Wix Site History: what a restore brings back, what it leaves alone, and what to do first

What is Wix Site History?

Wix Site History is the list of saved versions Wix keeps for your site. Wix’s help page calls it “a record of every time that you (or someone working on your site) has saved or published”.

Each entry has a date and time stamp and the email of the person who made the change. You can filter the list to show saved, published or starred versions.

That email column matters when more than one person edits the site. It tells you whose change you are about to undo. It is also the first screen we open when a Wix site needs fixing.

How do you restore an earlier version?

You restore it from the editor. Wix gives these steps:

1. In the Wix Editor, click Site at the top, then Site History. From the dashboard, the button is Go to Site History.
2. Click the arrow next to the version you want.
3. Review it to make sure it is the one you want.
4. Click Restore.

Wix also lets you rename any version with the Rename icon. Its tip is to give it “a memorable name” so you can find it again.

What does a restore bring back?

The restore is wide. Wix’s help page says it “erases any changes made after that specific version”, and it does that across the site, not one page at a time.

For sites with code, Wix’s developer docs list what goes back: pages, code, hooks, routers, schemas and permissions. The Help Center adds pages, designs, dynamic pages and their layouts, page SEO panel changes, and on multilingual sites the content, design and layout of each language.

What does a restore leave as it is?

A lot of what the site holds. Wix’s page “Limitations of Restoring a Saved Version of Your Site” lists these as not reverting:

• App content in Stores, Blog, Events, Bookings, Video, FAQ, Restaurants and Hotels.
• Contacts: gathered contact details, Wix Chat history, inbox messages and site members’ permissions.
• Email Marketing drafts and the statistics on past emails.
• Media galleries and Pro Gallery, which always show the latest saved version.
• SEO Settings for the whole site.
• CMS collections, both the items and the data structure.
• Wix Portfolio projects and collections, and saved changes to Portfolio pages.
• Languages you added, deleted, showed or hid on a multilingual site.

The developer docs add one more for sites with code. Sandbox and Live database data stays as it is now. In Wix’s words, “you can’t recover deleted data by restoring a previous site.”

Why can a restore leave a page looking broken?

Because the two halves no longer match. The page layout goes back to the old version, while the data it shows stays current.

Wix’s developer docs describe one case. The schema follows the restored version, so fields added after it may be missing. Wix says the data is kept and “becomes visible once the fields are added” back to the schema.

That is our reading of how the pieces fit, not something we saw on a test site. Check every dynamic page after a restore.

The lesson is the same as with a WordPress site that went dark after one setting changed: know your way back before you click.

What should you do before you restore?

Three steps, all from Wix’s own tools:

1. Rename the current version. Something like “before restore, 11 Oct”. If the restore goes wrong, you can find your way back.
2. Back up your CMS collections. In the dashboard, open CMS, More Actions, Backups, then Add Backup. Wix keeps 3 manual backups, and a fourth replaces the oldest.
3. Write down what lives outside the editor. Store products, blog posts, bookings, gallery images and SEO Settings will not move, so note any you changed on purpose since the version you picked.

When we handle a restore, we back up the CMS collections first, restore the version, then re-check every page and the store on the live site.

One limit on step 2. Wix says CMS backups do not cover Wix App collections such as Stores or Bookings, because those get their content from the app.

When should you ask for help?

When the thing you lost is in that second list. Site History cannot return a deleted product or a wiped collection item. Those need the app’s own tools or a CMS backup taken before the loss.

We fix and look after Wix sites, and changes like this are part of our Wix website design work.

If you are about to restore and are not sure what you will lose, send us the site address and the version date and we will reply with what moves and what stays.

Not sure what to ask for? Ask for the free site check: send the site address and we reply in writing within 2 business days. If the site also runs WordPress, one-off fixes are listed here.