Accidentally deleted all categories!!

  • This is a disaster ?? … Guess this is one of those noob things …

    I installed the plugin “more types”, so as to create a podcast episode type. Seemed to work, and I now have my custom “Podcast” menu right under “Posts” in the admin menu. I notice under that that my existing categories are all replicated in my Podcast type.

    Now my assumption was that I now have a new categories database which has been created by some default with my existing blog categories. So I figure “OK, I don’t want all those categories for the podcast. So I’ll just delete them from this Podcast panel, and replace them with the one generic category I want for the podcast.” Made perfect sense to this noob …

    Well then I go into my original Posts (i.e. blog) panel – and behold all my categories are gone!!!

    I’ve downloaded a backup of my WP installation thanks to my web host. What files would I want to replace to recover the situation?

    Thanks. (Desperate!)

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Moderator cubecolour

    (@numeeja)

    You need to restore the database backup, not the files. I wouldn’t trust an untested backup though so it would be best if you can create a new database, restore the backup file to that and then switch WordPress to use the new database in your wp-config.php

    Thread Starter en0ch

    (@en0ch)

    ah, a reply ?? Thanks so much ..

    Sadly I’m too noob to identify which files that would be. Can you give me some path details? Thanks.

    Moderator cubecolour

    (@numeeja)

    You need to ask your host for the database backup (assuming they take & archive them) if you do not take your own backups – it will not be a file within the WordPress files in the public_html files from the web server.

    Thread Starter en0ch

    (@en0ch)

    Uh, huh .. that sounds not quite so good ?? I’m pretty sure the hosts don’t backup the database (but I’ll check).

    Possible plan B: I installed a plugin called “Updraft” a while back, and it’s been nicely saving backups for me, the last of which was yesterday. It saves a set of archives with these names:

    backup-myblogname-uploads.zip
    backup-myblogname-themes.zip
    backup-myblogname-plugins.zip
    backup-myblogname-db.gz
    I’m guessing the last of these would be the one I want?? .. I’ve downloaded that, and it produces a Unix Executable File. What do I do with that?

    (My desktop is a mac btw.)

    Thread Starter en0ch

    (@en0ch)

    Good news. I figured it out ?? …. Found there was another way to download the backed up database through the plugin settings page. That resulted in a text document. Now all restored through phpmyadmin. Happy camper, and feeling marginally more geeky

    Moderator cubecolour

    (@numeeja)

    Great! Glad you got it restored.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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