Never Mess With Things You Don’t Know
Today I have learned the biggest lesson of my life, but before I share that lesson with you let me tell you what thought me that lesson.
Today morning I was doing some experiments with my blog setting (you know general curiosity). So I was playing in my admin panel. I did some successful tweaks in my blog setting which filled over confidence in me (you know what people do in over confidence?). I did the same, I over looked my dear friend MD’ s warning (he forbids me from disclosing his true identity as he is owner of a many sites) not to mess with things that I don’t know. So as I said, I over did some tweaks without realizing what I am doing and how it will affect my blog, and I paid grave price for it.
What I was doing in admin panel?:
I was installing wp-stats plugin which like akismet requires wordpress API key, but even after trying 3 different API keys I was getting this error.
Error from last API Key attempt:
The owner of that API Key (bloggerslab) is not on the access list for this blog (4170955).
To be added to the access list, you must contact support.
So I thought maybe adding my free wordpress url in WordPress address (URL) field(check the image) in general setting will solve the problem, but instead of sorting my problem I made the biggest goof of my life.
I screwed my own blog:
As soon as I inserted my free wordpress blog url and hit the save setting button. I have spoiled my blog and all databases, after this I was not able to login into my control panel so that I can undo my mistake (it was too late to do that). My whole blog was messed, my themes, my plugins everything. It looked like a e-mail page rather than a wordpress blog (I should have take the screenshot to show you guys).
Thanks to Wordpress Database plugin:
But thanks to great Wordpress database plugin which saved my neck. I have taken back-up of my whole database last night so it was a relief to me, but I lost 1 new post (which i published again few minutes back) and 6 precious comments and replies off my readers (I hope they will forgive me and will repost their response).
Many thanks to MD:
Well MD is a wordpress, IPB & vBulletin pro, and a dear friend of mine; he helped me restore my blog to how you see it now. My blog wouldn’t have been as it is now if MD hasn’t helped me.
So friends the moral of the story is don’t mess with technical things if you don’t have friend like MD, and back-up of your database.
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Sorry about your problems. I know how you feel. I had several meltdowns before getting my site up. I wanted to pull my hair out at the roots. Fortunately, it’s been smooth sailing for four weeks. Glad you had someone to help you out.
Writer Dads last blog post..The Eighth Wonder of the World
Thanks buddy for your beautiful comments for me.
Next time take care and be careful about my instructions to you.
By the way I am always there to clear your mess.
Hey, I really like your blog and it has a great design. Really awesome.
John Smiths last blog post..HitTail: Increase Search Engine Traffic
Hi Sunil,
That had to be frustrating and scary. I crashed both of my blogs and fortunately my web host was able to restore them for me. I did something stupid like deleting an important WordPress file. (can’t remember which one it was at the moment)
Barbara Swaffords last blog post..Casual Friday – Open Mic
Oh my god, you are really lucky this time. I can understand how it feels when you see your blog is going for a toss after you have put so much effort build it. Thanks for sharing it. I am sure we will be very careful when we tweak things and keep your lesson in mind.
I am happy that you got your blog back and each content is worth reading.
Cheers
Krishs last blog post..Choosing a blog platform
@All it was really the worst day for me but thank god i had backup of my blog (not full backup though) which saved my neck or i would have lost every thing
but now i have scheduled wp-database backup to backup my blog every night and mail it to me so even if i am not online for weeks i will have the backup of my whole database and my host have installed one auto backup utility which backup my system files (wordpress install,plugins,theme and other files) so i dont get nightmares of loosing data
Oh man that must have been scary! I have converted a blog from Movable Type to Wordpress and that was scary enough )and I had a backup!) – I can’t imagine the panic you must have been in.
peters last blog post..Why Doesn’t Peter Answer Me?
For database backup we blogspot publishers are really luck
we dont have to worry about it no matter how stupid we be at the time
in worst case we will loose our template, but we won’t loose single bite of data
Saras last blog post..How to Find Out if a Co-Worker is Gay
Hi Sara and welcome to Blogger’s Lab
you are right for that reason you guys are really lucky
but when it comes to cool template and great plugins
wordpress publishers get batter options
@Sunil Can’t argue on that
Saras last blog post..Flirting Tips for Lesbians
It’s good that you practice a daily backup of your blog, otherwise everything will be gone by now.
Yan
Blog for Beginnerss last blog post..20 Possible Ways to Optimize Your Blog
Hey! I really like your blog very much. I am grateful too that I always back up my blog every weekend.
Thanks for reminding me to back up my blog very often. Sometimes I neglected it.
You totally should back up your blog often. My blog on the other hand, doesn’t have a lot of posts, so it isn’t that big of a deal. I guess it just depends on how reliable your server is and if they will maintain your databases.
almost a horror story there. it’s a good thing there was a happy ending.
koujis last blog post..haiku poems examples
I can agree with that. You shouldn’t mess around with stuff you don’t know about. I have made the same mistake too but not with my blog. Its great you had help and support and that great plugin. Wouldn’t want to miss out on these informal posts.
mekas last blog post..Earn Free Money and Prizes Online
I am glad you managed to retrieve almost everything. I tinker with my blog settings all the time, but I leave those kinds of fields alone
Tims last blog post..Help Save The Environment With Residential Windpower
Heh…it was almost deja vu reading this article. Not quite the exact same situation, but I managed to royally screw up a wp db a few months back and like you, WP backup saved my @$$. Sometimes it’s fine to play with things that you don’t understand, but do it on a test URL, with a test db. Just make sure to throw a nospiders.txt file in there so google WON’T pick up on it.
Petes last blog post..Stevie Case to present on Metanomics.net
The pointer “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” is quite hard to swallow when we want to optimize all parts, but soon enough, we find out that it would be better to adjust the setting when the right time comes around. This right time would be when we have more information about the setting or have other parts backed up so that nothing can be damaged.
I’m glad you got things sorted. Just remember, like everything else you do on a computer, you should regularly make copies of your work and back up the data.
I learnt the hard way after hard drive failure. It may be a hassle to create back up disks but in the long run it is definitely worth it.
John
The title of the post says it all. I’ve learned this lesson many times over.
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