Manual Access To Key Blog Maintenance Wizards

With a blog that uses a Layouts template, the key blog maintenance wizards, like

• "Create Post".
• "Edit HTML".
• "Edit Post".
• "Page Elements".
• "Pick New Template".

and others are all related. The blog template contains meta code that makes some of these wizards work. If we mess up the template, some of these wizards may not work anymore. Then, we say simply that we have a "corrupted template". What now? Can we recover from a "corrupted template"?

When you have a corrupted template, the recovery process is simple (though not always painless).

If you backed up the template, restore from backup.

Hoping that you backup the template regularly, simply restore from the last backup. If you hadn't yet learned to backup the template, you have to Pick A New Template (and hopefully now learn to back it up next time).

In some cases, you can't access the Template page - and you can't restore.

But sometimes, the changes that you made to the template cause worse problems. Sometimes, you can't get to "Edit HTML" or "Pick New Template" to restore or rebuild the template - or maybe, you can't load the dashboard. Now, you have to work a bit harder.

1. Login to Blogger, and load the dashboard. If you cannot get the dashboard to load, load your blog, and find the "New Post" link in the navbar.
2. Copy the link behind the "New Post" button, on the dashboard - or the "New Post" link, on the navbar. Either URL will be the same, when you are logged in to Blogger, using the right account.
   

   
   http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=nnnnnnnn#editor

3. Paste that into the browser address window. Do not hit "Enter".
4. Change "editor", in the browser address window, to the appropriate wizard name.
   • Comments, Awaiting Moderation: pendingcomments
   • Comments, Published: publishedcomments
   • Comments, Spam: spamcomments
   • Edit Pages: pages
   • Edit Posts: allposts
   • Layout: pageelements
   • New Post: editor
   • Settings: Basic basicsettings
   • Settings: Posts, comments and sharing postandcommentsettings
   • Settings: Mobile and email emailandmobilesettings
   • Settings: Language and formatting languageandformattingsettings
   • Settings: Search preferences searchsettings
   • Stats: Manage tracking your own pageviews
     (This one is a little tricky.)
   • Settings: Other othersettings
   • Template: template
   • Template Designer: template-editor, as "www.blogger.com/template-editor.g?blogID=nnnnnnnn"
   • Template HTML Editor: templatehtml
5. Now hit "Enter".

The BlogID value is the key detail, in all of this.

Note that the BlogID (for your blog) is the key, here.

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=nnnnnnnn#editor

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=nnnnnnnn#pageelements

etc.

Under the right circumstances, you can use a similar technique to recover (not recreate) a deleted post.

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=nnnnnnnn#editor/target=post;postID=pppppppppppppppp

And, when you identify a malicious / misbehaving blog accessory, you can remove a problem gadget without going through the dashboard menu.

https://www.blogger.com/rearrange?blogID=nnnnnnnn&widgetType=HTML&widgetId=HTML13&action=editWidget§ionId=sidebar-right-1

If the blog is locked by the Blogger spam classification process, all that you'll have will be a dashboard link. Extract the URL behind this link.

• Restore Blog: www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID=nnnnnnnn

In this case, you'll need the lockedBlogID value, to request an unlock review.

Not all links will require BlogID, however.

And here's a couple useful links, that should not require "nnnnnnnn".

• Language: www.blogger.com/language.g
• Logout: www.blogger.com/logout.g

Don't click there, until you need to do so - but one day, if your dashboard isn't accessible, those links may be useful too. And, should you click on the latter link, here's one last useful link:

• Login: www.blogger.com

Some settings are harder to access, than others.

The dashboard Stats - "Manage tracking your own pageviews" setting uses a different format.

This blog is accessed as

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/

The (custom domain) dashboard Stats - "Manage tracking your own pageviews" setting is controlled as

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/b/statsCookieManage

The Stats Setting page, for this blog.



Your blog will have a similar Stats control URL.

https://yourblog.blogspot.com/b/statsCookieManage

Custom domain blogs will be different! Remember that custom domain publishing does not yet support HTTPS.

http://www.yourdomain.com/b/statsCookieManage

or

http://yourblog.yourdomain.com/b/statsCookieManage

If you're wondering if this could be used as a hack, verify vulnerability.

If you're security conscious (which is never a bad thing), all of the above advice may make you very nervous.

Why is he telling people to access the blog wizards, without logging in? I don't want people trying to hack my blog, from his instructions!

And that's a good thing. If you're feeling this uncertainty, reassure yourself. Just clear cache, cookies, and sessions, restart the browser, and try to use one of the links generated, per the above instructions.

Note that this procedure, like many many others, will have better chance of success if you do not excessively filter third party cookies.