How to Restore an Archived/Deleted Pages

Even after a page is "deleted" (actually archived), it can still be restored. The CMS retains archived pages for at least a year. (It has to be manually trimmed periodically, so often the archive goes back farther.)

Most of the time, finding and retrieving pages is a straightforward "search and restore" process. However, website histories can get complicated making the restore process a little confusing at times. Troubleshooting tips follow. But if you ever get stuck, feel free to put in a ticket asking for help.

1. Select the "Pages" view from the breadcrumbs at the top of the CMS editing view.
2. Set your search parameters and "Apply Filter":
   • Content (any content on the page or in the title)
   • Date (creation date)
   • Pages(narrow by draft/published/archived status)
     • All pages (all non-archived pages, published and in draft) 
     • All pages including deleted (all non-archived and archived pages)
     • Deleted pages (archived pages only, the most useful category for restores)
     • Draft unpublished (pages that are in draft, but have not been published yet)
     • Live but removed from draft (useful for finding pages that users complain were deleted but still on the site; they deleted the draft page but not the published one.)
     • Published (all published pages only)
   • Page Type (narrow your search by a specific page type, such as Article or Biopage).After you apply search parameters, only the pages (and/or their parent pages) will appear in the Pages hierarchy.
3. Open the page to be retrieved, then select the red "Restore" button to restore a draft copy of the last version of that page.
   
   
4. You can now work with the restored page just like any other draft page on the website.
   
   

My Restored Page Doesn't Appear in Draft

Make sure it's not under a parent page that is still deleted. 

To find out if this is the case, search for your page using the filter Pages>All including deleted so that you can see both the restored page and its archived parent.

Often, the desired page is a child to another deleted/archived page (see screenshot below). You must first restore deleted/archived parent pages and then the target page.

If you leave a restored page under a deleted page, the restored page inherits the deleted parent's visibility. If that page is deleted, then it's invisible in most views.

Once you've moved the restored page to a different, visible location in the Page tree, you may archive any unwanted parent page(s) you had to restore to reach the target.

I Restored the Page, But I Need an Even Earlier Version

Just like any other page on the site, restored pages retain their histories. To restore an earlier version, go into its History Tab and select the desired earlier version.

If the page seems to have no earlier history (and you know there were earlier versions), there's a chance those earlier versions may have been a DIFFERENT PAGE TYPE. The history of each page type (even if it's the same page number) are stored separately. That history will not be visible until your current draft page matches the older page type.