What can’t be undone
An honest list of what cannot be rolled back in PowerWP AI, what is refused instead, and how to protect yourself before big jobs.
Changes are recorded, so you can roll them back. A few actions cannot be rolled back by their nature, and a few changes are refused rather than made without a snapshot. This page lists both, so you know where the limits are before you rely on them.
Note
In short: most changes (content, products, orders, options, files, plugins, database rows) are recorded and can be rolled back for 30 days by default. These cannot: anything that already left your site (e-mails, webhooks, payments), cache flushes, backups and restores, other plugins' abilities, and WooCommerce batches over 100 items.
Marked "Irreversible" in the change log#
These actions are written to the change log, but there is nothing to restore. The log marks them Irreversible, and a work session shows how many of them it holds.
| Action | Why it cannot be rolled back |
|---|---|
Clearing caches (cache_flush) | Caches are rebuilt by themselves. |
Creating a backup (backup_create) and starting a restore (restore_start) | A backup is a copy. A restore replaces the database and files. To go back, restore another backup. |
Running an ability that belongs to another plugin (ability_run) | PowerWP AI cannot know what the other plugin changed. Elementor's page abilities are the exception: they are snapshotted. |
Running a cron job now (cron_manage), a WooCommerce tool (wc_tools) or a scheduled action now (wc_scheduled_action_manage) | They run code that may send e-mails, change orders or call other services. |
Sending a password-reset e-mail to a user (user_manage) | The e-mail is sent. |
Switching maintenance mode on or off (maintenance_mode) | It is a switch, so nothing is restored. Turn it off with maintenance_mode or on the Dashboard. |
| Database maintenance statements, and clean-ups of cache-like data | Optimizing tables and deleting expired transients, expired WooCommerce sessions and finished scheduled-action history leave nothing to restore. |
| Database changes that could not be snapshotted | A table too large to snapshot goes ahead only when the AI app confirms on purpose that there will be no snapshot. |
| REST requests without an automatic snapshot | Routes PowerWP AI does not know, and WooCommerce batches of more than 100 items. The log entry says why. |
What a rollback does not bring back#
- Anything that already left your site. A rollback restores your data. It cannot call back an e-mail, a webhook or a call to a payment provider. Changing an order's status can make WooCommerce send an e-mail, and rolling the status back does not unsend it.
- Requests to other services. A
POST,PUTorDELETEsent withhttp_requestgoes to the activity log, not the change log. - Post revisions. WordPress keeps a revision of each edited post or page. A rollback restores the item but leaves that revision.
- Database changes made by a plugin update. A rollback restores the plugin's files. A new version may already have changed its tables. Take a backup before updates.
- Media files. Rolling back an imported image removes the media entry. The file stays in the uploads folder.
- Changes made outside PowerWP AI. Your edits in wp-admin, other plugins and cron jobs are not recorded.
- Changes whose snapshot has gone. Snapshots are deleted after the rollback window (30 days by default) or when the storage cap is reached. The log entry stays, but the change can no longer be rolled back.
Refused instead of unprotected#
PowerWP AI would rather say no than change something it cannot restore.
- If the snapshot cannot be stored, for example because the storage folder is not writable, the change is not made.
- A file or folder larger than Largest automatic snapshot (256 MB by default) is not changed.
- A single-table
UPDATEorDELETEthat would change more rows than the limit of the call (5,000 by default) is refused, and one without aWHEREcondition needs an explicit confirmation.
How to protect yourself#
- Start read-only. Give a new connection Read-only diagnostics and look at what the app finds.
- Ask for a plan and a preview. Read what the app proposes, then say go.
- Set a checkpoint before work with many steps. It lets you roll back everything that connection changes afterwards, except the actions marked Irreversible.
- Back up first for database-wide changes, bulk changes, plugin updates and anything near a restore. A backup covers what a snapshot cannot. See Backups and restore.
- Try big changes on a staging copy. You can mark a site as production, staging or development under Settings › General › Environment. AI apps are told to take extra care on production.
- Mind what triggers e-mails. Ask the app to confirm before it changes order statuses or runs scheduled actions on a live store.
- Review the Irreversible badge on the Changes screen after a session.
Example prompts#
Before you start, list which of the steps you plan cannot be rolled back, and tell me what I should back up first.Show me everything from this session that is marked Irreversible.