Google Plus Shutdown - Blogger Implications

As most of you probably know by now Google is officially shutting down the consumer version  Google+ in April 2019. Unfortunately for Blogger admins, this has some significant impacts for any Blogger blogs tightly integrated with Google+ widgets, comments and profiles. But, for me the real tragedy on this change is just how much Google had pushed Blogger owners to integrate Google+ into their blogs especially back in 2012 to 2014 like these - Socialize and Grow your Blog with Google+ or Automatically Share your Posts to Google+.

I know I was very tempted to convert my comments and add the Google+ widgets in BloggerTipsPro but thankfully I hadn't made the move since I already had so many native Blogger comments which was something I didn't want to lose. If Plus had grown a bit more I might have jumped.

So, what does this mean to you, the Blogger admin of one or more blogs? Well, the news isn't great. First, let's start with the easy change. If you have an About gadget on your blog and it is using the Google+ profile, it will be automatically converted back to the native Blogger profile like mine here. However, it will be blank and you will be prompted to create that profile with a image.

How to Backup Your Blogger Site Completely - 2019 Edition

Well, if you're like me you have been putting off getting fresh backups of your Blogger site content, template, images and videos. It's amazing that Blogger has been around almost two decades and through that journey it has transformed its templates while modifying the underlying infrastructure to support it. Google has moved much of your content to newer services typically without you knowing it.

That is why it is time to take some fresh backups. But, be aware, many don't realize that your content is spread across different components--template, posts and comments, images and videos--so if you just had been using the single 'Backup' button you were not getting everything.

Let's start!

Step1: Backup your Template

Though this isn't totally necessary, you should backup your template separately just to make recreating your blog easier. Step 2 also backs up your template with your content but having them separate is a good idea. Be sure to create a backup folder somewhere for all of your site content. I typically use a Dropbox folder so it gets automatically backed up offline.

In your Blogger editor select 'Theme' and click the 'Backup/Restore' button in the upper right as shown below:

You will now see a popup screen to backup your template. Just click the 'Download theme' button and save it on your main drive or backup drive folder:

The file will have a name like theme-4829847293492863492873.xml.