possible dude.
Nov 24, 2009 @ 7:05 PM
Thanks Karthikeyan. This is really gonna help a lot of bloggers.
Amal Roy´s last blog ..Google Chrome OS Review : 7 Different things that make the New OS Unique
Nov 25, 2009 @ 10:35 AM
@Amal Roy,
Glad to know that this will help bloggers like you Amal.
Dec 28, 2009 @ 5:41 AM
Nice Karthik, this will be useful for many new bloggers. i used this technique a long ago when i accidentally deleted my blog!
Amal Roy´s last blog ..How To Stream Music From Windows 7 to Any PC or Laptop
Jan 08, 2010 @ 5:12 PM
good one bro..~!!