On Wednesday, November 8, 2023 I got the bright idea of modernizing my website. Maybe I’ll learn one of the new content management systems since everyone is saying that WordPress is old news these days (I still like using it a lot, that’s not the issue at hand). I just thought, “Hey, maybe it would be fun to learn Joomla.” I go to install it and it says that both of my SQL databases are taken up. (This is also not the issue). I know that one was for a temporary pet project so I could use that one to experiment. The other is the big one. Everything on my blog from the last 13 years of its existence. I export my website to an XML file because I know that that’s a smart thing to do in case I accidentally do some thing stupid. and delete everything by mistake.
I go into the My SQL Database section, and with one click…accidentally delete not just the one database…but both. “13 years of fun gone in the blink of an eye. What a giant waste of time this whole venture was. Maybe there was nothing more to say on this silly website of mine. Why am I so attached to this? I’m not lighting the world on fire here, but it’s a nice spot to have, and I personally enjoy it, even if everyone else doesn’t. All I wanted to do was try something creative and now I messed up the whole thing.” Then, I thought, “It’s a good thing I took that back up.” The song “Back In Time” by Big Wreck starts to play in my head.
I freshle install WordPress again “How could I think of leaving you?” I go to import my XML file only to find out that it’s too large no matter which method I use to import it.
What am I going to do now?
Then I find out that there’s a way to split it into smaller 2MB sized files.
I try that, and it actually works. Sort of. I got most of my posts and pages back, but not everything. None of my pictures, which was sad because Insecure Hippo is all picutres, what with it being a comic strip and all.
Then I remember there’s the support Discord server.
I write about my predicament there. Knowing that it may be impossible to go back in time when I deleted everything. I just want to go back to the morning of November 8 when everything was good. I don’t get my hopes up. A few days pass, and then this guy Eric responds to my post informing me that “if” they had a backup, he could make it happen. Turns out they did have a backup with absolutely everything on there end. He was able to put everything back as if it had never happened in the first place.
As much as I learned in that short amount of time, the two important things were.
- Go to the Discord server first to get help from the host.
- I really need to make back ups myself more often. I didn’t have one, but Eric was able to sort everything out.