Saturday, October 07, 2006

Switching from Bloggger Beta back to Blogger classic

There are quite a number of people who have been invited to Blogger Beta, and have expressed a desparate desire to switch back to Blogger classic (See Wesley's comment in the post Testing non-Blogger Beta blogger commenting on Blogger Beta blogs. There have other complaints, like being uanable to access their pre-Blogger Beta blogs in their account, etc. There are bugs which have been fixed and there is an official blog which is all about existing bugs and which bugs have been fixed, etc. Blogger Buzz have announced a new blog about what bugs the engineers are aware of, what’s being worked on, and when have bugs been fixed. Their announcement of the launch of the blog and a link to the blog is in this post: Known Issues for Blogger in Beta. I hope that gives them some consolation about their problems in knowing that Blogger is working at them.

For those who really want to switch back, I wish the title of this blog could have been "Testing switching from Blogger Beta to Blogger classic", but unfortunately I wasn't one of those who were invited, and this beta blog was made using a gmail account which is not connected to any of my other Blogger classic blogs. So I am afraid I am unable to test anything to see if that is possible or not, but to the best of my knowledge and from frequent readings of the posts in the Google Blogger Help group, it is not possible.

What is possible is to revert a migrated Blogger Beta blog back to the last saved Blogger classic template which however will mean losing many of the useful features of Blogger Beta like labels (categories), and I think layout too. The way to do it is described below.

To change back to a Blogger classic template, log into Dashboard, then for the relevant blog, click LAYOUT, then click EDIT HTML. The post editor will open.

Blogger Beta edit HTML

It is highly recommended to save a copy of your current template to your computer DOWNLOAD FULL TEMPLATE at the top of the post editor. Then at the bottom of the post editor, click REVERT TO CLASSIC TEMPLATE.

Blogger Beta, revert to classic template

Clicking on REVERT TO CLASSIC TEMPLATE will bring a pop-up with a reassuring message "If you revert to your Classic template, you will still be able to recover your current design." Click OK, and your template will then be reverted to the last saved template of your pre-beta blog. You will then be able to do many of the things that you have been used to doing with your pre-migrated blog. You will, however, lose the new features of Blogger Beta such labels and Layout. (If you are already signed in and in the posting mode (tab) or others, then click the TEMPLATE tab and you will see the EDIT HTML sub-tab. Do as above to get a new Blogger classic template.)

18 comments:

Hugh W said...

my blogger classic predates my google mail so it is tied to an aol.com email address and log on
http://www.blogger.com/profile/1770896

I was invited to gmail as an existing blogger

adsense uses another aol.com for both classic and beta

I use the gmail acccount for blogger beta


In Firefox on the Mac the Blog This button links to mmy classic account eben though i am blogging in blogger beta as well

using an itel mac I have parallels and so have classic blogger open in MS IE on Win XP

and the beta on Firefox on Mac OS 10.4.8

When I have populated the beta blogs a little more
i will update the side bars on all my blogs to completely cross links blogs and sites

so aa in any beta best to use a seperate account for testing

Experience gmailers will know how to open a second account anyway by invitiation to htemselves at a fourth unconnected email address readable by POP mail (alongside imap at aol for example)

Hugh W

http://beta.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207

Hugh W said...

my blogger classic predates my google mail so it is tied to an aol.com email address and log on
http://www.blogger.com/profile/1770896

I was invited to gmail as an existing blogger

adsense uses another aol.com for both classic and beta

I use the gmail acccount for blogger beta


In Firefox on the Mac the Blog This button links to mmy classic account eben though i am blogging in blogger beta as well

using an itel mac I have parallels and so have classic blogger open in MS IE on Win XP

and the beta on Firefox on Mac OS 10.4.8

When I have populated the beta blogs a little more
i will update the side bars on all my blogs to completely cross links blogs and sites

so aa in any beta best to use a seperate account for testing

Experience gmailers will know how to open a second account anyway by invitiation to htemselves at a fourth unconnected email address readable by POP mail (alongside imap at aol for example)

Hugh W

http://beta.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207

Hugh W said...

my blogger classic predates my google mail so it is tied to an aol.com email address and log on
http://www.blogger.com/profile/1770896

I was invited to gmail as an existing blogger

adsense uses another aol.com for both classic and beta

I use the gmail acccount for blogger beta


In Firefox on the Mac the Blog This button links to mmy classic account eben though i am blogging in blogger beta as well

using an itel mac I have parallels and so have classic blogger open in MS IE on Win XP

and the beta on Firefox on Mac OS 10.4.8

When I have populated the beta blogs a little more
i will update the side bars on all my blogs to completely cross links blogs and sites

so aa in any beta best to use a seperate account for testing

Experience gmailers will know how to open a second account anyway by invitiation to htemselves at a fourth unconnected email address readable by POP mail (alongside imap at aol for example)

Hugh W

http://beta.blogger.com/profile/12226946909815324207

Manature said...

I am afraid I am a non-native English speaker and have not understood your comment.

I think you mentioned something about starting another beta account via invitation. There is no need for invitation. You can sign up for one at Blogger Beta

nobody said...

Isn't it really possible to switch back to pre-beta Blogger?!!!!
oh my GOD!!!

Manature said...

I thought I did make clear in the post that I believe it is not possible, but I can't talk from experience because I was not invited to the beta program, so I can't test that. And this blog was started as a new beta blog.

Julie said...

Thank you so much for providing all these instructions for switching back to blogger classic!You have literally saved my life!

Manature said...

Glad it helped you.

If you decide to stick with the classic template, the posts (some relevant only to classic template, some relevant to both) in my blogs should be helpful to you. Hope you visit my blogs in the signature lines

Peter
Blogger Tips and Tricks
Dummies Guide to Google Blogger

Anonymous said...

I can`t do it like you said. I don`t get the option in my template changes to save.

Feeling like shit. My blog is screwed becouse of Beta.

If you think it`s of any help, i could invite you for a gmail account?

Manature said...

Thanks for your offer of a gmail account. I do have a gmail address. It is accessible via the mailto: HTML I put on my template (you will see if as eMail Me in the bottom of my sidebar).

Soullesskid. said...

can you change the blogger beta to the old blogger?

Manature said...

Hi Music~gal,

As mentioned in the post, you can't change a Blogger Beta (now out of beta) account into the old Blogger account. You can only revert to the old classic template. Even if you can, eventually everyone on the old Blogger account will be switched over to the new Blogger account whether we want it or not.

Peter aka Enviroman
Enviroman Says

Sha said...

Hi,
I've just created a blog and I don't know why, I think it is in the classic version yet... Tried to go "customize design" and "upgrade new template" but nothing helped... Can u please gimme some advice what might be happening???
Thanks a lot

Sha

http://inhadesdepths.blogspot.com/
shahades@gmail.com

Manature said...

To check if you are still using old classic template or New Blogger template, refer to old classic Blogger template or New Blogger template.

If you are stil using old classic template, but have problem upgrading to New Blogger template, perhaps you should consider the message below:

For situations like this I like to change to a different browser
What to do when you can't upload photos, sign in, download web pages, etc.
Why you should be using more than one browser
NOT GUARANTEED to work all the time but it has saved my skin in all different kind of situations

Some recommend clearing cache and cookies, but I like to leave that as last resort as I want to clear cache and cookies at my chosing, not when I am forced to. Clearing cache and cookies means you have to start with many things all over again and some pages may take longer to load.

Recently I saw Blogger Employee giving the same advice I had been consistently giving in this group about changing browser:
a thread in the Google Blogger Help group

Peter (Blog*Star 2006 and 2007)
Blogger Tips and Tricks

Greg Clarke said...

hi there,
i reverted back to the classic template and lost all my links and a ton of posts. i tried it because blogger said it was saving my current version and it was safe to try.

so how do i get back to the beta version and get all my links and posts back? i'm scared if i just hit the upgrade button, it won't work. any ideas?
thanks,
greg

Manature said...

Hi Hugh,

Please don't feel insulted, but you are behind time. gmail user don't need to invite anyone at all anymore. Anyone can start a gmail account without any invitation. Try it.

Blogger classic is dead, no more. You may get something like Blogger classic, but actually it is New Blogger (not even Blogger Beta because Blogger Beta is dead too, no more. It is out of Beta), just using a classic template and it feels and look like Blogger classic. But there are some invisible or visible changes that people don't notice.

Now my problem. I don't know what is your problem. As I said, don't get offended. I often get into unnecessary trouble by being too frank.

Peter Blog*Star
Blogger Tips and Tricks

Manature said...

Hi Greg,

I am afraid I was away from this computer because of The Christian and the General Election: core Issues: Reminder and update plus a very long discussion, so saw Hugh comment and responded. Then saw yours. I think I have already answered you in email. Otherwise here is what I remember. You links is gone, if you did not read and follow what had been described at Backing up and changing New BloggerTemplate and Backup Page Elements.

You should not lose any posts or comments, otherwise you have to contact Contact Blogger Support and/or Trick to get in touch with Blogger support. May need update with a new post.

Peter Blog*Star
Digital Candlelight Vigil

Tiqa said...

Any ideas on how to switch back to the new blogger from the old one once you've switched to it?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh my blog is so retarded now!
I am so frustrated =(