How to undo changes in WordPress: four routes back to the previous version
You can undo changes in WordPress by one of four routes, depending on what changed. You restore the text of a post or page from revisions. You recover a deleted post from the trash. You undo changes made by the chat from the TellMyShop change history. When none of these covers the problem, there's the backup from your host.
Author: The TellMyShop team. A guide for WordPress site and WooCommerce store owners: the cause, the manual fix and the same work in a chat conversation.
Last updated: · 6 min read
What do you want to undo? Choose the route
Each route covers something different, so start by asking what exactly went wrong. Revisions won't help with a menu, and a hosting backup rolls back the whole site, including good changes from the last few days.
| What happened | Best route | What it doesn't cover |
|---|---|---|
| Broken text in a post or page | WordPress revisions | settings, menus, other plugins' fields |
| A post or page in the trash | trash, Restore | content after the trash is emptied |
| A change made by the chat | TellMyShop change history | your own manual changes in the admin |
| Broken theme, plugin, settings | a file copy or a hosting backup | depends on what the backup contains |
| Everything at once, or you don't know what | a full site backup from your host | changes made after it was created |
WordPress revisions: back to yesterday's version of the text
A revision is a saved version of a post or page. WordPress creates one every time you save, and it also autosaves a draft version from time to time. That means you can go back to the text from an hour or a week ago in a few clicks.
- Open the post or page in the editor.
- In the settings panel on the right, click Revisions.
- Move the slider at the top. Red shows what was removed, green what was added.
- To compare any two versions, tick the option to compare any two revisions.
- When you find the right one, click the button to restore this revision.
- Go back to the editor, check the content and update the post.
Restoring creates a new revision itself, so if you pick the wrong version, you can go back the same way. The guide to revision history describes the screen in detail with screenshots.
It is worth knowing the limits before trouble strikes. Revisions cover the title, content and excerpt. They don't cover SEO plugin fields, page settings, menus or fields added by page builders. On some hosts the number of revisions is limited or revisions are turned off, to keep the database from growing. The guide on WordPress revisions explains how to check and set this.
The trash: restoring a deleted post
A deleted post or page goes to the trash first. You restore it under Posts → All Posts or Pages → All Pages, in the Trash tab, with the Restore button. The post returns to its state before deletion, usually as a draft or with its previous status.
By default WordPress empties the trash after 30 days. Whoever looks after the site can shorten or lengthen that time or turn the trash off altogether, as the guide to automatic trash emptying describes. Once the trash is emptied, you can only recover the post from a backup. If the deleted URL was in Google and you don't want to restore it, set up a redirect, which we cover in the guide to 301 redirects in WordPress.
TellMyShop change history: undoing what the chat did
The TellMyShop plugin for WordPress and WooCommerce records in its change history everything your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) changed: what, when, and the value before and after. That covers content, meta descriptions, categories, redirects, image alt text and menus. It is a separate mechanism from WordPress revisions, and it covers only changes the chat made through the plugin.
You: Yesterday you improved the meta descriptions on the blog. I don't like one of them, the one on the post about overwintering roses. Undo it.
Your chat: The change history has yesterday's operation: meta descriptions for 24 posts. I can undo just that one post. Preview:
The other 23 descriptions stay. Undo it?
You: Yes.
Your chat: Undone. The undo itself went into the history too, so you can go back to the new version if you need to.
Card status: waiting for your “yes”old version: How to overwinter roses in the garden: when to cover the shrubs, what to cover them with and when to uncover them in spring.
new version: (no meta description, as before the change)
The values in this conversation are examples. Undoing goes the same way as any write: preview, your ‘yes’, save. You can undo one change or a whole operation, from the conversation or in the plugin panel, under change history.
You can undo most changes this way, but not all of them. Deleting a plugin from the server can't be undone, which is why the chat suggests disabling it first. Before changing a theme or plugin file, the plugin makes a copy of that file, which you can restore with the same switch the file was changed under. Before the first change of the day, the plugin also backs up the whole database, which you can download from the panel. Restoring the whole database is a job for your host or whoever looks after the site.
The change history and undo work in TellMyShop Pro. The free TellMyShop Free version doesn't save anything, so there is nothing to undo. It can, however, check Site Health, for example whether the site returns an error after your change.
A hosting backup: when nothing else works
A hosting backup rolls the whole site back to the state on the day of the backup. It is the last resort when the site has stopped working, when you deleted something permanently, or when you don't know what changed. Most hosts make backups automatically and let you restore them in the customer panel.
Before you restore a backup:
- check its date and think about what has changed since then: orders, comments, new posts,
- if you can, restore only the database or only the files, not everything,
- for a WooCommerce store, ask your host how not to lose orders placed after the backup date.
When the site shows an error after a change, start with the guide on what to do when WordPress isn't working after an update. Often disabling one plugin is enough, without restoring a whole backup.
Read more about how the plugin shows previews and saves changes on the TellMyShop for WordPress and WooCommerce page. Prices are on the pricing page, and the free version is on the TellMyShop Free page.
Questions and answers
Where are post revisions in WordPress?
In the block editor, open the post settings panel on the right and click Revisions, shown with the number of saved versions. A comparison screen with a slider opens. If the item isn't there, the post has no previous version yet or revisions are turned off.
How do I restore a deleted post in WordPress?
Go to Posts → All Posts and click the Trash tab. Hover over the post and click Restore. By default WordPress keeps posts in the trash for 30 days, and once the trash is emptied only a backup is left.
Will revisions undo changes to settings, menus or the theme?
No. Revisions save the content, title and excerpt of a post or page. They don't cover settings, menus, widgets, other plugins' fields or theme files. For those you need a backup, or the change history of the tool you made the change with.
Will the TellMyShop change history undo my manual edits?
No. The change history covers only changes made by the chat through the TellMyShop plugin. Changes you make yourself in the admin you undo with WordPress revisions or from a backup.
Can every change in WordPress be reversed?
Not every one. An emptied trash, a plugin deleted along with its data, or a file overwritten without a copy all need a backup from your host. So before bigger changes, it is worth checking when the last backup was made.
WordPress is a trademark of the WordPress Foundation. WooCommerce is a trademark of Automattic Inc. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic PBC. ChatGPT and OpenAI are trademarks of OpenAI. TellMyShop is not affiliated with these companies.