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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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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