Tips to Recover and Restore Deleted Pages in WordPress
August 31. 2021
Even for the most careful people, sometimes it just happens you accidentally delete some of your posts or pages. Or, you delete them on purpose but changed your mind later on. Nevertheless, no matter the reason behind it, there are ways you can recover and restore deleted pages in WordPress. Sometimes it’s easy and you will need only a few clicks to get your pages back. But, in some cases, you might need to work a bit more to restore them.
A Couple of Ways to Restore Deleted Pages in WordPress
In general, WordPress has a built-in mechanism that saves deleted pages for a while. It’s the “Trash”, something like a Recycle Bin option you can see in Windows operating systems. Every page you delete will go there and will be kept inside for a specific period. After the period expires (usually about 30 days), you will have to use other, less conventional methods to find, recover, and restore deleted pages. If your website is professionally maintained, you won’t have to concern yourself with this. But, it can be quite useful to know how to do it on your own.
To help you learn how to recover and restore deleted pages in WordPress, here are a few things you can do:
- Recover deleted Pages in WordPress from Trash
- Recover deleted content from your database
- Restoring deleted pages with backup plugins
- Recover deleted pages with your web host panel
- Retrieve deleted pages by using Google Caching
1. Recover deleted Pages in WordPress from Trash
This is the first way you should try because it’s the easiest one. As we said, WordPress stores deleted content in the trash for about 30 days before deleting them permanently. If you are missing a few pages, this is the first place you should look in. Go to the list of all your pages or posts, depending on what you are trying to restore. If there is some deleted content, you should be able to see the Trash category right above the list. Click on it and there is a great chance you will find your deleted pages there. Hover over a specific title you want to restore and click on the newly revealed “Restore” option.
If there are multiple pages you want to restore at once, there is no need to repeat the previous step for each one. You can restore them in bulk with the “Bulk actions” dropdown option. It’s also above your list. Simply select pages you want to restore > click on Bulk action and choose Restore > then click apply. Afterward, you should be able to see your pages restored among the rest of your content on the list.
2. Recover deleted content from your database
The next method requires specific technical knowledge so you have to be careful. If you are not confident enough, maybe it’s better to find a WP professional to help you. It’s a much better option than risking making a mess out of your database and ruining your website. Either way, this method won’t allow you to recover the exact post or page, but you will be able to restore the content inside. A word of caution, make sure to backup your website and your database before you continue.
First, you will have to log in to your phpMyAdmin. Go to your cPanel and select phpMyAdmin if you are on a live website. Or type localhost/dashboard/ in your browser if you are using WordPress locally.
Once inside phpMyAdmin, just in case, click on the “Databases” button. Depending on the number of websites you are administrating, you should select the website with a proper name.
Next, it will open a list of tables for a given site. You should select wp_posts.
Inside, there will be a list of all posts so you can select the one you are looking for and click on edit. If you have trouble finding your pages, you can sort the table with post_status and it will group trashed content close together. The only problem here is your content will be in HTML format and will require additional trimming after you copy it to the new page. Or, you can simply paste it into the WordPress text editor and see if it gives you good results.
3. Restoring deleted pages with backup plugins
Anyone nearly serious about maintaining a website already is using one of the backup tools. If not, it’s definitely a time to get one. That being said, there are many useful backup plugins for WordPress that can help you recover missing content:
- Backup & Staging – BlogVault Backups By Backup by BlogVault
- UpdraftPlus WordPress Backup Plugin By UpdraftPlus.Com, David Anderson
- Jetpack – WP Security, Backup, Speed, & Growth By Automattic
- Total Upkeep – WordPress Backup Plugin plus Restore & Migrate by BoldGrid
- BackWPup – WordPress Backup Plugin By Inpsyde GmbH
- and many more
Of course, each has its own functionalities and you will have to get familiar with it before being able to restore the deleted pages. But, the convenience is that just like your database, you can rely on them to save you from a lot of trouble. The only downside is that you won’t be able to recover content changes made between two backup dates.
4. Recover deleted pages with your web host panel
The majority of hosting companies include backup services within their packages. They will keep copies of your website which will allow you to restore your missing content in case you need it. This also includes database backups. Most of these backups are done on regular basis so finding the missing content shouldn’t be a problem. With multiple back-ups and recovery options, none of your content will be permanently lost. If you need help with it, you can always contact your hosting provider for assistance.
5. Retrieve deleted pages by using Google Caching
Finally, there is a chance you can restore deleted pages and find your missing content by using Google cache. Of course, for this to work your website has to be indexed first. But, if you are publishing for a while chances are it is. Simply go to Google search and type the name of the missing page with your website name as well. Even better, type the exact URL if you know it. When you find what you are looking for, click on the small downward arrow and select the “Cached” option. If they have it, Google will show you the content saved from before. Just copy it to the new page and you are fine. In addition, there are many online tools like Wayback Machine that regularly take snapshots of websites, so you can try your luck there.
As long as you are keeping the track of your content and backup regularly, you should be able to easily restore deleted pages in WordPress. Even in situations where it might seem like everything is lost, some of these methods might help you. To avoid any further problems, make sure you configure automatic backup or find someone to set it for you.