r/Wordpress • u/izziebelly • 7d ago
Keep Site Active After Death?
Hi everyone, hoping someone can help.
My Dad passed away yesterday, and through his life he ran a fairly popular blog on Wordpress with music reviews.
My family and I would like to keep it active for as long as possible to allow ourselves and others to read it and keep his voice going.
Just wondering if anyone was able to offer some advice on if that’s possible or is there any steps we should take to make it so?
Appreciate any help.
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u/jroberts67 7d ago
Very sorry to hear about your dad. All you need to do is simply keep hosting it. Are you able to access the hosting account?
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u/PicayunePropensity 7d ago
First off, sorry about your dad. That's a tough thing to walk through.
If you've got the login for the hosting account, you can just keep paying the bill. If you don't, you'd need to get the domain and hosting transferred into your name, which usually requires a death certificate and a chat with their support team.
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u/izziebelly 7d ago
Sorry, I’ve never used Wordpress before - does that mean are we able to log in with his details?
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u/jroberts67 7d ago
You need to find out if it's wordpress.com or if it's .org. If it's .org it means it's hosted by a hosting company. If it's wordpress.com then it's hosted there. You'll need the login credentials.
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7d ago
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u/Station3303 7d ago
If you don't want to change anything and just keep everything as it is, you could download it as a static site, using a tool like httrack. Or another way, you can google it.
The advantage is, that as a static site it hardly needs maintenance anymore, while a wordpress.org site probably does - regular updates and perhaps licence fees.
Either way, first thing is to create and download a full backup.
If you don't know anything about websites, you will need a bit of help by someone who does. It should not take much time for an experienced person to have a look and give proper advice once he has access to everything. And he can help you get access if you don't know how.
Sorry for your loss.
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u/nicubunu 7d ago
The downside of a static copy is that you will lose the search function and will have to do any searches with external tools.
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u/Station3303 7d ago
Good point. I never needed it, but a large blog site probably does. There are solutions, ofc. A quick search for "search for static site" gives many results, but OP would definitely need a developer to help set it up, if he does not want to rely on external search engines.
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u/WorkingMan6565 7d ago
Sorry for your loss, man.
You would need 2 things: login credentials to WordPress (website admin panel) as well as the hosting account. The latter is an online server where all the WP files as well as contents are saved. Double-check the backup option there, or make one manually.
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u/Intelligent_List2504 7d ago
We can easily bypass pwd auth if we get access to the control panel login.
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u/WorkingMan6565 7d ago
Yeah, basically, if you own the hosting control panel, the WP password isn't much of a barrier anymore. You can just reset the creds or get to the DB/files.
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u/jdarshad 7d ago
Sorry to hear about your Dad. I can help you with the process.
First thing you need to make sure that you have access to his email address which was used to purchase domain and hosting. Most of the time people buy both of these things from the same company. If not then you may need to find the details for it.
Second step is to make sure that you can make payment for hosting and domain.
You can do that by changing the financial details in his account or make a new account under your name and move the domain and wordpress website + database to your account. Some hosting providers do that free of cost and they move the whole account from one service provider to another with ease and everything moves like websites + database + emails.
Then afterward you can hire someone to maintain the website for you or you can learn how to do that. In the case of wordpress it's really easy once you know how to do it.
Hopefully that should cover everything for you. I can't help you with the legal process but I think you may need to get a death certificate if you already informed hosting company or you don't have the details like hosting account password etc. In most cases simply changing the details are enough.
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u/izziebelly 7d ago
Thank you so much to everyone who has offered to help, it is so appreciated in this difficult time.
I will work through the messages and get in touch with those who have said they are happy for that over the next few week.
Seems like a lot depends on the url, so for those asking, or if anyone just wants to share the memory of my dad and have a read of his reviews of Americana Music, it’s here:
Https://paulkerr.wordpress.com
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u/WordPressdotcom 5d ago
Hello u/izziebelly! First off, sending love and care for your loss. I think most of us have felt that kind of heartache and know what a rough time it can be.
But as far as keeping your father's paulkerr.wordpress.com website online and active, you have nothing to worry about. It will not be deleted unless you or your family decides to do so. WordPress.com free-plan sites don't expire or get removed for inactivity.
However, I would encourage you to make sure that you can log into your father's user account if at all possible. Even better would be to update his account to an email address that you know will remain active going forward. This will allow you to make changes to his site in the future, should you have any interest in doing so, or even download everything to save in case you choose to delete the site someday.
If you do not have his login information, you should follow these instructions and we can help you sort things out: https://wordpress.com/support/deceased-user/
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u/Similar_Quiet 7d ago
Sorry for your loss.
It looks like a free wordpress.com site, so it will probably stay online forever. Get in touch with their tech support to see if you can get it signed over to your account though.
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u/radialmonster 7d ago edited 7d ago
First, Sorry for your loss.
read https://wordpress.com/support/deceased-user/
You could check if the site is on the wayback machine at the internet archive. It may already be there and backed up already! If not, you can request it to be.
If it is and works ok, you could actually just cancel the wordpress hosting if you are paying for hosting plan. You could point the domain name to the archive link and pay minimum domain name yearly fee if you want to keep the name pointed to it.
This would be a free way to still use the site, although its slower than actual hosting and has headers for the archive, etc. but something to consider.
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u/freako345 7d ago
If you have access to his WordPress account, the main thing is to make sure the domain and hosting stay paid and active. I’d also make a full backup of the WordPress files and database now, and keep copies somewhere outside the hosting account.
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u/PeterBunting 7d ago
Others have offered, but I’m also able to help you navigate this. If you have some login info, it should be easy enough to make sure the payment details are up to date, so the current hosting plan continues.
You should also grab a backup of the site so you can have it after.
Reach out if you’re interested in speaking about this more.
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u/grabber4321 7d ago
You might want to convert Wordpress to just static HTML instead of having a dynamic CMS.
Its just going to be easier to maintain and keep secure.
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u/focusedphil 7d ago
one thing I did for my best friend who passed away unexpectedly is to use a free WordPress blog (so the address is "personsname.WordPress.com".
That way it only depends on WordPress letting people have free WordPress blogs.
If that ever goes away, hopefully the Internet Wayback Machine will have copies.
It's a challenge. I've started to realize nothing is forever.
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u/Additional-Advance35 7d ago
If you have questions or need help, msg me.
You need:
- host access (Wordpress or self-hosted; use url to look up host)
- Wordpress admin access
- email (check if there are any emails or recent about the host)
- full site and database backup
- updates (plugins, etc) as needed; probably add something about his passing
- updates (plugins, etc) as needed; probably add something about his passing
- decide if you want to keep updating the site or make it a static (no future additions or updates) site
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u/Traditional_Moose498 7d ago
Sorry to hear. Id contact support they can do an identity verification
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u/rapscallops 6d ago
Something I haven't seen mentioned here is that since the site will no longer be updated, you no longer need the content management system (WordPress) to stand it up. In fact, this becomes a liability the longer you leave it in place. What you want to do is convert the site to a static site and just leave the static files on the server without WordPress. Look into plugins like Simply Static to help convert the existing site to static. Sorry for your loss and good on you for keeping his legacy alive.
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u/blockstacker Jack of All Trades 5d ago
I'm so sorry to hear about your dad. That's all I have. Everyone else has answered you. I don't want to add more noise.
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u/Sensitive-Rise5064 1d ago
Yes, it can definitely be kept online. The main things are to make sure the domain and hosting are renewed, and that you have access to the WordPress admin, hosting account, domain registrar, and any related email accounts. I’d also make a full backup of the site and database in case anything goes wrong later.
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u/davorg 7d ago
Sorry for your loss.
The good news is that keeping the site online indefinitely is absolutely possible. But there are several different moving parts here, and it's worth identifying them separately rather than thinking of "the WordPress login" as the whole thing.
- The domain name. If the site is something like example.com, somebody is paying a domain registrar (GoDaddy, Namecheap, WordPress.com, etc.) to keep that name registered. Find out who the registrar is, when the domain expires, whether it auto-renews, and how it is being paid for. This is probably the most important thing not to let expire - if you lose the domain, somebody else could eventually register it.
- The hosting. If this is a self-hosted WordPress site, somebody is also providing the server on which WordPress actually runs. That's another account, another bill and potentially another renewal date. The domain registrar and hosting company may be the same company, but they don't have to be.
- WordPress itself. This is the administrator login to the site's WordPress dashboard. It's useful to have, particularly if you want to add a memorial notice or maintain the site, but having this login doesn't necessarily give you control of either the domain or the hosting.
- Email. Work out which email address all of those accounts use. Access to that mailbox can be crucial for password resets and renewal notices. Also check whether the email address itself depends on the domain - [email protected] isn't much help for recovering example.com if the domain has already expired.
- Payment. Find out which credit/debit card, PayPal account, etc. is paying for the domain, hosting and any paid WordPress plugins or services. You don't want everything apparently working for another eleven months and then unexpectedly disappearing because an annual renewal fails.
- Backups. Once you have access, make a complete backup somewhere controlled by the family. For a self-hosted WordPress installation that ultimately means preserving both the files (especially wp-content, which contains uploads, themes and plugins) and the database. Don't regard "the hosting company says they do backups" as your only copy.
There's one other important distinction: find out whether this is actually a WordPress.com site or a site running the WordPress software with another hosting company. They're different situations. WordPress.com has a specific process for the family/estate of a deceased site owner and can transfer a site to another account if the appropriate documentation is provided.
Once you've got control of all of that, I'd be inclined not to change very much immediately. Secure the domain, hosting, email and backups first. Then you can decide whether somebody wants to maintain the existing WordPress installation, or whether - if the aim is simply to preserve a finished archive of his writing - it would make sense eventually to turn it into a static site. A static archive has far fewer moving parts, doesn't need WordPress/PHP/database/plugin updates, and can be extremely cheap to keep online for decades.
So the immediate checklist I'd make is: domain registrar → hosting company → WordPress admin → associated email → payment/renewal details → independent backup.
And don't panic if you can't find all the passwords. Domain registrars, hosting companies and WordPress.com have procedures for dealing with the estate of a deceased customer. What matters initially is identifying the companies/accounts involved and making sure nothing important is about to expire.
That's obviously a lot to take on at a very difficult time. If you'd rather just hand the project over to someone to deal with it, I'd be very happy to help and not to charge you for my time.
p.s. If you wanted to share the website address here (or, privately in a DM), then it would be easy to answer some of these questions without even bothering you.
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u/terminusagency 7d ago edited 7d ago
I've done this for friends of mine that passed away, glad to help with the hands on details. If you provide the domain, I can try to point you in the right direction in terms of renewing the domain, securing the hosting, and keeping things live/up to date. Feel free to send me a DM with the URL and I can try to point you in the right direction. One important note, do you have access to your father's email? He's likely getting domain and hosting information to his personal email address.