PSA: Back up your LJ

[da]

LJ lays off 20 some fraction of 28 employees- last day Friday, no severance.

http://valleywag.gawker.com/5124184/the-russian-bear-slashes-a-social-network

[eta: a few corrections at http://azurelunatic.livejournal.com/6225487.html - valleywag's numbers may be incorrect, but still: the news isn't so great.]

http://hewgill.com/ljdump/ is the backup program I use, it gets all posts and comments in one go (and only re-downloads changes, if you run it multiple times). Python script, tested on linux and mac 10.4)

Sigh. What next?...

Comments

[nobodyhere.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've actually never backed up my journal, so I'm doing it now.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I think lots of people haven't.

Let me know if you end up using ljdump or something else; I'm wary of recommending "one solution for all" and I hope all of my friends can get themselves backed up OK.

[nobodyhere.livejournal.com]

I'm using LJ dump. Providing a link to a backup program in your post was very helpful :-)

[mynatt.livejournal.com]

Ah, backups. Always a good idea. Since you asked, for LJ I do them via the Logjam client, which saves XML dumps of entries and metadata.

[poeticalpanther.livejournal.com]

How do I make it work? I downloaded it, but I've no idea what I need to do with it. Is there any documentation anywhere? :)

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

You need python. Easiest is if you have access to a linux or mac computer, which have python installed by default.

Next-easiest: On windows, install http://www.python.org/download/releases/2.6.1/ ...I don't have a step-by-step for that handy, sorry. [edit: http://www.ehow.com/how_2116627_.html seems comprehensive, though I haven't tried it.]

To run ljdump:

1) uncompress ljdump-1.2.zip
2) within the directory ljdump-1.2, copy ljdump.config.sample to ljdump.config.
3) edit ljdump.config : replace "myaccount" and "mypassword"
4) open a cmd window to the directory for ljdump-1.2 (using the ehow instructions from step 5). run: "python ljdump.py"
(without the quotes).

If you can get access to a mac or linux machine command-line, the instructions are the same from 1).

Hope that's helpful...

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Extra instructions if you don't know how to get to a command-line on a mac:

1) open a terminal window (from Applications).

2) change directories to the directory you've got ljdump uncompressed to.
2a) if you've not done this before, the easiest way is: type "cd " (with the space, without the quotes. From the Finder: drag the ljdump directory (not file) into the terminal window. It will copy a directory-name into the terminal. Hit return.

3) in the terminal window, run: "python ljdump.py" and hit return. If you get a long string of error messages, look at the bottommost one; it may be of the form: "xmlrpclib.Fault: Fault 101: 'Invalid password'" ....which means you got the password wrong in ljdump.config. If it works correctly, it will tell you it's copying the data into a new subdirectory.

There will be one file for each post, and one file for comments on that post.

[kitsuchan.livejournal.com]

It took me a few tries, but thanks to your instructions, my lj is backing up now. Thank you!

[valkryor.livejournal.com]

I was fighting with this, too.

But, I found one that did work: ljarchive. It was quick and easy and relatively painless.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear that option worked for you..! I hadn't used that one, for obvious reasons...

note mostly to self

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

http://antennapedia.livejournal.com/266462.html has a much more fully featured journal migration tool which imports to other LJ-style websites (such as deadjournal, insanejournal, etc). And it can make a standalone HTML version with userpics.

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

Yeah, I've been using ljmigrate for about a year. There are things I don't like about it, like I'd like it to preserve the LJ numbers (because I use the archive so I can grep for previous entries but then want to link to them), and a calendar view would be nice.

I don't really understand how it's getting the content -- but that is probably a combination of not knowing Python and not knowing the XMLRPC interface LJ apparently has.

Интересно почитать

[albieony.livejournal.com]

И все же, многое остается не ясным. Если не затруднит, распишите подробнее. (http://site-sex-znakomstva.ru/)