Using the site address of a website I deleted
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Hi, I’m new to WordPress and am trying to design a website.
I started a practice site but decided to try another one with a different template. As such, I deleted my first site – not realizing I couldn’t reuse that site address. I thought when the site was deleted I could use the free site address on my other site but that doesn’t seem to be the case.
Is there anyway to obtain the site address again after deletion? I checked my sites deletion folder and don’t see it even though I believe it’s been less than 30 days. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to moderators and staff)
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When you deleted your site, its was very clearly stated the site address would be locked forever. You even had to confirm you understood the consequences – https://wordpress.com/support/delete-site/#how-to-delete-your-site
If you don’t see the site address under your Deleted Sites, it means that site cannot be restored.
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@staartmees maybe that highlighted section of the support doc needs to be updated since there is now a way for a site owner to restore a deleted site within the first 30 days following deletion. AFAIK, an exception to that is if the site owner used the change site URL utility, since that is not a deletion.
@shighfield12 Adding to what @staartmees said, if it’s been less than 30 days and you are logged in with the site owner account, check out this guide too https://wordpress.com/support/delete-site/#restore-a-deleted-site
Also, you do not need to delete a site/create a new site to change themes: https://wordpress.com/support/themes/changing-themes/
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@2020testjj If you scroll down in the link @staartmees provided it does give instructions on how to recover a deleted site. However the OP created their account less than 30 days ago and said “I checked my sites deletion folder and don’t see it even though I believe it’s been less than 30 days” so perhaps that is why @staartmees said “If you don’t see the site address under your Deleted Sites, it means that site cannot be restored.” We have to assume the OP is logged into the right account however.
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@themagicrobot thank you for pointing that out. Since the account that the OP is posting from here in the forums was created less than 30 days ago, it would seem reasonable that the deleted site could be recovered.
@shighfield12 let us know the address of the WordPress.com site you’re trying to recover. As long as you didn’t change that site’s address to something else (rather than deleting it), you should see it in your deleted sites at https://wordpress.com/sites?status=deleted If it is there, you can follow the guide I linked to previously. If you did change the site address then you won’t be able to recover the earlier WordPress.com site address.
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@2020testjj Or the OP created and deleted that site using another account. It’s sometimes hard to get all necessary information from OP and unfortunately nowadays support from Staff is minimal …
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Hi, thank you all for your help!
I definitely misunderstood when I was deleting the site. Looking at the notification, it did say, “Once deleted, your domain ***** will also become unavailable.” However, I had thought this meant the site address would be unavailable for a set time and would unlock after a certain period (i.e. 30 days). Did not realize it would be potentially forever.
I did use this account to create and delete it but cannot find it under the 30 day deletion folder. This is the account I used to create the website and delete it. Will the site address ever become available again? Thank you.
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If you don’t see that site under “Deleted Sites”, it means cannot be restored. and no, the address will never become available again.
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@sfield2024 additionally to what my fellow volunteer @staartmees said, since you said the site in question was created with this account you are posting from here in the community forums, you should have also received an email from WordPress.com to the email address listed in your account following deletion of your site. You can reply to that email to contact support directly and request they revert the deletion. The subject line of that email would have been something like “Site ‘Your Site Title’ at https:// yoursite.wordpress.com deleted”.
Although this thread has been marked for Staff assistance, they have a long queue waiting for their attention. As the 30-day cutoff is coming up, you’ll want to reply to that email as soon as possible.
Best wishes.
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And to anyone else reading this thread that has a free site and struggling with a particular issue and consequently thinking of deleting their site to “start again”…DON’T DO IT. It amazes me how many times people regret their decision. The site address chosen for their first site was usually their preferred one. It’s better to empty the site of content. Or create another free site to practice with. Content from that site could then be transferred to your “main” site.
It is only recently that WordPress.com has given users the ability to recover deleted sites themselves (within 30 days). Previously that required staff intervention. And the way WordPress.com messes about with core features there is no guarantee the undelete feature will stay. (I’m still trying to understand why the paid plans changed names for a few weeks and then changed back?!?).
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Howdy :) I’ll be glad to take a look at this and provide more help if needed.
When I look at this, I do not see a deleted site. Is this the one you need our help with?
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@staff-zinnia Thank you for your help! Upon further review, I think I accidently changed the name address of the site rather than deleting it (which is why it’s not showing up when I look at deleted sites). Is there any way of obtaining a previous site address after changing it? Or is it gone for good? Thank you again.
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@staff-zinnia Also, is it at all possible to privatize the site address in your previous reply? As well as remove references to old username in other replies? Thank you.
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When you rename a site it is very clearly stated the old name would be locked forever. You even had to confirm you understood the consequences. In short: there is no way back to the old name – https://wordpress.com/support/changing-site-address/#change-your-word-press-com-site-address
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I’ll confirm that the site address is not recycled and cannot be used again. I’ve also updated my last reply for you.
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