{"id":138,"date":"2005-04-15T20:17:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-15T14:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/15\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T15:10:19","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T09:40:19","slug":"how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Restore Lost Blogger Template Code (Theme Recovery 2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you lost your Blogger theme partly or fully? It happened to me back in 2005: after a republishing error only half of my template code was left. The main column still showed, but half the sidebar and the whole footer had vanished. If you need to <strong>restore lost Blogger template code<\/strong> in 2026, this guide covers every recovery option, from your own backups to the Wayback Machine, and how to make sure it never happens again.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-67719\" src=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/restore-blogger-theme-code-2026.webp\" alt=\"Restore lost Blogger template code\" width=\"1200\" height=\"630\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/restore-blogger-theme-code-2026.webp 1200w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/restore-blogger-theme-code-2026-300x158.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/restore-blogger-theme-code-2026-1024x538.webp 1024w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/restore-blogger-theme-code-2026-150x79.webp 150w, https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/restore-blogger-theme-code-2026-768x403.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> If you have a theme backup (.xml), go to Blogger &gt; Theme, click the down arrow next to Customize and choose Restore, then upload the file. No backup? Copy whatever code is left, then look for an old copy of your blog in the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and rebuild from its page source. As a last resort, apply a fresh Blogger theme and redo your customizations. Prevent it by clicking Backup every time you edit your theme.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_89 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6addfcbac94f3\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"ez-toc-cssicon\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #1a202c;color:#1a202c\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6addfcbac94f3\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#1_Save_whatever_code_is_left\" >1. Save whatever code is left<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#2_Restore_lost_Blogger_template_code_from_a_backup\" >2. Restore lost Blogger template code from a backup<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#3_No_backup_Check_the_Wayback_Machine\" >3. No backup? Check the Wayback Machine<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#4_Quick_fix_apply_a_fresh_theme\" >4. Quick fix: apply a fresh theme<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#5_Restore_lost_posts_too\" >5. Restore lost posts too<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-6\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#How_to_keep_your_Blogger_theme_safe\" >How to keep your Blogger theme safe<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-7\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#FAQ\" >FAQ<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-8\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#Can_Blogger_restore_a_previous_version_of_my_theme\" >Can Blogger restore a previous version of my theme?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-9\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#Will_changing_my_Blogger_theme_delete_my_posts\" >Will changing my Blogger theme delete my posts?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-10\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#Where_is_the_theme_backup_option_in_Blogger\" >Where is the theme backup option in Blogger?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-11\" href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/04\/how-to-restore-lost-blogger-template-code\/#Can_I_recover_my_theme_from_Googles_cache\" >Can I recover my theme from Google&#8217;s cache?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"1_Save_whatever_code_is_left\"><\/span>1. Save whatever code is left<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Before you change anything, save what still works. Open <strong>Theme &gt; Customize (down arrow) &gt; Edit HTML<\/strong>, select all the code and paste it into a plain-text editor like Notepad or TextEdit. Even a broken theme holds your custom CSS colors, widget settings, AdSense placements and tracking codes, which you can copy into a new theme later.<\/p>\n<p>You can also open your live blog, view the page source (Ctrl+U in most browsers) and save it. It is rendered HTML rather than the theme XML, but it shows your CSS and the scripts you added.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"2_Restore_lost_Blogger_template_code_from_a_backup\"><\/span>2. Restore lost Blogger template code from a backup<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If you ever downloaded a theme backup, this is the fastest fix:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Sign in to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.blogger.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Blogger<\/strong><\/a> and choose your blog.<\/li>\n<li>Click <strong>Theme<\/strong> in the left menu.<\/li>\n<li>Click the down arrow next to <strong>Customize<\/strong> and choose <strong>Restore<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Upload your saved .xml theme file and confirm.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Alternatively, open <strong>Edit HTML<\/strong>, delete the existing code, paste the full contents of your backup file and save. Pasting tends to give a cleaner result because it doesn&#8217;t keep leftover widgets from the broken theme.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"3_No_backup_Check_the_Wayback_Machine\"><\/span>3. No backup? Check the Wayback Machine<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>In 2005 the first trick was Google&#8217;s &#8220;Cached&#8221; link, which showed the last copy Googlebot saw. Google retired cached pages in 2024, so today the best source is the <a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Internet Archive Wayback Machine<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Enter your blog&#8217;s address and pick the most recent snapshot from before the problem.<\/li>\n<li>View the page source to recover your CSS, widget HTML and scripts.<\/li>\n<li>Copy those pieces into a working theme in Edit HTML.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The older and more popular your blog, the more snapshots it will have. You won&#8217;t get the original theme XML this way, but you can rebuild most of the look.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"4_Quick_fix_apply_a_fresh_theme\"><\/span>4. Quick fix: apply a fresh theme<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>If the blog is badly broken and you need it working right away, go to <strong>Theme<\/strong>, pick one of Blogger&#8217;s built-in themes (Contempo, Soho, Emporio, Notable, Essential and others) and apply it. Your posts, pages and comments are not affected; only the design and theme code change. Then add back your customizations from the code you saved in step 1. Our guide on how to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2010\/03\/blogger-template-designer\/\">customize your Blogger theme<\/a> walks through colors, fonts and layout.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"5_Restore_lost_posts_too\"><\/span>5. Restore lost posts too<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A theme problem never deletes posts, but if content is also missing, import a content backup from <strong>Settings &gt; Manage blog &gt; Import content<\/strong> using a Blogger .xml backup or the feed.atom file from <a href=\"https:\/\/takeout.google.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Google Takeout<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_to_keep_your_Blogger_theme_safe\"><\/span>How to keep your Blogger theme safe<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Back up before every edit:<\/strong> Theme &gt; down arrow next to Customize &gt; Backup &gt; Download. Name the file by date (for example myblog-2026-10-21.xml) so you can go back to any version, just as I kept dated Notepad copies years ago.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Keep copies in two places,<\/strong> such as your computer and a cloud drive.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Test big changes on a test blog<\/strong> before touching your main one.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Back up content regularly<\/strong> as well. See our full guide to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2005\/11\/back-up-your-blogger-blog\/\">back up your Blogger blog<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you&#8217;ve had enough of theme headaches, you can also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/2006\/03\/import-blogger-posts-comments-to-wordpress\/\">import Blogger to WordPress<\/a>. Believe me, rebuilding months of customizations from scratch is slow, frustrating work. Saving a copy of your theme today takes ten seconds.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"FAQ\"><\/span>FAQ<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_Blogger_restore_a_previous_version_of_my_theme\"><\/span>Can Blogger restore a previous version of my theme?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>No. Blogger doesn&#8217;t keep a theme revision history, so you can only restore a backup file you downloaded yourself.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Will_changing_my_Blogger_theme_delete_my_posts\"><\/span>Will changing my Blogger theme delete my posts?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>No. Posts, pages and comments are stored separately from the theme. You may need to re-add some gadgets.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Where_is_the_theme_backup_option_in_Blogger\"><\/span>Where is the theme backup option in Blogger?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Go to Theme, click the down arrow next to Customize, then choose Backup to download or Restore to upload.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Can_I_recover_my_theme_from_Googles_cache\"><\/span>Can I recover my theme from Google&#8217;s cache?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Not anymore. Google removed cached page links in 2024. Use the Internet Archive Wayback Machine instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you lost your Blogger theme partly or fully? It happened to me back in 2005: after a republishing error&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":67719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67726,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions\/67726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.quickonlinetips.com\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}