Thursday, February 28, 2019

Travel Break: Helping out a Blog Buddy and a Caution for Us All

This is a short post about good news and bad news (or at least, a caution.)


The good news is the Diane's Blog, Lavender Dreams, is back. So if you are a follower and missed her story, you can find her right where she always was. If you haven't yet discovered her, you may well enjoy her beautiful walks and the wonderful wildlife she photographs. Cheers and a toast!


The bad news is that for some heart-stopping days, her blog was removed by Google -- not because someone reported her for anything but because an automated piece of software (a bot) roaming Blogger for pre-programmed words of woe detected some glitch and killed the whole blog -- without warning or notification or any idea of how to fix it. Diane was sick at heart. She's been bloggging in one way or another since 2005 and Lavender Dreams for ten years.


Somehow or other, Diane got it back. But it serves as a warning to us all -- BACK UP YOUR BLOG! In blogger, go to Settings / Other / Save Blog to Computer. It doesn't take long. Good luck!


Now, time for tea.


Or something stronger.

37 comments:

Linda @ A La Carte said...

I am so happy Diane got her blog back. It's scary to think of losing something we have put so much of our heart into. I need to back my blog up pronto.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

I also posted about the loss of Diane's blog and she was mystified at its reappearance, but glad to know she's back. She did say that she had backed it up.

Lilbitbrit said...

Thank you for that vital information. I just did that. Glad Diane's blog is back.

bobbie said...

I felt SO bad for her!!! I'm glad she is back ~

And yes, I backed mine up ASAP.

Misadventures of Widowhood said...

Wow, that is the scariest thing I've heard in a long time! We really need those horseshoes you have in your photo to protect our blogs.

Love the Irish shamrocks cup.

Julia @ Vintage with Laces said...

I'm glad Diane was able to save her blog. Thank you so much for the info on the back-up, Jeanie!

Recep Hilmi TUFAN | rehitu.com said...

Thanks for the reminder! It is so vital for bloggers!

William Kendall said...

What a headache that was for her.

Valerie-Jael said...

The same thing happened to me in 2010, and it took 3 days before my blog was 'released' by blogger again- it was very scary! Valerie

Tracy said...

How awful your friend Diane's blog was wiped out like that! And just as amazing that she got it back! I don't know if I've ever backed up my blog... yikes! I will do that tonight! I'll definitely have a cup of tea avec while considering all this... Many thanks, Jeanie! ((HUGS))

David M. Gascoigne, said...

Good advice for us all. It sure would be a shame to lose it. The biggest frustration of all for Diane must have been not ever being able to talk to a human.

eileeninmd said...

Hello Jeanie,

Good advice and message.. I have backed up my blog and will do it at least once a month now. Thanks for sharing the message. Loved your images! Wishing you a Happy March! Enjoy your day, have a great weekend!

Bleubeard and Elizabeth said...

Mine was offline for an entire afternoon. I had to call their 800 number to get it back. This was years ago, though. I tried to back up my blog and it only backed up a single day. I also backed up the theme. I wonder if I need to back it up daily, weekly, or ??? I have no idea what I would do if I lost my blog. I was thinking about what she said was a bot had deleted her blog. Now I'm not political or religious on my blog, but I have made a few comments about our commander in chief recently.

I LOVE your photos sharing the love!!

coffeeontheporchwithme said...

I backed up my blog after hearing about this, but haven't checked to see if it backed up the whole thing, or just one post, as bluebeard and elizabeth said. I've been thinking about buying an external hard drive. One of these days... -Jenn

Linda d said...

Never even occurred to me. I’ll be doing it today. Thanks Jeanie. Happy Friday!

NanaDiana said...

Thanks for spreading the word!! It is wonderful that we can all help each other out here in our blogland world.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!! xo Diana

Penny from Enjoying The Simple Things said...

I was glad Diana got her blog back. That is so scary and sad. I don't use Blogger.

La Table De Nana said...

Thanks! I had never done it!Hope it saved it all..Glad your friend got it back!!

Pam Richardson said...

Yay, that is good news! Happy weekend Jeanie!

shoreacres said...

You've reminded me that I began manually backing up my blog, and then got lazy. We don't have a way to do it automatically with WordPress (at least, that I can understand), but I'm happy with the system I've devised. All I have to do is do it -- isn't that just the way with so many things!

Lauren @ My Wonderfully Made said...

I know - that was the craziest thing! I think it served us all in reminding us to back up our blogs! I backed mine up but I wonder just how easy it is to restore using the back up (hopefully I never have to find out!). I realized I've been blogging since 2011 . . . that's a lot of history to lose!! That cup and saucer is to DIE for! Love love love it!

Thelma said...

Thanks. I just backed mine up. My blog is my Journal. I wouldn't want to lose it.
However, Google+ quit with Blogger and they have deleted all my comments and I had a lot of followers on Google+. which I lost also.
Thanks for your advice and I will backup periodically .

Karen said...

I know too many who have had this issue. I only keep a few posts live and then remove them to a safe file off line.
Beautiful sunshiny day our end!

Preppy Empty Nester said...

I love that painting of the heart, Jeanie. Thanks for telling me how to save my blog!! Have a great weekend.

junemac2 said...

Loving your blog and have added to follow more. so sorry for Diane,and will pop by now. I will take heed of your warning too. Thank you

Hugs June x

Mae Travels said...

Blogs can disappear for many reasons. Louise Vee wrote a wonderful American food history blog (with her collections of food ads and such) for many years, and it disappeared around the time of her death last fall. I suspect that she had been paying to have it hosted at a commercial site, and thus it was no longer being paid. Now this. So sad, and no guarantees for any host, paid or unpaid.

I have been backing up my posts every month using "save page" on the file menu. Comments aren't included, but one can't have everything. It keeps the small version of the images as well. So at least it's basic.

best... mae at maefood.blogspot.com

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

It really was a nightmare and we never got any explanation of how or why it was restored. So I cleaned things up some but it's hard to know what else to do! I have SO many links in all the posts I've done over the years, I can't check them all! I'm so glad you are helping to spread the word that I'm back. And the first thing we did was back up my blog! WHEW! Thanks for the support and encouragement. It has meant so much to me! Happy blogging! Sweet hugs, Diane

~Lavender Dreamer~ said...

PS I would say I would like a glass of wine but we are having pizza tonight so I'll just have a beer! heehee!

Running on empty said...

Thanks for the warning. Stupid AI. And to think it is going to take most of the jobs, we will all go insane with frustration especially if autocorrupt is anything to go on. How long have those big corps had to fix that?

My computer is my iPad. The storage is almost full. Does it say how to save to the cloud on iPad? I did save some posts to the Wayback machine a year or so ago then got too busy.

Cath

Judy at GoldCountryCottage said...

Thanks, Jeanie, for taking up the cause. I'm happy for Diane that she got everything back. I'm still having some issues but now that I have backed up my blog, at least, I think, I won't have to go through that..Happy Weekend..xxoJudy

Iris Flavia said...

Wow. This is a bummer. I kept telling Ingo it's for free, blogger, and they can do what they want at any time.
Glad she got it all back!!!
And great pics btw!

Pamela said...

Thanks for the backup advice. When I went to the settings page, I was surprised to see that Yes was checked for adult content!

Marilyn Miller said...

Now you know I would love that tea cup. What a perfect one for this month. I always love the horseshoes too, so different and doesn't really fit my decor but I do love them.

Lisa from Lisa's Yarns said...

I did not know how to back up my blog - I will do that this week. I would be heart broken if I lost my blog content!!!

Jenny Woolf said...

Thanks for the warning! I had no idea Google could just remove blogs. So I will go right now and save my blog to computer - I'd be sorry to lose something I'd put so much effort into over the years. I will also check out Diane's blog.

The French Hutch said...

I was following along with all the bloggers about Diane's blog. Good for Diane, she didn't give up on reinstating her blog and fought the big giant and won. It's terrible how this happened and cause her so much stress for no reason on her part. I hope Google takes notice of all of us and how we stick together! Thanks for the caution, I'm going now to make sure my settings are right.

I need orange said...

THanks for the backup tip and instructions.

Losing so many years of work would be awful!

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