Title: All widget data lost when plugin deactivated
Last modified: August 24, 2016

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# All widget data lost when plugin deactivated

 *  Resolved [dice2dice](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dice2dice/)
 * (@dice2dice)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/all-widget-data-lost-when-plugin-deactivated/)
 * Hello,
 * We had to deactivate all plugins to check for a conflict but when we reactivated
   this plugin all our widget data has gone.
 * We really need to get this back and we have a backup of the website but don’t
   know where the plugin might store the data.
 * Do you know where we might find this?
 * Some of the widgets took days to be set up in agreement with clients so it is
   a big problem for us to have lost the data.
 * Many thanks
 * [https://wordpress.org/plugins/black-studio-tinymce-widget/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/black-studio-tinymce-widget/)

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

 *  Thread Starter [dice2dice](https://wordpress.org/support/users/dice2dice/)
 * (@dice2dice)
 * [10 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/all-widget-data-lost-when-plugin-deactivated/#post-6178869)
 * looking through past support items I found the following:
 * If you have a backup of your database you should be able to recover the old widgets
   from there. All BSTW data is stored in serialized format inside a record in the
   wp_options table having option_name = ‘widget_black-studio-tinymce’. Data storage
   is handled by WordPress and not directly by the plugin itself. The widgets data
   is intentionally kept in the datatbase upon plugin deactivation / deletion to
   avoid content loss.
 * I can’t find the ‘wp_options table’ in my backup. Can you provide guidance on
   where it is stored and how to restore it please?
 *  Plugin Author [Marco Chiesi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marcochiesi/)
 * (@marcochiesi)
 * [10 years, 10 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/all-widget-data-lost-when-plugin-deactivated/#post-6179037)
 * It’s possible that your WP database uses a different table prefix, anyway you
   should have a `{prefix}_options` table.
    By the way our plugin does not perform
   any operation upon deactivation / activation, so if something broke up, it should
   depend on another plugin.
 *  [techforluddites](https://wordpress.org/support/users/techforluddites/)
 * (@techforluddites)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/all-widget-data-lost-when-plugin-deactivated/#post-6179046)
 * I also lost all the widgets I created with this plugin after deactivating/reactivating.
   I have a database backup so can recover the information, although that’s not 
   really that easy because of all the escape characters in the SQL. But it’s better
   than nothing.
 * So I’m just posting to confirm the same behavior as the OP.
 *  Plugin Author [Marco Chiesi](https://wordpress.org/support/users/marcochiesi/)
 * (@marcochiesi)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/all-widget-data-lost-when-plugin-deactivated/#post-6179047)
 * As I previously said, our plugin does not perform any operation upon deactivation/
   activation. This is made on purpose in order to preserve widgets content. If 
   content was lost it probably depends on something else.
 * As for recovering data from backup, I would recommend to recover the full database
   dump to a temporary database/table, and then extract the BSTW data, which is 
   contained in the wp_options table in the record having option_name = ‘widget_black-
   studio-tinymce’.
 * For further info, please read our [FAQ](https://wordpress.org/plugins/black-studio-tinymce-widget/faq/)
   at the section “Plugin’s data location and cleanup”.
 *  [techforluddites](https://wordpress.org/support/users/techforluddites/)
 * (@techforluddites)
 * [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/all-widget-data-lost-when-plugin-deactivated/#post-6179048)
 * I have no idea what caused it, but I’ve discovered it also happened to widgets
   created by a different plugin.
 * I appreciate the tip about importing the database file into a new db to be able
   to get the data without all the escape characters. That should save me some time
   for sure, so thanks!

Viewing 5 replies - 1 through 5 (of 5 total)

The topic ‘All widget data lost when plugin deactivated’ is closed to new replies.

 * ![](https://ps.w.org/black-studio-tinymce-widget/assets/icon.svg?rev=2627604)
 * [Black Studio TinyMCE Widget](https://wordpress.org/plugins/black-studio-tinymce-widget/)
 * [Frequently Asked Questions](https://wordpress.org/plugins/black-studio-tinymce-widget/#faq)
 * [Support Threads](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/black-studio-tinymce-widget/)
 * [Active Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/black-studio-tinymce-widget/active/)
 * [Unresolved Topics](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/black-studio-tinymce-widget/unresolved/)
 * [Reviews](https://wordpress.org/support/plugin/black-studio-tinymce-widget/reviews/)

 * 5 replies
 * 3 participants
 * Last reply from: [techforluddites](https://wordpress.org/support/users/techforluddites/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 8 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/all-widget-data-lost-when-plugin-deactivated/#post-6179048)
 * Status: resolved