Guide
Restore a WordPress site from the Wayback Machine
Last updated 2026-07-13
A WordPress site captured by Archive.org can often be rebuilt as static pages, but the archive does not contain the original WordPress database, dashboard, plugins, or server-side form logic.
What can be recovered
Archived public pages, posts, uploaded images, stylesheets, scripts, and linked public assets can be used when Archive.org captured them.
What cannot be recovered from the archive alone
The WordPress admin dashboard, PHP theme logic, plugin settings, contact-form processing, ecommerce checkout state, and database records are not present in static public captures.
How to rehost the result
The recovered output is prepared for live hosting as static files. You can host it as a static site, use it as rebuild material, or migrate the content into a new WordPress installation manually.
Use the gap report
A recovery-gap report helps separate archive limitations from restoration failures, which is especially important for media-heavy WordPress sites.