Backing Up Your Blog

I used to have a blog that I used as a journal. It was visible only to me. I detailed my feelings, everything. It was a gem of a blog, something that I seriously thought I may make public someday to help others who needed encouragement. It was a good read, one that I worked hard on.

One day, I decided to change the labels on my posts. Not good, not good at all. I ended up accidentally deleting 75% of my blog. The only posts that remained were the ones that I wrote at the very beginning of my journey. I was crushed.

Recently, I was excited to learn that there is a very simple way to backup your blog posts on Blogger. Using this feature will backup all of your current posts and comments into a file, which you can save on your computer. If something horrible happens and you lose your posts, you can import the posts that you saved into a new blog or your existing one. How cool is that?

IMPORTANT: Be careful not to click on "Delete blog" as it is right next to the import and export links.

To backup your posts:

Go to Settings-->Export Blog-->Download Blog--> Save

To restore your posts:

Go to Settings-->Import Blog-->Find the document you exported-->Import Blog. The first time I did this, it took well over an hour. I had 190 posts and a not-fast-but-not-dial-up internet connection. I ended up just closing the application. When I opened the blog, though, all 190 posts were there. Cool. It now takes me less than five minutes to back up my blog with my faster connection.

Once the file has been exported, click on it and make sure that it contains your posts. Your photos will not visible in this file. You will need to import it to a practice blog to see if they are there.

When you export your blog, it only exports the posts that have already been written. It will not continue to save future posts. You will periodically have to do this if you want to backup your newer posts. This feature only works for posts. It will not save your design elements, your header, or template. Just your posts.