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Undoing a mistake

Every way to undo a mistake in Exponential, in plain steps - discard a draft, go back to an earlier version, compare versions, restore a removed item from the trash - and the few things that cannot be undone.

  • Topic type: Concept
  • For: Visitors Editors Non-technical people
  • doc.help.non-technical-people.first-steps.undoing-a-mistake
  • Last changed
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On this page

Mistakes happen to everyone. Exponential keeps enough history that almost every mistake can be undone by you, in the browser, in a minute.

Contents

  1. Which mistake?
  2. You have not published yet
  3. You published something wrong
  4. You removed something
  5. What cannot be undone
  6. When to call for help

Which mistake?

MistakeGo to
I am still in the edit form and messed it upYou have not published yet
I published a wrong text or pictureYou published something wrong
I removed a page that should still be thereYou removed something
I moved a page to the wrong placeUse Move again and choose the right place (Move, copy and remove)

You have not published yet

Press Discard draft and confirm. Your draft is thrown away and the page stays exactly as it was. Then start again with Edit. Nothing reached the site.

You published something wrong

The previous version is still there, in the drawer.

  1. Open the item.
  2. Press Manage versions: the round button with a clock.
  3. Find the version before your change. To be sure, use Compare: choose two versions and press Show differences; changes are marked field by field.
  4. Under New draft from this version, in, choose the language and press Make a new draft.
  5. Check the new draft and press Send for publishing.

The good version is back. Your wrong version stays in the history, which is fine (Go back to an earlier version).

If the wrong content is harmful (personal data, something offensive), first hide the item so it disappears from the site at once (Hiding and removing), then fix it calmly.

You removed something

Removed items go to the trash, at the bottom of the tree in the left column.

  1. Open Trash.
  2. Find the item; the filters narrow the list by who removed it, its type and the date.
  3. Select it and press Restore.

It goes back to its old place if that still exists. If its parent folder is in the trash too, restore the parent first (Remove and restore). Your role decides whether you may restore; if you may not, ask your administrator quickly.

What cannot be undone

Be careful with these, and leave them to your administrator when in doubt:

  • Empty trash and Remove selected inside the trash delete for good.
  • Remove selected versions deletes old versions for good.
  • Very old versions are removed automatically when an item has reached the site's version limit.
  • A newsletter that was sent cannot be unsent.
  • An e-mail notification that went out to followers cannot be called back.

For anything beyond this, the last resort is your host's backup (Backups).

When to call for help

Call your administrator or host when the trash is empty and something is gone, when a whole part of the site looks wrong, or when you are not sure what happened. Note what you did, the time and the address of the page (How to ask for help).

Become an Exponential Partner. Partners share their information, provide funding, contribute back and develop the products with us, and that is how Exponential grows. A partner website and dashboard are planned for mid-2027: please become a partner today to speed up our growth rate and land new features faster. Start with Partners: start here and How to apply.

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