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Loss Of Comments After Publishing Blog To A New URL

Recently, we've started to see a number of reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken of comments being lost after a blog is newly published to a Google Custom Domain - or in some cases, to a different Blog*Spot URL. Like many problems involving comments, custom domain problems, and / or URL changes in general, this problem warrants further investigation.

To start with, there are a few questions which are relevant, which may help us diagnose where the problem originates.
  • Blogger Support suggests two useful details.
    1. The exact URL of a post on your old blog which has comments.
    2. The exact URL of a post on your new blog which is missing comments.
  • Where are the comments being lost - can you find them still inventoried in "Edit Posts", for instance?
  • Were the comments moderated, or unmoderated?
  • When were the comments posted (by the blog readers)? When were they approved (if moderated) by you?
  • Is the blog owned (and moderated) by you only, or is it a team effort?
  • From how many different browsers and / or computers have you observed the comments lost?
    • Your computer / your readers computers?
    • Any affinity as to browser or computer operating system?
    • Does your blog have any cultural, geographical, or linguistic relevance?
    • Do you observe this problem with just this one blog, or with other blogs too?
  • What type of comment display does your blog use - Embedded, Popup Window, or Separate Page?
  • Did you buy the domain through Blogger ("Buy A Domain"), or directly from a registrar? If directly from a registrar, did you use a righteous DNS setup?
  • When you observe the lost comments, is the blog "In Transition", or does this happen after Transition ends? Or is this a simple blog rename, to another BlogSpot URL?


This is just a beginning effort, to diagnose the problem. Help us out here, and maybe help yourself.
  • Answer the above questions, either in your forum question, or as a comment below.
  • Subscribe to the comments feed for this post.
  • Check this post occasionally for more questions, and answer more questions when asked.


(Update 2010/05/20): In a private note from Blogger Support, we are told
Comments should usually sync within 24 hours of the time when you changed your URL, most of the time much sooner.
(Update 2010/05/06): We have an update from Blogger Support.
We released a fix on May 1st which should prevent pretty much any 'my comments havent synced after a few days' issues.' So for any person reporting the change after May 1st, it should be a matter of hours. If we see cases where its longer, please let me know!
Note if you change the blog back to the previous URL, you'll just make things worse. That puts the comments through two URL changes. If you change the URL yet again, when you find out that changing the URL back didn't accomplish anything, you're going to have to wait still longer.


Help us to help you, and provide details. Please.

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Comments

casey aubut said…
Purchased a custom Domain through blogger this morning. (using ‘buy a domain’ not through an outside registrar)

Comments are missing from this year. Posts from 2009 are fine. Purchased domain at 10:30am, comments made after 2:30 appear.

Many posts made this year had 600-700 comments. These are critical for me.

Embedded comments.

Tried to access old and new blogs

Aubutfamily.blogspot.com
And
Aubutfamily.com

Both show missing posts.

Also all followers are missing.

Accesses from multiple computers, IE and Chrome. Multiple locations so different IP address, different states. AZ and Michigan. Same issue.

Blog does show in transition.

HELP!! Very scared comments will be missing.
Brian Kuhn said…
I purchased custom domain via blogger which used godaddy. blog in transition still. all comments before purchase are missing. new comments are appearing. will previous comments auto-migrate to the new custom domain after transition finishes?
Avalonne Hall said…
Old url: http://hkldnsfmode.blogspot.com/
New domain: http://www.thegirlfromhkldnsf.com/

1. All the comments I got prior (January 2010-March 2010) to buying a domain still have not returned. They do not exist when viewing the previous posts and even in the edit post section.

2. They are still lost on different computers and browsers, I don't think it has anything to do with the computer or browser, I think they're just lost and have not been restored. They can probably be viewed if I go back to my old url.

3. I have read in forums that other people have been having issues with losing their comments after getting a custom domain, so I'm not the only one. However, I know someone who purchased a domain on Thursday and all her comments returned the next day.

4. My comment display is embedded.

5. I bought my domain through blogger.

6. I bought my domain on Tuesday, March 30th, the blog transition ended on Friday, April 2nd, my comments still haven't returned.
Nitecruzr said…
Brian,

When Blogger fixes the problem, I am certain that they will make every possible effort to ensure that all previous comments are properly migrated and restored.
Avalonne Hall said…
Hey, sorry to write here again, but my comments still have not returned, which is really odd to me. I wish there was one explanation, but I know this is a common problem amongst us bloggers. I hope there will be a solution for this soon. Thanks!
Unknown said…
So, it's been 2 days since it's been out of transition, the comments were never moderated, I am the only user and only blog from my laptop, and the comments still do not appear on the blog or in the edit posts; I've tried Firefox, IE, and Safari. On top of that, the gadgets no longer function properly when viewing the .blogspot url. Both problems started as soon as I signed up for the domain, provided by goDaddy.

Any help?

www.abedouinspath.com
www.abedouinspath.blogspot.com
Nitecruzr said…
Mansour,

I think that we are diagnosing this right now, in a forum discussion.
Mina said…
thansk for answering my question, i hope my comments come back!! i really hope that!
Mina said…
Hi, sorry for another question.
But i still haven't got my comments back?
the Tsaritsa said…
Thank you for the info. I hope within 24 hours the comments will return, but I won't keep my fingers crossed.

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