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Not every website can be fully restored. Whether restoration is possible — and how complete it will be — depends on what Archive.org captured when your site was live. Before placing an order, review the criteria below to understand where your site is likely to fall.

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Eligibility categories

Restoration is possible

Your website is a strong candidate for restoration if all of the following are true:
  • Snapshots exist on Archive.org. Your domain has at least one crawl with meaningful page coverage.
  • Pages, images, and stylesheets are available. The snapshots contain the core assets needed to reconstruct your site’s appearance and content.
  • The site was primarily static or content-based. Blogs, brochure sites, portfolios, informational sites, and similar content-focused websites restore most completely because their content was captured as rendered HTML.
You can check whether your site was archived by searching your domain at web.archive.org. Multiple crawl dates with full page loads are a positive signal.
Some websites can be partially restored, but the result may not be 100% complete. Limitations are common when:
  • Snapshots are missing or incomplete. Archive.org may have crawled your domain infrequently or only captured a subset of pages.
  • The site relied heavily on dynamic content. Pages that loaded content via JavaScript after the initial render are often captured only in their empty or partial state.
  • Pages were login-protected or database-driven. Content behind authentication or pulled from a private database was not accessible to Archive.org’s crawler and cannot be reconstructed.
In cases of limited eligibility, we will give you an honest assessment before work begins. You will know exactly what to expect before you commit to an order.
Restoration cannot proceed if any of the following conditions apply:
  • No archived snapshots exist. If Archive.org has no record of your domain, there is no data to restore from.
  • The site was blocked from archiving. Some sites used robots.txt directives or other mechanisms to prevent crawler access. If your site opted out of archiving, no snapshots will be available.
  • Content was never publicly accessible. Intranets, private portals, and other non-public sites were not reachable by Archive.org and therefore have no snapshot coverage.
If your site falls into this category, no restoration service — including Wayback Revive — can recover it from Archive.org data. Contact us if you have backups or alternative sources; we may still be able to help.

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How to check your eligibility

You have three options to confirm whether your site can be restored before placing an order:
  1. Check Archive.org directly. Visit web.archive.org and enter your domain. Look for multiple crawl dates, page captures, and loaded assets.
  2. Use our archive checking tools. Our team can run a more detailed analysis of snapshot availability and asset completeness across all crawl dates.
  3. Request a feasibility review. Share your domain and any relevant context with our support team. We will assess the available archive data and give you a clear recommendation before you commit.

Contact support for a feasibility review

Not sure if your site qualifies? Reach out and our team will review the archived data for your domain and let you know what restoration is possible.