I interrupt my normally scheduled Friday post to bring you this Public Service Announcement.
The Blogger Meltdown has reminded me of the importance of backing up. Last year, I discovered the back-up function on Blogger, and now seems a good time to remind everyone to EXPORT YOUR BLOG!
Here’s how (from my prior post):
Fortunately, Blogger has a back-up function. Go to your Blogger Dashboard > Settings > Basic > Export blog. Blogger creates an XML file you can save to your computer, and then later use to import, should Blogger hiccup all over your blog, or decide that you’re a SPAM blog and delete you outright.
I now have a tidy XML file with all my blog postings, an impressive 5 megs containing nearly a quarter million words. So that’s what I’ve been spending all my time on! Since I have a regular backup system on my computer, my blog now has a triple redundant backup system (assuming I remember to back up the blog on a regular basis).
p.s. My blog is now up to 10 megs of data!
My Friday post will come on Monday, mostly because I’m too afraid to post anything today.
Happy Weekend!
Definitely good advice! I'm glad I just lost one entry. Annoying, but not devastating.
Thanks Susan for that info about backing up the blog. It's something I keep meaning to check into, but kept delaying.
Now I'll do it today, thanks to your prompting. Have a great weekend.
Great advice, thanks, Susan! Have a relaxing weekend.
I recently backed up my blog and uploaded it into SkyDrive; and I have all my posts emailed to myself after I post them. So I'm a little more relaxed than I was before.
Good reminder! Today's crash totally blindsided me. So far, I don't see that I lost any material or comments but I know a TON of folks who did. And that's just a shame.
Oh, boy. I wish I would have known that sooner!
Thanks for the info. I will be backing up ASAP!
~JD
@Steph That's not too bad – but still highly annoying, Blogger! Erg. Have a great weekend!
@DB I think I would have heart fail if I lost everything on my blog – and I'm no good at remembering to back up. Now we'll both be saved some heart-fail! 🙂
@Tere You too, hon!
@Eagle SkyDrive makes me think of SkyNet, which isn't the best of thoughts on this day! I'm glad you have a system worked out!
@Lindsay You are not kidding! I lucked into having written today's post pre-maintenance-outage, so I don't think I've lost anything but a few comments…
I am so frustrated right now. My last post was one of the more "fun" ones I had written and now it's gone. It's a crappy lesson to learn, but at least I've only been doing this for a month and only lost a little bit. I can't imagine how others feel that have lost a lot of entries/comments.
Thanks for the tips about exporting. I will absolutely check it out, but I might wait until after the weekend just in case my old post miraculously appears… A girl can dream, right? 😉
@TL Ack, I'm so sorry! And yes, maybe the Blogger gremlins will let loose and give it back. *crosses fingers* But in the meantime, when you export, you basically save all your blog posts to a file on your computer – it won't keep anything else from being restored, but it will save what you have left. Happy Weekend!
I did this a long time ago but I haven't done it recently. Thanks for the reminder tips 🙂
@Sherrie You and me both! 🙂
Whew! I'd backed up about a week or two ago, but I also save others' comments and things in my gmail as they come through. I delete all my own comments to others, though, and that's what Blogger hasn't brought back yet!
does it save my hilarious comments, too? I'm most disappointed b/c I lost everyone's funny responses to my Thurs. post… 😮
And so this XML file is saved on MY laptop? Just checking! Thanks, Susan! I actually didn't know about this~ <3
Wow, who knew! I'm going to do this right away. I'm a huge proponent of the "back-up." In my previous life I beta tested computerized lighting control boards for theatre. Crashes were constant so we used to chant, "save early, save often," and back up the show data on a floppy disk. Yes, a floppy disk.
Thanks for sharing this tip, Susan. I email my WIP to myself on a frequent basis, but hadn't even considered the need for blog saving.
@Deniz I delete all those comments too, so anything Blogger ate is good and gone. Alas.
@LTM Yes, it saves comments too! Well, the ones on your own blog, at least. And they are funny! 🙂
@Leslie Floppy disk! I remember always worrying I was going to break them. 🙂
@Ruth There's so much stuff I refer to on my blog, it would kill me to lose it. But then I'm a hoarder too… 🙂
Thanks you, Susan. With as crazy as Blogger has been lately, this is great to know.
Rosie
East for Green Eyes
@Rosie You are most welcome! 🙂
Hmmmm…I exported my blog, but I can't find it on my computer. Any ideas?
Oh, wow. I've been doing it the hard way! Hehe! I've been waiting a month and then copying and pasting one blog post at a time. Great advice. Thanks!