Deleted Posts, And The Blog Feed

Occasionally, a bewildered blog owner will write into Blogger Help Forum: How Do I?, and ask

How do I completely remove a post? I deleted a post - but my readers still could read it, in Google Reader!

Some owners are not clear about the nature of post deletion, and the blog feed.

One of the solutions for recovering a deleted post is to retrieve it from Google Reader. Even if you have not subscribed to the blog feed, you can, at any time, subscribe, and retrieve the text content of any previously published post. This solution works because once published, a post will remain in the blog feed for eternity.

Until the post is published, it's in Draft status. As soon as the post is published, the published copy goes into the blog feed. If you immediately revert the post to draft status, the post disappears from the blog main page (subject to clearing browser cache) - but once published, the post remains cached in the feed.

As long as the blog exists, and the blog feed exists (the blog remains public, and the feed is enabled), all previously published posts will remain cached in the blog feed. It may be possible to reset the blog feed - though both of these solutions should be examined carefully - for how your existing readers might be affected.

• Make a private blog, even momentarily. A private blog does not publish a feed.
• Turn off the feed, explicitly, momentarily.

Depending upon local caches of feed content, the blog feed may, or may not, be reset for everybody, with either procedure.

This is both good, and bad - but it is simply something that you can't change, easily.

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Retrieving The PostID, To Recover A Deleted Post

One of the challenges of using the Blogger dashboard "Posts" menu is the too easy ability to delete posts - if you are not thinking about what you're doing.

Fortunately, under the right circumstances, accidental deletion of a single post won't cause a terrible catastrophe - though you (the blog owner) will need to react properly.

There are several techniques to recreate or recover a post, after it's accidentally deleted from your blog.

You have to be careful, to recover the contents, published to the same URL as before.

• Recover from the blog feed, using scraped text.
• Recover from search engine cache, using scraped text.
• Recover from the blog feed, using the PostID.
• Recover from search engine cache, using the PostID.

The PostID, similar to the BlogID, is a non publicised identifier, which is attached to a post, when it's published to the host blog.

If you delete a post that's been cached by the search engines, you can retrieve the PostID from the cached content. Combining the BlogID and the PostID, you can directly access the Post editor display for the post itself, and re publish the post.

First, retrieve the BlogID. Next, do the same with the PostID.

The previous post in this subject, Recovering A Deleted Post, was cached by the search engines some time ago. Doing a search engine cache search, I can find a cached copy of that post.

Looking at the source code for that page, as cached, I look for (some line breaks inserted, here)

<div class='post hentry'>
<a name='8899607620317019913'></a>
<h3 class='post-title entry-title'>
<a href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/01/recovering-deleted-post.html'>
Recovering A Deleted Post</a>
</h3>

There's the PostID

8899607620317019913

Adding the PostID and the BlogID, I can now access the post editor, as

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=24069595#editor/target=post;postID=8899607620317019913;

From there, I simply

Publish Post

or

Publish

or

Save

or

Update

depending upon what the Post Editor offers -
and my post, with all content and with the original URL, comes right back online.

If you have this problem, just do the same with your blog and page / post - and (hoping that your blog is cached) you should get similar results.

If the blog content is not cached, you may be able to retrieve the PostID from the blog feed.

I'll note that the post editor session, for a given blog, can only be used by a blog author or owner - this is not a security risk. Try editing my post, using the URL above, if you don't believe me.

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Recovering A Deleted Page Or Post

In late 2010, Blogger Support announced that they cannot provide the service to restore deleted posts.

Once you (the blog owner) delete a page or post, it's gone - though we have asked for a recovery option. Fortunately, there are several possibilities, to recover deleted pages or posts - though some work may be required.

There are several possible techniques, for recovering one or more deleted pages or posts, that were previously published.

The choices of recovery / restore may depend upon how the deletion / removal occurred.

• Deleted by Blogger - saved as Draft, because of DMCA violation accusation.
• Deleted by you - visible in search engine cache.
• Deleted by you - visible in blog feed.

The post was saved as Draft, because of DMCA violation accusation.

If Blogger deletes a post, because of an accused DMCA violation (righteous, or spurious), you'll find the post saved as Draft. You can, possibly, republish the deleted post(s) - though if you don't have the DMCA Violation accusation resolved, you risk having your Blogger account and blog deleted as a repeat and unrepentant offender.

The post may be retrievable from search engine cache.

If you can find the content of the post, in search engine cache, you can retrieve the PostID. Knowing both the BlogID and the PostID, you can edit the post, and re publish it.

If I was to delete this post, I (or another blog administrator), when logged in to Blogger, could edit this post, and Publish it again, using the Post Editor URL and the PostID - possibly with some extra effort.

You should see some or all of the following detail, in the top portion of the post - when you are able to find the post in cache. You can find "blogID" in other areas of the template. "postID" may be a bit elusive, though.

Note that different templates will put the "blogID" and "postID" in different places. What we see here is from this blog, previously published to the "Simple" template.

<meta content='24069595' itemprop='blogId'/>
<meta content='8899607620317019913' itemprop='postId'/>
<a name='8899607620317019913'></a>
<h3 class='post-title entry-title' itemprop='name'>
<a href='http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2012/01/recovering-deleted-post.html'>Recovering A Deleted Page Or Post</a>
</h3>

Using "blogID" and "pageID" / "postID", I can build the recovery URL:

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=24069595#editor/target=post;postID=8899607620317019913

Similarly, for a deleted page,

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=24069595#editor/target=page;pageID=8872543322493900789

Blogger Page / Post Editor may use a different URL structure. Alternately, you may try

http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=24069595&postID=8899607620317019913

or

http://www.blogger.com/page-edit.g?blogID=24069595&pageID=8872543322493900789

Using the above technique, and substituting your blogID and pageID / postID, you can recover the entire page or post, including all content and formatting - and the original URL. This technique won't work for un indexed blogs, or for new pages, however. Private blogs are unlikely to be indexed, also.

In some cases, even if you're able to retrieve the postID and recover the post editor session, you may be unable to re publish. If you get a bX error when re publishing, copy the contents from HTML mode - then make a new post, and paste. After you publish the new post, under a new URL, you'll have to add a Custom Redirect, from the Old URL to the New URL.

The post may be retrievable from blog feed.

You may, with a little work, be able to retrieve the BlogID and PostID from the blog posts newsfeed, using a text browser.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/posts/default

In that case, you can re publish the post, using the above URL construction. This may work, for pages, also.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/feeds/pages/default

If search engine cache isn't available, and if the blog publishes a post feed, you can possibly subscribe to the post feed in Google Reader or a similar feed reader, and retrieve the text content of the post. Having the text of the missing post visible to you, you can copy and paste the content, into post editor, and Publish the post again. Again, this may similarly work for pages.

Feed content retrieval will provide text, which must be reformatted.

Using this technique, you'll have to reformat the post content - as feed content is formatted relatively simply. When you publish the post, it will publish as a new post, with a new URL.

Again, add a Custom Redirect from the Old URL to the New URL, if you want to retain post reputation. This technique won't work for private blogs, or for blogs where the feed is disabled.

So, if you delete a post, or if Blogger deletes it on your behalf, there are various options for recovery - though neither search engine cache nor blog feed options will likely work, for private blogs. And some options may be more or less desirable than others.

Please Blogger, Restore My Deleted Post!

As many bloggers are periodically enjoying the ability to restore their deleted blogs, other bloggers are discovering the limitations of that ability.

I typed for hours. I made one mistake, the whole post vanished, and just as I realised my mistake, AutoSave executed, and saved the empty post. All of that work gone, in an instant!

or

I deleted the wrong post! How do I get back the post that I deleted?

These folks are discovering the difference between deleting a blog (which can be recovered), and deleting / erasing a post (which cannot be recovered).

When you delete a blog, it's moved into a "Deletion in 90 days" status, and during the 90 days, you get the chance to change your mind, and restore the blog to operational status.

If you want to prevent AutoSave from saving an empty post at the wrong time, disable AutoSave.

Deleted posts are a different issue. From the "Edit Posts" menu, select one or more surplus posts, and hit "Delete Selected". You get one chance to change your mind.

"This action cannot be undone". That looks pretty final.


That's your one chance. Hit OK, and you're done. When you get past that point, your only solution is recovery / rebuilding - if possible. Blogger Support does not provide support, for recovery of deleted posts - sorry.

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