"Delete permanently" Means Delete, Permanently

For a long time, blog owners have been requiring the ability to delete their blogs.

In the beginning, people would delete a blog - whether intentionally or mistakenly - then change their mind, or realise their mistake.

I did not really want to delete my blog.

And the inevitable question.

How do I get my very important blog back? Surely, it's in your computer somewhere??

But this question was not always answered, with encouragement.

Too often, Blogger Support would be forced to give the bad news.

You deleted it, and it's gone.

Blogger added the "Deleted blogs" dashboard list.

Eventually, Blogger Support tired of providing negative answers - and Blogger Engineers added the "Deleted blogs" display, to the dashboard.

A blog, deleted by the owner, and listed under "Deleted blogs", can be recovered by the owner, when desired - up to 90 days from deletion. Unfortunately, the dashboard "Deleted blogs" list was not the final solution.

Some blog owners did not want a deleted blog listed, under "Deleted blogs".

Some people would delete a blog - then sometime later, learn that the blog was not really deleted.

I deleted my blog - but now I see it listed, under "Deleted blogs". How do I delete my blog, so it does not exist?

And the answer.

Wait 90 days - and it will be removed.

But that answer did not always satisfy.

I can't wait 90 days - I want it deleted, now!

And for that requirement, there was no answer.

Some blog owners might report deleted blogs, resurrected - but not by them.

Occasionally, we used to see a report in the forum, mentioning a blog that had been deleted - and was now online, with a new owner. Some resurrected blogs might have hacking, malware, or spam added by the owner - others might be part of an identity theft campaign.

Regardless of the nature of each attack, a few former owners were not happy with their personal situation.

Blogger recently added the "Remove permanently" option.

Recently, Blogger added the "Delete permanently" option, to the dashboard "Deleted blogs" list. Now, a deleted blog can be removed immediately, at the discretion of the blog owner.

• A blog, when deleted, goes offline - and is moved to the "Deleted blogs" list.
• If the owner wants the blog restored, he can use "Restore blog".
• If the owner wants the blog gone, he can use "Delete permanently".
• With "Delete permanently" used, the blog disappears from "My blogs".
• With the blog removed from "My blogs", there is no way for the former owner, or a would be new owner (impersonator / spammer), to request un deletion.

And, as noted in Blogger Help: Back up, import, or delete your blog

• When you delete a blog: you have a short period of time to restore it if you change your mind.
• When you permanently delete a blog: all of your blog information, posts, and pages will be deleted, and you won’t be able to restore them.

The "Delete permanently" option can't be reversed.

When used, the option "Delete permanently" has immediate and permanent results.

• The blog is removed from "Deleted blogs".
• The blog contents cannot be restored.
• The URL can never be re used.

In the words of the philosopher,

He's dead, Jim.

End of story.

Let's examine the deletion sequence.

Here's my dashboard - showing my test blog, awaiting deletion. Compare this display, with my test blog, deleted.

Go to the dashboard Settings - Other page, and click on "Delete blog".

There is the "Delete blog" wizard - and a chance to "Download Blog".

So, click on "Delete This Blog".

And, it's deleted. But what does that really mean?



Here's my dashboard - showing my test blog, deleted. Compare this display, with my test blog, awaiting deletion.

Here's my deleted blog, in the "Deleted blogs" list.

Here, I can click on "Undelete" - because I did not choose to Delete permanently. Or, I can click on "Permanently Delete", and end this, immediately.



We do get an on screen warning, before permanent deletion.

Deleting Nitecruzr Delete Blog Test is permanent and you won't be able to undo it



And again, end of story.

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A #Blogger blog, once deleted, can be restored within 90 days - if "Delete permanently" is not used. Once "Delete permanently" is used, the blog and all content is gone - and the URL can never be used, again.

Blog Security Review Is Not Instantaneous

Blog owners do not always understand the reasons behind the mysterious blog security check (following "suspicious" / "unusual" activity account lock).

We see periodic complaints about deleted blogs and locked accounts - and the inconvenience involved, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

I get the security and all - but I don't get how a blog is just deleted.

This blog owner, like so many, does not understand how Blogger is trying to keep our blogs under our control - even after detection of "suspicious" / "unusual" activity.

Blog security check, if immediate and instantaneous, would not be noticed.

Blog security check is an art - not a science - and it takes time.

If blogs could be checked for hacking interference without delay, most owners would not complain. Unfortunately, examining blogs for hacking interference requires intense study - and most security experts do not work on weekends.

One unfortunate issue, about all of this, is that not all "suspicious" / "unusual" activity is malicious. Some of it is a simple result of people unable to use account / blog recovery - being innocently told to try every account name and password that can be remembered.

Owner delay, in requesting account unlock, contributes to security check delay.

In some cases, the locked account / deleted blogs may not be immediately discovered by the owner - and this may lengthen the security check process.

Not all blog owners publish - or even read - their blogs regularly. Nor do they accept the need to intentionally keep their account and blogs under their control.

Some owners are very casual about blog security - until a blog is successfully stolen.

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Some #Blogger blog owners are not terribly impressed by the need to keep their blogs under their control, until a blog is stolen. The measures taken by Blogger / Google Security staff are considered mere annoyances.

Please, Don't Try Guessing Your Account / Password!

We see too many problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about locked accounts and deleted blogs.

My Google account was suspended because of 'suspicious activities'. Last month, I realized that my two connected blogs, to that account, were also put offline!

Somebody else was unable to use the supplied account / blog recovery tools - and tried guessing what could not be remembered.

The first would be a blog owner, whose only mistake was having a Blogger account with a name similar to another account, owned by the second.

The second would be someone who could not remember her (his) account name / password, could not use account or password recovery, and who got well meaning advice.

Just do the best you can - try what may be your account name, and any passwords that you can remember!

One blog owner must suffer, because another cannot remember login details.

And owner #1 is suffering, because of owner #2. Owner #1 is now anxiously waiting for action by the security experts (with the blind queue of unknown length) to examine his blogs - and possibly, waiting while not knowing why.

Owner #1 may be seeing this - and not know why.



Password guessing may be necessary, in extreme cases - but it can cause misery - and owner #2 will never realise the pain caused to owner #1. Even if owner #2 recovers access to her / his blogs, innocent brute force attempts can cause account lock / blog security lock, to owner #1.

Protect yourself against the anguish, using Google 2-Step Verification.

The best way to protect against this sort of abuse is to use one or more Google Two Step Verification options. This will leave owner #2 seeing (for instance).

Insert your USB security key, and tap the lighted button.

And having no security key, owner #2 will simply have to try guessing a different account name. It may be an inconvenience (for owner #1), carrying a never used USB security key - but the one time it's needed (and available), it will make up for the inconvenience.

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One #Blogger blog owner, unable to remember a necessary account name or password, may try guessing what cannot be remembered. Guessing an account name can leave one trying an account that somebody else owns - and can cause account lock and blog deletion for somebody who they will never know.

Spam Review Requires Ownership Verification

Part of the spam review process involves verifying that a spam review request is needed.

Not every blog owner understands the reason for not requesting spam review, needlessly. A blog has to be owned under the Google account being used, and locked as a suspected spam host, for a spam review to be useful.

A spam review, when properly conducted, starts with the "Restore" / "Review" buttons, in the "Deleted blogs" section of the personal Blogger dashboard. As of December 2014, the "Restore" / "Review" buttons are not working for everybody - and this is causing some confusion.

Dashboard restore / review requests, when submitted by the owner using the buttons in "Deleted blogs", provide two functions.

• They provide some level of convenience, to the owner.
• They provide some level of assurance, to the owner and to Blogger Support, that the blogs need spam review.

The buttons provide convenience to the blog owner, because the owner can initiate a restore (for a blog that they was previously deleted, within 90 days), or request automated review (of blogs deleted by Blogger, for suspected TOS violations). This allows the owner to recover a deleted or locked blog, without spending time in Blogger Help Forums.

The buttons provide assurance to the blog owner, and to Blogger Support, that no blog deleted, by Blogger or the owner, will be released by request of someone other than the owner. The appropriate button, for any deleted blog, is only present on the dashboard of the legal blog owner, who can then initiate restore or review.

There are several cases, which don't require a spam review.

• The blog was deleted, as a suspected spam host, but under another account.
• The blog was deleted, because this account was locked, as a hacking victim.
• The blog was deleted, because another account was locked, as a hacking victim.
• The blog was deleted, because another account was locked, for a TOS Violation.

Only one specific case requires a spam review.

• The blog in question was deleted or locked as a suspected spam blog, and is owned by the Google account being used to request restore / review.

All other cases, which involve deleted or locked blogs, result in the owner waiting for Blogger Policy Review to return a verdict that they can't review a blog that was not deleted as a suspected spam host. Blogger Policy Review works from a long queue - and if we refer problems to them, that they cannot resolve, their queue gets longer.

Ownership verification starts with the owner supplying a screen print of "Deleted blogs". The screen print is inconvenient for the owner - and for the helpers in Blogger Support Forum, who must carefully verify that spam review is required - but it's a necessary inconvenience. This happens only when the owner is able and willing to cooperate, and provide a usable screen print.

Verifying ownership is a righteous task - even if it makes the spam review preliminaries longer, and seemingly pedantic.

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Dashboard "Deleted blogs" Buttons Are Broken

We have numerous problem reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about a problem with the "Deleted blogs" section of the dashboard.

I can't restore my deleted blog!

and

I can't request spam review!

These owners are concerned, because the "Restore" and "Review" buttons appear to be broken. Nothing happens, when clicked.

Right now, we are starting immediate manual spam review, for blogs deleted as suspected spam hosts, when properly requested by the owner.

People who have "intentionally" deleted their own blogs, and who want to restore, may not be able to easily do that. There is no manual "restore my blog" process, that is appropriately part of Blogger Support Forum.

There are an array of cases, which can result in deleted or locked blogs. Only one case requires spam review.

Any other case leaves the owner waiting, needlessly, for Blogger Policy Review to return a verdict that they can't review a blog that was not deleted as a suspected spam host. Blogger Policy Review works from a normally long queue - and with the currently broken buttons, it's an even longer queue.

Without use of the buttons, ownership verification starts with the owner supplying a screen print of "Deleted blogs". The screen print is inconvenient for both the owner - and for the helpers in Blogger Support Forum, who must carefully verify that spam review is necessary. This happens only when the owner is able and willing to cooperate, and provide a usable screen print.

We now have a Rollup Discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, where we are requesting demographic and technical details from each blog owner reporting inability to use the "Deleted blogs" buttons.

This malfunction has been reported to Blogger Engineering, for their resolution. Since we are at end of year, and the holiday season, it's unlikely that the problem will be resolved this year.

While we wait for their action by Blogger Engineering, everybody experiencing this problem is strongly urged to contribute their details to the Rollup Discussion. Problem diagnosis being as it is, any one person, contributing their details, might contribute the one essential detail that leads to successful diagnosis of the problem.

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A Deleted Blog Can Only Be Recovered By The Owner

Deleted blog recovery requests come in many forms.

I can't access my blog!

or

My dashboard is empty!!

or

Somebody deleted my blog!!!

A successful deleted blog recovery starts from the dashboard button or link, to "Restore" or "Review" the blog. When the blog was deleted by the owner less than 90 days ago, and the owner is able to login to the right account, the "Restore" button will bring the blog back, as the owner watches.

If the blog was deleted by Blogger / Google, and the owner is able to login to the right account, the "Review" button starts the recovery process. If use of the "Review" button brings no results - or if there is no "Restore" / "Review" button at all, things get interesting.

If a deleted blog leaves behind a dashboard "Review" button, the review process can be started.

There are two purposes for the dashboard "Restore" / "Review" buttons.
The "Review" button provides 2 functions.

1. Provides a way for the owner to start the automated review of a deleted blog.
2. Provides verification that the person reporting the deleted blog is the legal owner of the blog - and enables the manual review to be started, if the automated review is unsuccessful.

If there is no "Review" button, neither the automated or the manual review can be started.

• The person reporting the deleted blog is not the owner.
• The person reporting the deleted blog is unable to login to Blogger, using the right Blogger account.
• The blog was not deleted, for a reason which requires a manual review.

A dashboard screen print helps the helpers start the recovery process.
Anybody needing assistance, beyond advice how to use the "Restore" / "Review" button, is expected to provide a screen print, showing either

• A "locked account" error display.
• A dashboard "review request submitted" display.
• An empty dashboard, with the familiar "You are not yet an author ..." caption.

If the person reporting the deleted blog is able to provide a screen print, showing the familiar "locked Blogger account" error display - with the "contact us" link at the end, a manual review of the blog is not useful. The owner is then expected to click on "contact us", and request account review.

The automated spam review is the first step to restoring cloned blogs.
If the dashboard has the "Review" button, the owner can request automated review. Having supplied a screen print showing the "automated review request submitted" display, then waited the required 1 - 2 business days for the automated review to be conducted, the owner can, at her / his option, request manual review.

Without dashboard verification, triage can't continue.
If neither screen print can be supplied, there is no benefit to requesting manual review.

• The person reporting the deleted blog is not the legal owner.
• The blog does not need spam review.

In either case, Blogger Policy Review will reject the review request, and the "owner" will be no closer to having the blog recovered.

The review process must be initiated by a blog owner.
If the person reporting the deleted blog is not the legal owner, she / he must either contact the legal owner for action, or use the correct Blogger account - and request an automated review, from that account. A manual spam review cannot be requested, from a Blogger account that is not the legal owner of the deleted blog.

If the blog does not need abuse / spam review, it will be a waste of everybody's time to request a manual abuse / spam review.

The abuse / spam review request starts with the owner, able to login to the proper Blogger account. The owner then provides a screen print, documenting legal ownership of the blog, and the need for a manual review. Without the screen print documenting ownership and need for review, an abuse / spam review will not be requested.

Deleted Blog Cases Can Involve Multiple Causes

Sometimes, blogs which are under legal action by Blogger / Google can be under action, simultaneously, for multiple, valid reasons.

Occasionally, we get angry complaints, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue.

I got a DMCA Complaint email from Google. My blog was deleted, my dashboard is empty, I got no email from Blogger - and ChillingEffects has no complaint detail. How do I get my blog restored?

Since we don't review DMCA cases in Blogger Help - and with no dashboard or email records of a non DMCA deletion, the blog owner is left with no options.

It's not impossible that some blogs can be classified (righteously or spuriously) for dual offenses.

Some blog owners are guilty of multiple offenses, with multiple penalty.

A person who illegally copies content into his blog may also employ spammy practices. And citation for one TOS offense (DMCA) will not, necessarily, make a blog invulnerable from citation for other TOS offenses (hacking, porn, and / or spam hosting) - or even other possible problems.

The blog owner has 2 possible actions here.

• Continue researching the offense, with ChillingEffects. Appeal the lack of offense detail, with ChillingEffects Support.
• Investigate a separate offense with Blogger / Google. Diagnose a non DMCA abuse issue (hacking, porn, and / or spam hosting).

If investigating one offense is ambiguous, investigate another.

Employing the lessons of Occam's Razor, we conclude that, if ChillingEffects cannot provide details about offenses of a given blog, maybe the blog was deleted for a non DMCA abuse.

The next task is to diagnose a possible abuse related, non DMCA related, deletion. Lack of dashboard and email offense alerts generally cause some owners to return to the DMCA complaint.

If the monolithic lack of help by ChillingEffects is to not stall the investigation, we must continue with the non DMCA related possibilities.

Multiple accounts being involved can complicate research.

Many blog owners create multiple Blogger and / or email accounts accidentally (and never realise), or intentionally (then later forget). These odd, forgotten accounts are never of any importance, until the owner graduates from college, gets a new job, changes ISP - and forgets the account name / password. Or, has the blog deleted (for any of several different reasons) - with no trace of any warning, because the owner is using the wrong Blogger or email account.

So now, the blog owner is faced with researching a duplicate accounts issue. This is one more reason why every Blogger blog owner must, religiously, keep track of every Blogger and email account.

What Is The Mysterious 90 Day Period, After Blog Deletion?

We see periodic evidence of confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, about deletion of our blogs.

I deleted my blog last year - can I get it back?

and

I deleted my blog last month - when will I be able to use it with my new Blogger account?

and

I deleted my blog, but it's still visible, on the Internet!

Not everybody is fully able to understand the "90 day" deletion policy.

Confusion about blog deletion, blog recovery, URL availability, and ongoing visibility have been a problem for many years.

The uncertainty started in 2011, when Blogger gave us the ability to restore our deleted blogs. That year, Blogger gave us the "90 day" provision.

From what we know, the "90 day" provision simply says that blogs deleted over 90 days ago, by the owner, cannot be un deleted. Blogger has yet to advise us, definitively, that a blog (URL), deleted over 90 days ago, would produce any secondary result.

• The URL won't be available, for use by you (under another Blogger account) - or by someone else.
• Any removal from search engine cache will happen only if you plan the deletion, before hitting "Delete blog".
• The blog will simply be un recoverable, by us, since Blogger does not archive deleted blogs for un deletion by us, over 90 days.

Further uncertainties:

• If the URL becomes available, it will be equally available to you, and to everybody else, at the same time.
• If you did not delete the blog, you may not know exactly when the 90 days clock started.
• We are not, with 100% certainty, able to predict that all blogs become available, even after the 90 days.

So don't tell your friends of the date when you will have the blog, re published under the URL - if you are depending upon deletion to make the URL available.

The 90 day period may apply only to blogs deleted by the owner. A blog deleted / locked for suspected spam hosting, by Blogger, may remain in that status indefinitely, until reviewed.

When reviewed as a suspected spam host, a blog will be either removed permanently (for righteous spam deletions), or restored (for spurious spam deletions), at the decision of Blogger Support. In neither case will this, reliably, make the URL available to the public.

Whether the blog is visible on our dashboards (or not), and recoverable by us (or not), unless we make preparation for updating services outside Blogger - for instance, Google Webmaster Tools - a deleted blog will be visible in search engine cache, for a long time.

Please Blogger, Restore My Deleted Blog!! #2

In 2009, Blogger Support became weary from handling too many problem reports from blog owners who had made such a simple mistake.

I hit the wrong key, and deleted my blog! Help Me!!

They started archiving deleted blogs, and gave us a wizard to un delete a newly deleted blog, from the archive. Unfortunately, that ability to un delete a blog has two major limitations.

1. A deleted blog can be un deleted within 90 days.
2. A deleted blog can be un deleted by a blog administrator.

Some blog owners find out the relevance of the second limitation the hard way - after they delete their blog, then find out that they have two (or more) Blogger accounts.

From a cursory examination, two similar symptoms

I hit the wrong key, and deleted my blog!

and

I can't find my blog on the dashboard!

would result from the same problem, and have the same solution - un delete the deleted blog. However, the second symptom has an equally common diagnosis

You are logged in with the wrong Blogger account.

This diagnosis is generally derived from ownership analysis, of the missing blog.

Unfortunately, ownership can only be determined when the blog in question is online. And that is the problem seen, too many times, when people try to un delete their deleted blog.

If you just deleted your blog, there are two diagnostic procedures, commonly used in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, that you'll not find useful.

• Account recovery. The Blogger "Forgot your username or password?" wizard is useless, for a deleted blog.
• Ownership analysis. You cannot determine the owner, without examining live blog content.

If you just deleted your blog, and you don't have access to an owning Blogger account, you're going to have to brute force your way back to control. For each possible email address (GMail or non GMail), you must

1. Clear cache, cookies, and sessions (yes, all 3!), and restart the browser.
2. Use the Blogger "Forgot your username or password?" wizard, and plug in an email address.
3. See if you get email and can recover access to a Blogger account.
4. See if you can un delete anything from the dashboard, for that account.

This is going to be a frustrating exercise - but it's probably your only solution possible. There are only two ways to avoid this exercise.

• Don't delete your blog, by mistake.
• Always maintain access to your blog.

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Recovering Your Account Information

Blogger promises us that our blogs will be ours, forever, and that we are free to publish our blogs in privacy, if we so desire.

They do this by protecting our Blogger accounts behind Two Factor Authentication. Both the name of our Blogger account, and the password used, are our secret to keep.

Since both the account name and the password are secrets, you can't just write to Blogger Support one day and say

I forgot my account name - can you tell me what it is?

When you setup a Blogger account, you provide an email address, which will be used for recovering forgotten account names and passwords.

If you forget the account name, or need to reset the password, you can use the Forgot your username or password? wizard.

"Forgot?" has two options, which you use depending upon what you know.

The "Forgot?" wizard gives you two options, and sends a recovery email message accordingly.

• Recover access to an account. Provide the account name (the email address that you provided when opening the Blogger account), and the email goes to to the primary email address for that account.
• Recover access to the blog. Provide the URL of the blog in question, and the email goes to the owning account(s) for that blog.

There are several interesting details, with the "Forgot?" wizard.

• The wizard works only for BlogSpot URLs. If the blog is published to a non BlogSpot URL (as a custom domain), you will need to provide the original BlogSpot URL.
• The wizard works for all BlogSpot URLs - regardless of the Country Code alias which affects the blog owner. Whether the owner is in Canada (and seeing "xxxxxxx.blogspot.ca"), in Mexico (and seeing "xxxxxxx.blogspot.mx"), or in the USA (and seeing either "xxxxxxx.blogspot.com" or "xxxxxxx.blogspot.us"), you use only the "xxxxxxx" BlogSpot name, in this wizard.
• The wizard works only for active URLs. If the blog is deleted, either by you or by Blogger, you won't be able to recover access.
• You will only get the recovery email, when you login to the recovery email account. You have to use an active email account, for recovering your login information.
• Blogger will not tell you the email address, since the account name / email address is kept a secret.
• Blogger cannot tell you anything, if you have intentionally obscured your identity.

In cases where the account was last used under Old (Pre 2006) Blogger, the Claim your blog wizard may be used - but note that Legacy accounts are no longer supported, in general.

"Having trouble?" complements "Forgot?".

A third possibility would be the Google Having trouble signing in? wizard. You may also find Google Accounts: Secondary Email Address to provide relevant - if not welcome - advice.

In any case, your personal identity is kept a secret from others - as other folks identities are kept a secret from you. If you don't have access to the email account that's associated with the Blogger account, you don't get the email. That restriction leads to interesting scenarios - such as mysterious email received from the Forgot Password wizard, caused by desperation.

Whether you use either "Forgot?" wizard, when you open the email and login to Blogger as part of the authentication process, be sure that you provide / use the right Blogger / Google account. Alternately, clear cache, cookies, and sessions - then restart the browser - before executing either wizard. Do not claim or recover the blog, to an unknown or unexpected account.

Recovery is easiest done, using two browsers.

Account recovery will involve accessing two accounts, simultaneously - and is best done using two browsers.

It's possible that understanding the relationships between Blogger accounts, email addresses, and Google accounts may reduce your need to continue. If your account is based on a non GMail email address, you may wish to consider the special relationships.

Your next possible solution is to try using the Blogger "Forgot your password?" wizard. If "Forgot?" does not provide you enough clues, you're entitled to ask Blogger Support for help - but you need to understand the limitations of their ability to help.

If you choose to ask for help, consider making an effort to recover access to your GMail account, or to your non GMail account, as necessary. And when you check your email accounts, GMail or non GMail, check carefully.

Having recovered the account, you should be able to find the blogs previously owned - and possibly un delete them - starting from the "Deleted blogs" dashboard list.


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Some blog owners lose access to their #Blogger accounts - either forgetting the account name / password, or letting the blog go dormant and requiring demographic authentication when trying to access later. They expect that Blogger will just send them an access token, without verifying that they are the rightful owner.

They fail to observe that Blogger wants them to continue publishing their blog - and does not intend to let unknown parties have control of it, through failure to require verification of identity.

Please Google, Restore My Deleted Account And Blog!

A frequently seen sign of confusion in Blogger Help Forum: How Do I? is the question

How soon after deletion can I reuse a blog?

And the answer is two part.

Immediately, if you can just undelete it using the same account. Never, if you are trying to transfer the blog.

Occasionally the response to that involves a complication.

But I deleted the account, to make sure that the blog gets freed up.

And now, the blogger gets no choice.

You have to reactivate the account, because the URL is locked to that account.

Now, the blogger has a four fold task ahead of him.

• If you just recreated the Google account, by creating a new account with the same email address, you have to delete the account just created.
• Re activate the original Google account, using Google Accounts: Contacting Support - I can't access my account. Select "No" for "Did this work?", and fill out the form that you see there.
• Alternately, re activate the earlier deleted Google account, using Google Accounts: Google Accounts: Forgot your password?. Enter your email address, then fill out the form that you see next.
• Re activate the blog, if necessary, by un deleting it.
• Finally, what he should have done in the first place.
  • Make a stub, then delete the blog properly.
  • Transfer control of the blog.

And next time, plan the change.

Duplicate Blog? Delete The Duplicate, Carefully!

As Blogger makes it easier for us to use the Blogger wizards, occasionally we will do things that we don't need to do, simply by hitting one or two buttons that "didn't used to be there". Sometimes, we may even setup a new blog, without intentionally doing so.

So once you realise that you made a mistake, do you just go into Settings - Basic, and select "Delete This Blog"? Have you ever done that, and as you finger pushed down on the mouse button, looked at the settings and said to yourself

NO! Not that blog - the other one!

Too late. You just deleted your good blog.

Been there, done that.

And deleted blogs don't have a Recycle Bin (Trashcan for you Maccies).

Bet the second time, you'll do this with more care.

1. Go to Settings - Basic, and change the blog description.

   This blog is being deleted.

2. Look at the extra blog, and make sure that the description, in the header, says

   This blog is being deleted.

3. Go back to Settings - Basic, and look at the description again.

   This blog is being deleted.

4. Go to the bottom of that page, and hit "Delete This Blog".

That's a lot of work for nothing, isn't it? How much work might it eliminate? How quickly can you recover a mistakenly deleted blog?

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