Crap! WP Theme Update Wiped Out Changes

12 years ago

Originally Posted by Bruce Wedding

Don't lecture me. I KNOW I should have used a child theme but the theme I was using, Custom Community Pro, has a bug and the child theme wasn't working right.

So last night, I had a brain fart and upgraded my theme. About 3 seconds later, I realized I'd overwritten my custom CSS file. I do WP backups but only the database.

Is there ANY way to get my custom CSS file back? I use hostgator, can they restore a file? I've checked archive.org but no joy there.

Any ideas?

You can ask them as I believe they do weekly backups. you may have to pay a fee however.

It's also a good idea to keep local backups so you're covered when something like this happens.

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jeffreyhuan

12 years ago

You can contact HostGator to see if they keep any backup copy before your theme updating.

I did this once with Bluehost and they restored the file for me.

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thester

12 years ago

I did exactly the same with the latest wp update also, I contacted my host (webhostbuzz) but was unable to restore anything and they said:
As we can see the size of the index.php file of your theme thesis_184 is NULL (/home/mysite/public_html/wp-content/themes/thesis_184/index.php). We recommend you to try to re-upload your theme.

I still haven't done anything about it yet though as the sites are quite new with no traffic yet anyway and I have old wp-twin back ups I was maybe going to re-install them.

Oh well, it is a great big pain in the ass and was my fault I suppose (Rookie Error) and I hope you also fix it easily :-)

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John Romaine

12 years ago

Roll back.

No big deal.

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Bruce Wedding 12 years ago

Originally Posted by John Romaine

Roll back.

No big deal.

Where is that option, John?
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- John Romaine 12 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Bruce Wedding
  
  Where is that option, John?
  
  Bruce, what I meant was, contact your host and have them restore your website to its previous state, before you made any changes.
  
  Rule #1 - Always keep backups and NEVER work with originals.
  
  Thanks
  
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  BS free SEO services, training and advice - SEO Point
  
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cheaporganicSEO

12 years ago

I'm curious about the roll back function. I have not seen that option in any theme or plugin. Please let us know what you mean. And yes, you should be using a child theme

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Bruce Wedding

12 years ago

Originally Posted by cheaporganicSEO

I'm curious about the roll back function. I have not seen that option in any theme or plugin. Please let us know what you mean. And yes, you should be using a child theme

There is no rollback for a theme upgrade. There's not even a good rollback for a WP update, especially if it changes the database. If Hostgator can't restore, I'll have to rewrite it from scratch.

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ExRat

12 years ago

Hi Bruce,

Unless someone comes along with the answer, I would talk to your host and ask them the question. As you probably know, HG has livehelp.

Were the tweaks extensive?

Did you use a plugin to do the database backup - if not, how did you do it? Are you 100% sure the backup didn't also contain the theme/CSS file?

On the bright side, if you have to do them again by hand, it will probably stick in your head next time

Just keep the altered files in a backup folder, double backup that file and if you update the theme again and drop the old CSS file in, don't forget to check for problems as the new version of the theme may not work properly with the old CSS file.

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Roger Davis

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Bruce Wedding

12 years ago

Originally Posted by ExRat

Hi Bruce,

Were the tweaks extensive?

Hi Roger,

Not really. About 6 CSS classes as far as I can remember. I can find all the names looking at my pages and posts and that should jog my memory.

Originally Posted by ExRat

Did you use a plugin to do the database backup - if not, how did you do it? Are you 100% sure the backup didn't also contain the theme/CSS file?

On the bright side, if you have to do them again by hand, it will probably stick in your head next time

Yep, it was a plugin and I already looked. Nothing but an SQL file in there. Anyway, thanks for the optimistic outlook

Originally Posted by ExRat

Just keep the altered files in a backup folder, double backup that file and if you update the theme again and drop the old CSS file in, don't forget to check for problems as the new version of the theme may not work properly with the old CSS file.

Actually, I have this nagging feeling I DID back the CSS file up somewhere. I'll be looking tomorrow. I didn't see it on my hard drive but I'm hoping I saved it on my host site somewhere safe.

Thanks
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ExRat

12 years ago

Hi Bruce,

Well if you end up doing it yourself and you can remember which part of the theme was altered - the way I did it when I first created a child theme was to use a firefox plugin (I think it's the one called 'web developer') - you just click on the element of the theme that you want to alter (the main font, or the header etc) and it shows you which line(s) of the CSS stylesheet contains the rule(s) for that element, so you can quickly go there and make the changes.

This is great for anyone who isn't CSS conversant yet, because -

a) it gets the job done quickly

b) you start learning CSS as you go along

c) you can mess around with the CSS values and experiment in a non-destructive manner, which again helps you to learn new CSS tricks, plus it helps you to find new design ideas

.........

Actually, I have this nagging feeling I DID back the CSS file up somewhere

You probably already know this, but just as a reminder, if it is on your PC and you don't have a PC full of stylesheets, just use the windows search function (if you are using windows) and put part of the name (EG style, or .css) into the search and that should give you a list of any files on your PC with that word in the title.

The difficult part might be if you have more than one stylesheet, working out which is which - but if you keep them in folders, and the folder is called 'my ABC theme tweaks'.....

Thanks
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Roger Davis

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Bruce Wedding

12 years ago

Originally Posted by ExRat

Well if you end up doing it yourself and you can remember which part of the theme was altered - the way I did it when I first created a child theme was to use a firefox plugin (I think it's the one called 'web developer') - you just click on the element of the theme that you want to alter (the main font, or the header etc) and it shows you which line(s) of the CSS stylesheet contains the rule(s) for that element, so you can quickly go there and make the changes.

Yep, I have the same plugin and it is awesome. I'm familiar with CSS basics and wrote all the original changes myself. In general, they were just div classes to narrow my content but some had fancy rounded corners with shadows. That will be a bit tougher to duplicate.

Originally Posted by ExRat

You probably already know this, but just as a reminder, if it is on your PC and you don't have a PC full of stylesheets, just use the windows search function (if you are using windows) and put part of the name (EG style, or .css) into the search and that should give you a list of any files on your PC with that word in the title.

Actually, I am a huge fan of a free search tool called Everything. It indexes every file on your computer and allows you to search for *.css or styles.css whatever and it INSTANTLY lists all of them in a sortable by name, date, sizee view. You want to find every Photoshop file on your computer? *.psd and there they are in a blink.

Much faster than Windows search. You can get it free here:
Everything Search Engine

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Steve Faber

12 years ago

I hope it's not already too late, but they typically BU on Sunday. You need to contact them ASAP to see if they havbe already overwritten with the new one.

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Crap! WP Theme Update Wiped Out Changes

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