Help:Using the Wayback Machine

The Wayback Machine is a service which can be used to cite archived copies of web pages used by articles. This is useful if a web page has changed, moved, or disappeared; links to the original content can be retained. This process can be performed automatically, using the web interface for User:InternetArchiveBot.

Editors are encouraged to add an archive link as a part of each citation, or at least submit the referenced URL for archiving, at the same time that each citation is created or updated. New URLs added to Wikipedia articles (but not other pages) are usually automatically archived by a bot.

Visit the webform at https://web.archive.org, enter the original URL of the web page of interest in the "Wayback Machine" search box and then hit return/enter. The next screen may:

• show a calendar listing the snapshot dates for all archived copies of that page, or
• show a box near the bottom of the page with a link inviting the user to Save this url in the Wayback Machine,

This is the code that needs to be added to an existing {{cite web}} or similar template:

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/<YYYYMMDDhhmmss>/http://www.originalurl.example.com |archive-date=<YYYY-MM-DD> |url-status=dead

JavaScript bookmarklets

A bookmarklet is a one-click button in a web browser that is stored like a bookmark but uses javascript to carry out certain actions.

To see a dead page

To use a bookmarklet when you're at a dead link web page and want to visit archives saved by the Wayback Machine, click and drag the following code to your browser's bookmarks toolbar, then name it something memorable, such as Wayback (e.g. Wayback):

javascript:void(window.open('https://web.archive.org/web/*/'+location.href.replace(/\/$/, '')));

Then, when you are at a dead page, you may click the bookmarklet and it will automatically take you to the Wayback Machine's archives of that page.

The preceding code may not work for all users. In that case, you may try the following bookmarklet:

javascript:location.href='https://web.archive.org/web/*/'+document.location.href.replace(/\/$/, '');

To save a live page

For a bookmarklet that allows you to manually archive a page you are visiting, store the following code in a bookmark on your browser's toolbar, with a name such as Wayback Save (e.g. Wayback Save):

javascript:void(window.open('https://web.archive.org/save/'+location.href));

Command-line tool

Install waybackpy - (PyPi) - (docker) - (snapcraft.io)

Waybackpy is an OS-independent command-line tool and a Python package that interfaces the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine APIs (Save API , Availability API and CDX API).

Save a live page

waybackpy --url "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media" --save

Archive URL:
https://web.archive.org/web/20220101114012/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
Cached save:
False

The line below 'Archive URL:' contains the archive URL and the line below 'Cached save:' indicates whether the URL returned by Wayback Machine was saved before the request was made by the client, thus cached save.

Get the oldest archive

waybackpy uses the Wayback Machine's CDX Server API for retrieving the oldest archive.

waybackpy --url "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceX" --oldest

Archive URL:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040803000845/http://en.wikipedia.org:80/wiki/SpaceX

Get the newest archive

waybackpy --url "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube" --newest

Archive URL:
https://web.archive.org/web/20211207121553/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube

Archive close to a date and time

To find the archive of google.com close to 2008-08-08 08:08 UTC (8th of August, 2008 and 8 minutes past the 8th hour UTC time) use the following command. You may omit the flags you don't care about. Wayback Machine timestamps are UTC time.

waybackpy --url google.com --near --year 2008 --month 8 --day 8 --hour 8 --minute 8

Archive URL:
https://web.archive.org/web/20080808051143/http://google.com/

Browser add-ons and apps

The Internet Archive provides a browser add-on that can be used to easily access pages on the Wayback Machine for the currently viewed site, along with options to save a copy of the page to the Wayback Machine. Currently, versions of the add-on are available for Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari.

Additionally, apps for iOS and Android are available for mobile devices.

Using the webarchive template

{{webarchive}} is an easy way to create very basic links to the Wayback Machine (or other archiving services). It typically isn't used for citations since it doesn't include information like author, date, and publication, but it can be useful for non-citation links. Use the |url=, |title= and |date= parameters to specify the URL, title and archive date. For example:

• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010727112808/http://www.wikipedia.org/ |date=July 27, 2001 |title=Wikipedia }}
  → Wikipedia at the Wayback Machine (archived July 27, 2001)

Without the date included:

• {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.wikipedia.org/ |date=* |title=Wikipedia }}
  → Wikipedia at the Wayback Machine (archive index)

See the {{webarchive}} documentation for additional options

Working with cite templates

{{citation}}, and all of the Citation Style 1 templates support the |archive-url= parameter (Note that the |archive-date= parameter is also required). Other citation templates may also support |archive-url= — see their documentation.

• {{citation |url=http://www.wikipedia.org/ |title=Wikipedia Main Page |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020930123525/http://www.wikipedia.org/ |archive-date=2002-09-30 |access-date=2005-07-06 }}
  → "Wikipedia Main Page". Archived from the original on 2002-09-30. Retrieved 2005-07-06.
• Where an archived resource notes its original publication date, use |date= in place of |access-date=.
• When adding an archive URL to any citation where the original resource URL is still working, it is useful to add the |url-status=live parameter. With |url-status=live, clicking the title in the footnote invokes the original (live) URL, clicking "Archived" gives the archived copy. Otherwise the title invokes the archived page, "Original" invokes the (dead unless it has been reinstated) original link:
  {{citation |url=http://www.wikipedia.org/ |title=Wikipedia Main Page |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020930123525/http://www.wikipedia.org/ |archive-date=2002-09-30 |access-date=2005-07-06 |url-status=live }}
  → "Wikipedia Main Page". Archived from the original on 2002-09-30. Retrieved 2005-07-06.
  Should the original URL stop working, it is a simple job to either change this to |url-status=dead or remove the parameter.

See also

• Help:Archiving a source

Docs

• Wikipedia:Link rot, how-to guide for prevention of link rot
• Using WebCite, how-to guide
• Using Archive.is, how-to guide
• Using Perma.cc, how-to

Templates

• {{dead link}}, for flagging dead links
• {{linkrot}}, for flagging pages with bare links
• {{user archiveurl}}, {{user Internet Archive}}, {{user web archive}}, userboxes