Archiving Old Content Into a New Blog, Old Themes and URLs
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Hey! So here’s the deal. I want to move my old content out from my current blog into an “archive” blog, per these helpful instructions,
https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/creating-a-new-blog-with-the-same-url
I had wanted to make my “archive” blog the same theme as my current one, to retain the look/feel of my memories, but turns out, my current theme, Chateau by Ignacio Ricci, isn’t hosted anymore on the WP Themes page. The designer did (put up his files on GitHub), so I am tempted to attempt a manual theme import, although I think I need to be using WordPress.com for that, which gives me pause, since I’m no expert on the finer points of WP. Are there any options for me if I want to use an out-of-date theme?
Also, I want to ask the community once more, it is possible for me to rename my current blog from inhonoredglory to, say, inhonoredgloryarchive, and create a new blog called inhonoredglory where I can start afresh? That would enable me to keep the out-of-date theme and still use the URL for a new site. But.. is that completely impossible on WordPress?
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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Hi there, I see you asked something similar here: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/creating-a-new-blog-with-the-same-url?replies=6#post-2980750
When I last changed one of my blog URLs and chose to kept the original URL, I’m trying to remember whether it was the new URL or the old URL that was no longer able to use the old theme. It was treated like an entirely new site with only the current themes available.
If you have some time here, let me go experiment with one of my backup sites and come back to you.
Just FYI – You wouldn’t be able to upload an outside theme unless that site has the business plan, which is pretty steep price-wise for an archive. :)
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Thanks a bunch, justjennifer! Yeah I did post about this earlier. :P Still hoping against hope I can find a nice solution. Apparently doing the outside theme option is out the window lol!
Let me know what you come up with :)
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OK, so here’s the results of my experiment. It’s long, but please read this through before proceeding and don’t do this while distracted. :)
Follow the guide on this page: https://en.support.wordpress.com/changing-blog-address/
At the end of Step 1 where you are taken to your My Blogs WP Admin Dashboard, make sure you pick the correct site from the list there (provided you have more than one site).
Step 4. Read the screen that appears here carefully because if it goes pear-shaped here, it cannot be undone.
Step 5. Add your desired site URL on both lines, ex. mysitearchive. (The wordpress.com part is already filled in there.)
Step 6. Check NO to creating a matching username, as you want to keep your current username (both sites will be under the same username).
Step 7. On “Discard Current Address” leave the check box blank/unchecked as you want to keep your current address.
Click the “Review My Changes” button.
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Step 8. On this screen it will ask you to confirm the changes from the previous screen. If you are sure, click the “I’m sure” button.===
After clicking “I’m sure”, you’ll end up back in the “My Blogs” WP Admin dashboard where you’ll now see two sites:– mysite (your original site URL) which will be empty of all content, stats, and will have access only to the currently available themes.
– mysitearchive (your archive site URL) which will contain your previous content, stats, and access to all themes including retired themes.
At this point, if you want to keep your archive site out of search engines and away from public view, change the site’s privacy settings to Private. https://en.support.wordpress.com/settings/privacy-settings/
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Two things here which do need a Staff reply:
*What I do not know is what happens to any Followers you had on your original site. The site I tested on was a Private site so didn’t have any followers to begin with.
Also, for some reason, after following the Changing A Blog Address guide and one is back in the My Blogs WP Admin Dashboard at the end of the process, the archive site URL shows mysitearchive.wordpress.com, but if you click the link, you’ll end up on mysite.wordpress.com
I refreshed the My Blogs page a half-a-dozen times and it didn’t change. I logged out, cleared my browser cache and cookies, shut down my browser, restarted my computer, opened the browser and logged back in and in My Blogs it still links to the original site URL rather than the new site URL mysitearchive.wordpress.com
The My Sites Dashboard https://wordpress.com/sites does display correctly
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Note to Staff:
It took nearly 24 hours for the My Blogs WP Admin Dashboard to sync to the new site address and name, but it has now synced.
*Still appreciate your reply concerning what happens to Followers when changing a site URL. Thanks.
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Hi there,
I can confirm what @justjennifer also found with her test. Changing a site address effectively creates a brand new site at the old address, so you won’t be able to use the same theme on the same address afterwards if you do this by changing the URL.
All your site’s Likes, Followers and Stats will also be moved to the new address, so none of your followers will be following the original address any more and won’t receive updates of new posts you publish there.
We can move followers and stats back to the original address, but much simpler would be to just export the content and import it to the archive site. In this case the archive site will be without the theme you want, though.
May I ask why you want to do this, though? There is no limit on the number of posts you can have on a site, and as you can set your site to only load a set number of posts on the front page at a time having a large number of posts also has no impact at all on loading times for your site. You are only at 3% of your free media storage, so if you make sure to optimize images before uploading them you still have years of use left before your site will start running out of media storage.
That’s strange. Sorry we didn’t get to the thread sooner to see this in action, but it should have updated near-instantly. Probably something was stuck in the cache on our end, but there’s no way to check on that after the fact. I’ll keep my eyes open for similar reports, though.
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@kokkieh -thanks for the confirmation regarding Followers and Likes. True for Shares as well or does that reset? (I assume it resets because of the change in URL.)
In this case the archive site will be without the theme you want, though.
It was my understanding from the last paragraph of @inhonoredglory’s first post that was the issue. She did receive the export/import advice in her earlier forum post, but as you stated above that would leave her without access to the now-retired theme.
And honestly, I wish I had thought to do this when I finally archived justjennifer.wordpress.com. It would have been so much simpler and saved me a lot of time!
So go, @inhonoredglory for thinking about this in advance. I learned something new here. :) Thanks!
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Share counts will reset if the posts are now on a different URL, yes.
It was my understanding from the last paragraph of @inhonoredglory’s first post that was the issue. She did receive the export/import advice in her earlier forum post, but as you stated above that would leave her without access to the now-retired theme.
Yeah, unfortunately one or the other site will be without the theme, in this case. No way around it.
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But when Changing Blog Address, the retired theme does end up on the archive site and that was what was asked for. :)
About the syncing issue in the My Blogs WP Admin Dashboard: Yes, it was surprising, but here it really is an issue because you land back in that dashboard at the end of that process. Quite confusing.
As far as catching it in time, it was the weekend, nu? ‘-)
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Wow, guys, lots of stuff went down while I was away. I tremendously appreciate the experimenting and noodling about you all went through. Glad my little issue helped you learn something new as well, @justjennifer!
As for your question, @kokkieh,
May I ask why you want to do this, though?
I’ve had inhonoredglory since I was a kid and I’m trying to revamp myself online. I’m not the same person who made posts on that blog in, like, 2011, and I don’t really want them to be searchable when I make new posts in the future. For years I contemplated getting a new username but I’m still attached to “inhonoredglory” for my online presence, plus I have a fair amount of followers on that name in twitter and youtube, and I’m pretty much known as Glory on the internet because of it.
I’m an insane nostalgia hoard, though, hence the question of keeping the posts, theme, etc. Again, I appreciate both of you for the help. Really covered a lot of what I has questions about.
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Then from a search engine viewpoint, it also makes more sense to move your content to a new domain and then make that site Private.
However, it can take time, 4-6 weeks, for search engines to clear out your previously existing content from their cache. https://en.support.wordpress.com/search-engines/
You’re welcome and let us know if you need anything else.
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Re-inventing yourself is definitely a good reason, yes.
In that case, I second @justjennifer’s suggestion. Your archived content won’t be on the same theme, but only you will have access to the site anyway.
Once you’ve moved the content you can then empty the existing site to start over without losing any of your followers already on that site.
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/Confused
@kokkieh – If the new site at the old address is empty, is that even necessary?Also, while reviewing my forum “pillar posts” today, I ran across this information, which I believe would be relevant here as well: https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/change-of-url-address-1?replies=4#post-2853909
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You suggested moving the content to a new domain, which I understood as exporting, not an address change.
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Ah, no. Sorry for any confusion.
The first thread that @inhonoredglory started at https://en.forums.wordpress.com/topic/creating-a-new-blog-with-the-same-url suggested export/import, which results in the new “archive” site not having access to the retired theme.
In this thread, I suggested changing site URL, and that’s what I tested, which results in the new “archive” site being able to keep the retired theme.
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