The customer defines the scope
The customer confirms ownership or written permission, supplies an exact capture URL, chooses the approved domain boundary, and reviews historical text, images, documents, and contact details before publication.
About Archive Downloader's Website Recovery Service
Direct answer: Archive Downloader is an independent recovery service that turns authorized public archive evidence into a reviewable website project, manifest, and missing-file report.
Our purpose
A public archive can be the last usable record after hosting loss, accidental deletion, an unsupported platform, or a failed migration.
Recovery is useful only when the owner can understand the result. We preserve the source capture, timestamp, original URL, local file path, substitutions, and missing resources in a recovery manifest. This connects every delivered file to the public evidence used to rebuild it. The Wayback Machine capture audit checklist shows the evidence reviewed before one dated capture is treated as a viable recovery source.
Archive Downloader is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Internet Archive. The Wayback Machine supplies public captures. The customer authorizes the domain. Our website rebuilder organizes the evidence into a standalone project that the customer can inspect and maintain.
How responsibilities are divided
Clear ownership prevents archive evidence, new code, and publication decisions from being mixed together.
The rebuilder records the evidence
The service inventories public pages and assets, repairs replay paths, records missing files, and separates recovered material from new behavior. It does not label invented content as recovered.
The delivered project stays reviewable
The owner receives website files, a capture manifest, missing-asset notes, setup instructions, and launch checks. These records make later corrections easier to trace.
What website recovery cannot promise
A public page capture is evidence of a response at one time. It is not a full hosting backup.
- No private databases: customer accounts, orders, form submissions, and unpublished records are not stored in public captures.
- No original server source: PHP, Python, application secrets, scheduled jobs, and hosting configuration normally remain unavailable.
- No automatic rights transfer: archived availability does not grant permission to republish third-party copy, images, software, or personal information.
- No silent gap filling: unavailable files remain documented. New replacements are identified as new work.
Review our editorial standards, read how an Archive.org website rebuilder works, or inspect an exact archive capture.