Help:Edit Recovery
The Edit Recovery feature of MediaWiki core, developed by the WMF Community Tech team, is a browser-based system of saving in-progress edits, to allow for recovery in case of the browser being accidentally closed. Edit data is stored locally on the user's device. This feature is for the wikitext editor, not VisualEditor, and does not require WikiEditor to be enabled.
| MediaWiki version: | ≥ 1.42 |
Note, as Edit Recovery uses the Indexed Database API, the data is saved only for the current browser and device. You cannot recover an edit on a different device.
The feature has been deployed to all Wikimedia projects, and as of May 2024 feedback is being sought from users. Users are invited to report any issues on the project talk page. This was the #8 wish in the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey.
Usage
Once enabled, nothing further needs to be done in order to use Edit Recovery. Start editing any wiki page, and every five seconds the current state of the editing form will be saved to the browser's storage. If the window is closed (either accidentally or by a computer crash etc.), re-open it and navigate back to editing the same page — if there is any recovery data available, it will be restored into the editing form and a notification displayed.
The notification gives you two options: to view the changes (this is the same as clicking the normal "Show changes" button), or discard them. The notification can be dismissed in the usual way by clicking anywhere else on it.
If you wish to stop editing a page and not have any edit recovery data saved, the "Cancel" link (next to the "Show changes" button) should be used. As soon as you click "Cancel" the edit recovery data is deleted and you'll be navigated away from the edit form. If you don't cancel or save an editing session, then after 30 days the recovery data is automatically expired.
Special:EditRecovery
There is a special page at Special:EditRecovery which lists all current pages that have any recovery data. From the list you can go directly to editing or viewing any page, or delete the page's data (if you know that it's no longer needed).
Opting out
A user preference is available to enable/disable the feature.
See also
- Manual:Edit Recovery — Information about the feature for wiki system administrators and developers.