November 07, 2011

PLEASE DO THIS ~

We've just read on The Cat Blogosphere that the wonderful Rumblebum has lost their blog access.  Not long ago this happened to sweet Stella, of Stella's World and we tried, without success, to help her retrieve and restore her lost blog.  And there have been others who have had this happen.  There are millions of blogs out there, and sadly an almost equal number of spammers, scammers and hackers.  Some do it simply with malicious intent, others have more serious reasons.  But when your blog has been compromised, the reasons why matter little.  Many of us spend a lot of time, energy, imagination and talent to create our blogs and to lose them is extremely upsetting. 
I am not at all a technical person, and not computer-savvy.  But I do know there is one simple step we can each take, ideally on a monthly basis, to BACK-UP our blogs.  This will not necessarily protect your blog name/title (or link) and it may not protect your email address used to access your blog.  What it will do is allow you to restore your blog, as it was on the date the back-up was created, using a new link and email (if necessary).  Many of you may already back-up to external hard drives or other sources; or even onto CDroms.  Whatever method you choose, it should be done regularly.
As I am not computer-savvy, if any other blogger has suggestions to add, please do so.  Post detailed information on the "how to's" on your blog and share with the rest of us, or email ZOOLATRY and we will pass the information on.  Thank you.

Please note the suggestion from "crazykittykat1" in the comments section; as another way to "save" your blog.

40 comments:

  1. OMC... I was trying to go see Rumbles this morning and couldn't get through. Now I know why. Thanks for the valuable info. I'm off to back up my blog right now.

    THank you Thank You

    pawhugs, Max

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  2. Thank you for the advice as, in my ignorance, I hadn't even considered that the data may be compromised in the future. Much appreciated.

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  3. Thanks so much for the word of caution, Ann. It never crossed my mind to backup the blog. We've done it now and feel much better. Sorry this happened to Rumbles before we became aware.

    Tom

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  4. aww this is awful. I'm so sorry that happened. I just redid my blog last month and backed it up. But Now I can't remember if I did it before or after the change! Sooooo I am gonna do it again. Also the file isn't too big, you can email it to yourself and have it in your email as another back up. Thanks for the heads up!

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  5. Good morning....We just followed your directions and it appears everything backed up just fine. I just hope I never have to put it back! LOL At first I didn't even think the backup actually happened. It took less than 2 seconds to back up and save to a folder on my computer. But I went back in and checked it.....it's all there, even all the comments (except for the pictures which I already had saved in a special Blogger folder). Thanks so much for posting this information.

    Pawhugs!

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  6. Thanks for the advice. It was a whole year since we last did this. We have a Mac and found it does not work with Safari, but it did work with Firefox.

    We hope Rumbles and Hamlet will start a new blog.

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  7. We saw what happened. How Sad. Thank you fur breaking your break again for this!

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  8. I'd also recommend hard passwords...you know, the upper case letters, numbers, special characters, etc.

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  9. TY for the great idea, we are going to paw mom till she does it now!

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  10. We hope Rumble can restore their blog somehow, and thanks for the advice. We'll backup our blog today!

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  11. Done and thank you for the info!
    We also put it on a disc :)
    ~ The Bunch

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  12. Oh WHAT a wicked thing to do!! I will take your suggestion, thank you! I hope Rumbles and Hamlet start again.

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  13. Oh nooooo. Not the Runbles' blog. I'm so sorry. I backed up my blog a year or so ago. I can see now that we need to do it on a monthly basis. Thanks so much for posting this valuable information.

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  14. yes, ma'am, we has dunnit! thanyew fur yer clear instructions--even MOM could do it!!

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  15. We have backed up ours, too. Thanks for the reminder!

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  16. Thanks Ann, we just backed up our blog!!! We are hoping that Rumbles gets his blog back somehow.

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  17. That is so terrible about Rumbles' blog! We are purring and praying it will be restored soon. Thank you for the important reminder to back up on a regular basis.

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  18. Thank you! We just backed ours up!!

    The Florida Furkids and Angel Sniffie

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  19. We have done the backup before, but it has been a while. We need ta do it monthly!

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  20. I'm following your directions and it's just not happening. Export blog is under "other" settings, not basic and when I hit download, I get an archive with no Save feature. I checked on my computer and I only have the file from last time I saved it. HELP!

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  21. Thank you for the advice.

    Your instructions were super clear and easy to follow. Thanks!

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  22. We did the backup, but we discovered a slight change in the NEW Blogger settings. On our Mac Firefox, at least.

    Instead of "3. click on BASIC", scroll down the left side and do "3. click on OTHER".

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  23. Thank you !!!!!! You are the best !!!
    Last night, mom found this info. I think it's pretty good one.


    http://www.blogdoctor.me/2008/06/how-to-recover-deleted-blogs.html

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  24. Thank you! We are going to do this, and we use a real hard password. Gosh we hope this does not happen to any other wonderful CB friends.

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  25. We agree with all the other kitties and thank you for a great reminder!!!!! Now we must back up our blog. Interestingly, Google has been asking me to verify myself recently.
    If they ask(usually confirming by phone,cell,etc) do NOT ignore!!!!!
    Big purrs to the Rumbles!

    Purrs Tillie and Georgia,
    Tiger,Treasure and JJ

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  26. Thanks for the reminder. Mom realized it had been far too long since she did a back up for me!

    Purrs,

    Cory

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  27. We're all backed up and ready to go! But not to get lost :-)

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  28. Thank you sooo much for this information!! Mama had no trouble following your directions & now our blog is backed-up! Thanks again!

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  29. we did it at the cozy cottage...we switched back to basic blogger format to do it however...then reswitched...it worked fine and we thank you for this pawsome easy to follow info! You are the awesome blog savers!
    hugs Hunny Bunny

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  30. Thank you so much Ann for reminding me to do this again...
    You are such a valuable blogging buddy. I am so sorry about Rumblebum's blog.
    You are a star.
    Lotsaluv
    MAXMOM IN SOUTH AFRICA

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  31. As for your photos, if you uploaded them they should be in your picasa album that blogger uses. (I am assuming it creates one for everyone) so the links in your blog back up should be able to link right back to the picasa album. If you used a direct link to somewhere else, as long as the photo has not been deleted or moved, the link in your blog should still work.
    purrs to all.

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  32. Should there be lots of info when you back up? MIne doesn't have very much, just a bunch of code.

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  33. Mom says to thank you furry much for this valuable info. She's already been wondering if she could do this.
    Kassey

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  34. Ok we need help! :) On our "dashboard" page, there is nothing that says "settings" or "basic"! We've all looked & can't find anything! It says "dashboard" "my account" "help" and "sign out" across the top of the page next to our Email address but ... that's it!

    Can someone help us? Thank you

    Selina & MomKatt Laura

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  35. Like, Cathy Keisha, I tried to backup but it didn't download anything, it only showed me an archive of the entire blog. I tried using both the new an old user interface. argh! nothing is ever easy!

    I have tried on Mac, will try using Windows next to see if that makes a difference.

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  36. Ok, just tried to backup the blog using MS Internet Explorer on the PC and it worked as it should. And yet when I try to back up using the Apple's Safari, it doesn't work.

    So, I just tried using Firefox on the Mac, and it works as it should. So, all you Mac users, looks like you will need to use a different browser than Safari to be able to back up your blog. Good times!

    Also, as other's have noted, Blogger moved the backup option in the new UI. It's now under Settings/Other rather than Settings/Basic.

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  37. Selina: click on the "dashboard" link then you should see a link for "settings".

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  38. for wordpress we had to do this;
    dashboard
    tools
    export
    export
    choose -all content
    click -download file

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