How to find a deleted Wikipedia page

How can you tell whether a Wikipedia page was deleted?

Go to the exact title and look at what Wikipedia shows in place of the article. If the page was deleted, the title has an entry in the deletion log, and that entry is the definitive answer. How much of it you see straight away depends on whether you have signed in.

A reader who is signed in to a Wikipedia account sees an extract of the deletion, move and protection logs at the top of the empty page, with a line explaining that the page has been deleted. A reader who is not signed in sees that extract only for a short period after a recent deletion. Otherwise the page simply says that Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name, followed by a link inviting you to check the deletion log. Many people stop at that message and conclude that the page never existed. It is worth following the link.

Before assuming deletion, rule out the simpler explanations:

• Spelling and capitals. Wikipedia titles are case-sensitive except for the first letter, so "Example Holdings" and "Example holdings" are different pages.
• A move. The page may have been renamed. The old title then normally becomes a redirect, and the move is recorded in the move log at the old title.
• A draft. The page may never have been published as an article. Drafts sit under titles beginning Draft:, and an unpublished draft can also live in a user's sandbox.
• A merge or redirect. The title may now point to a broader article, which is covered further down this page.

What does the Wikipedia deletion log show?

The deletion log, at Special:Log/delete, is a public, searchable record of every deletion and restoration on English Wikipedia since the software upgrade of 23 December 2004. Enter the page title in the "Target" field and it returns each deletion of that title, newest first.

Each entry gives four things: the date and time, the administrator who deleted the page, the page title and the reason. The reason is the useful part. It is usually short and points to the rule that was applied.

If the same title has been deleted more than once, every deletion appears. A long list of deletions under one title is itself information: it is the pattern that leads administrators to protect a title against creation. The protection log, shown alongside the deletion log on the empty title, will tell you whether that has happened. Our guide to why a Wikipedia page was deleted explains the common codes in more detail.

How do you find the deletion discussion for a page?

If the page went through Articles for Deletion, the discussion is at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Page title, and the deletion log entry links straight to it. A discussion normally runs for at least seven days, and once closed it is kept indefinitely with the closing administrator's summary at the top.

A subject that has been nominated more than once has a separate page for each nomination, named with "(2nd nomination)", "(3rd nomination)" and so on. To see them all, use Special:PrefixIndex with the prefix Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Page title. That lists every discussion that starts with the title, including ones held under slightly different wording.

Do not rely on Google to find these pages. Wikipedia's robots.txt file tells search engine crawlers not to visit deletion discussions, so the archived debates are generally absent from search results even though anyone can read them on Wikipedia. Search on Wikipedia itself, or start from the log.

The discussion is usually the most valuable thing you can find. It shows which sources editors looked at, which they rejected and why, and whether anyone argued for keeping the page. For a subject that may come back, it is effectively the brief for a second attempt. Our guide to Articles for Deletion explains how those debates are run and closed.

What can the public see of a deleted page, and what is hidden?

The public can see the record of the deletion but not the deleted text. On English Wikipedia only administrators, checkusers and oversighters can view deleted content. Wikipedia's explanation is that deleted pages may contain copyright violations, personal information or libel, and making them public could be unlawful. Lawyers for the Wikimedia Foundation have opposed proposals to widen access for the same reason.

The metadata route is more useful than it sounds. It shows how many revisions the deleted page had, when it was created and when it was last edited, which helps establish whether the page that was deleted is the one you are thinking of.

There is one narrow exception to the rule. A small number of deleted hoax articles are kept visible to everyone as part of Wikipedia's own list of hoaxes. That does not apply to ordinary deletions.

Can you read a deleted Wikipedia page in an archive?

Sometimes, through the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, but only if its crawler captured the page while it was live. Enter the full Wikipedia address of the page, for example en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_title, and the Wayback Machine shows whether any snapshots exist and on which dates.

There is no guarantee of a copy. The Internet Archive says that not every page is captured, that its crawlers can miss pages they were not aware of, and that pages with few links pointing to them may never be found. A recently created page about a little-known subject, deleted within days, is exactly the kind of page that is often missing. A long-standing article is more likely to have been captured.

Copies of Wikipedia articles also appear on other websites, known on Wikipedia as mirrors and forks. They may hold a version of the deleted text, but often an old or altered one, and there is no reliable way to tell which revision was copied. Two cautions apply to any archived copy:

• It shows how the page looked on one date, not necessarily the version that was deleted.
• Wikipedia treats copies of itself as unreliable, so an archived page can never be cited as a source, and pasting its text back onto Wikipedia does not answer the reasons it was deleted.

How do you get the text of a deleted page back?

Ask an administrator through the route that matches how the page was deleted. The deletion log reason tells you which route that is.

Requests for undeletion. This noticeboard handles uncontroversial cases. It covers pages deleted through proposed deletion, discussions closed as "soft delete", and a short list of speedy deletion criteria, including A1, A3, A10, G6, G7, G8, G14 and the user page criteria. Through the same page you can ask for the content to be restored as a draft, moved into your user space, or emailed to you privately if you want to use it elsewhere.

Abandoned drafts. Drafts deleted under G13 have their own form at Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion/Abandoned pages, and are normally restored on request so that work can continue.

Individual administrators. Wikipedia keeps a category of administrators willing to provide copies of deleted articles, which is an alternative to the noticeboard.

Deletion review. A page deleted after a deletion discussion is not handled at Requests for undeletion. Disputing that outcome means opening a deletion review, which normally runs for at least seven days. During a review, administrators are routinely asked to restore the page temporarily so participants can read the history, although copyright violations and material that breaches the policy on living people are not restored.

Pages deleted as copyright violations, attack pages or promotional material are in a different position. Those deletions are not on the list for undeletion on request, and an administrator is unlikely to hand back text that was removed for being unusable. Our guide to restoring a deleted Wikipedia page covers each route in more depth.

What if the page was merged or redirected instead of deleted?

Then nothing was deleted, and the old text is still public. When an article is turned into a redirect, its earlier revisions stay in the page history at the old title. Visiting the title takes you to the target article, with a small "Redirected from" line under the heading. Click that link and you reach the redirect page itself, where the "View history" tab shows every earlier version.

The same applies to a page that was renamed. The move leaves a redirect at the old title and carries the full history to the new one. The move log at the old title records when it happened and who did it.

Wikipedia's deletion policy lists blanking and redirecting as an alternative to deletion, and it is common for a weak article about a person or product to be redirected to a broader article about a company, a band or an event. If that change is disputed, the policy expects editors to reach a consensus, usually in the deletion discussion forum for the original content, before it is redirected again.

What does the record tell you before trying again?

It tells you which rules will apply to a new version. Three findings matter most:

1. Deletion after discussion. Speedy deletion criterion G4 lets an administrator delete a substantially similar recreation of a page deleted through its most recent deletion discussion, when the reason for deletion has not been addressed. It does not apply to pages removed by proposed deletion or speedy deletion.
2. Repeated deletions or create protection. If the protection log shows the title is protected against creation, a new article cannot simply be published there.
3. The stated reason. A deletion for lack of significant coverage points to a sourcing problem. A deletion as promotional or AI-generated points to a writing problem. They need different fixes.

Reviewers read this record when a subject returns, and it shapes how a new draft is received. Our guide to what a failed Wikipedia attempt leaves behind explains how each item weighs on a second attempt.

Can you trace a deleted page's history without specialist help?

Yes, for the fact-finding part. The log, the archived discussion and the deleted revisions metadata are all public, and a careful reader can assemble them in an afternoon. Asking for a G13 draft back, or for a copy of a page removed by proposed deletion, is also straightforward and needs nothing more than a clear, polite request.

The judgement that follows is harder. Reading a closed discussion correctly means knowing which arguments the closing administrator gave weight to, whether the sources cited then would pass today, and whether the gap that sank the page has been filled since. Choosing between a request for undeletion, a deletion review and a fresh draft is a decision with consequences, because a rejected review or a quickly deleted recreation becomes one more entry in the record you have just traced.

If you would like that reading done for you, our free page health check sets out what the record shows and which route, if any, is realistic. Where a page can come back, our Wikipedia page repair work covers the sourcing, drafting and the request itself.