Have you ever lost your Blogger template partly or fully due to some unforeseen error? It happened to me once and half of my blog disappeared. For some reason, only half the blog code was left due to some republishing error.
So I had the main panel displaying, but only half the sidebar and footer were gone. Upon checking the template, that part had just disappeared and there was no chance that it would show on the blog.
Save whatever customization was left…
If you have a partially running template, save it in a text editor like Notepad. This will at least give you back all the customizations you made of whatever is left like altering text, css colors, padding, Adsense placement, feed buttons, search codes, anti pixel buttons, etc.
This can also be done by viewing the source of the blog and saving it to Notepad. Now you can copy and add these previous customizations to your new code. Do all this preservation measures before changing and republishing the new template.
If you have nothing left and no back up also…
See if you are indexed in Google, and try to get the last google cache of your page. Just type in your full URL in Google and search. In the items lists below, see “Show Google Cache” – and the last time Google visited your page, its image will be displayed. Just view source and your get most of your code back. If your blog was recently indexed, then you are more lucky to have your latest source code back.
If Google does not have you listed…
Then maybe the Internet Archive Wayback Machine has it. Just enter your URL and find your sites listed by different dates and get the latest source code. The older your blog is, the higher the chance you might find it there. This also allows you to get the source code by date too.
Quick Fix any severely disabled blog…
The only way to fix your blog and keep it running it (if you do not have back up) is to pick a new template. Go to Template > Pick New. Then choose from the long array of free blogger templates, select and republish the entire blog. The new template will come into play but all customization you did previously to your template is lost.
So how to keep your template safe always…
Back up the template whenever you change it. It is very simple. Just copy the entire template code into Notepad and save the file with a name like ‘myblog-date.txt’. Do this before you make any changes to the template, save or republish it. This way I have a collection of all templates by date and I can restore to whichever date I want. Even if you manage to mess up the new code, you can always go back. See more ways to Backup Your Blogger Blog.
Back up is very important. If you have done hundreds of customizations over months, it is very difficult, time-consuming and hard work to restore all those changes. Believe me.. I have gone through it. Is it not simple to just save a copy of that template today!