Wikipedia draft deleted after 6 months? Then it was almost certainly removed under G13, a cleanup rule for drafts nobody has touched in half a year. That's about inactivity and nothing more. You can usually ask for it back, and an administrator will restore it so you can keep going.
There's a catch, though. Once the draft is back, a new six month clock starts. And getting a second restore is harder than getting the first.
Quick answer: Look up the exact draft title in Special:Log/delete to confirm the reason was G13. Then go to Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion/Abandoned pages and press "Request draft undeletion". Once the draft is back, improve it and submit it for review well before another six months pass.
What is the G13 rule for abandoned drafts?
Wikipedia has a short list of speedy deletion criteria. These are the cases where an admin can delete a page without holding a discussion first, and G13 is one of them. It applies to pages in the Draft namespace, and to user space pages carrying an Articles for Creation submission template, when the page "has not been edited by a human in six months". Redirects don't count.
People get caught out by a few details.
Bot edits are ignored. Say a bot fixed a category on your draft last month. The clock still runs from the last edit a person made.
Tagging the draft doesn't restart anything either. The speedy deletion page records a 2022 community decision: "tagging a page for deletion does not reset the six-month clock, but removing someone else's speedy deletion template does."
And if you created the draft, you're allowed to take a G13 tag off it yourself. That's unusual. Creators can't remove most speedy deletion tags, but G13 is on the short list of exceptions.
Most G13 nominations come from bots or from editors using review tools. According to Wikipedia's drafts page, these processes "inform the draft creator on their talk page." So if you had an account, go look at your talk page for a message with the draft's name in it. It's often posted at tagging time, which means you might spot it before an admin deletes anything. That's the cheapest moment to act.
There's also a sister rule, U6. It handles abandoned user subpages belonging to accounts that have barely edited anywhere else. You get those back the same way.
Does a G13 deletion say anything about notability?
No. G13 checks the date of the last human edit and that's it. A strong draft about a widely covered company and a weak one about somebody's hobby can vanish on the same afternoon, for the same reason.
The drafts guidance comes at this from the other direction. When drafts go to a deletion discussion, "Failure to demonstrate that the topic meets notability guidelines is not considered sufficient reason to delete a draft". Drafts are given room to grow. G13 just puts a time limit on how long that room sits empty.
So the deletion tells you nothing about whether your subject would pass review. The sources answer that question. Start with our guide to Wikipedia notability requirements or try the free notability checker.
How do I check why my draft was deleted?
Confirm what happened before you file anything. G13 drafts come back on request. Drafts deleted for other reasons may need another route, and a few can't come back at all.
- Open Special:Log/delete on Wikipedia.
- Enter the full title in the box marked Target, including the "Draft:" prefix. Wikipedia's help page warns that "It only works if the exact name is entered". Capitals and spaces matter.
- Read the deletion summary. For G13 it names the criterion and usually links to the abandoned drafts rule.
- Nothing there? Try other spellings, or check whether the draft was moved or turned into a redirect. The deletion notice on your talk page usually shows the exact title.
- Still lost? Post at the Wikipedia Help desk with the exact title and your username.
You won't be able to read the deleted text. On Wikipedia, "only administrators have the right to view deleted material". Deletion doesn't destroy it, though. The help page on page history says a deleted page's revision history "remains in the database and can be retrieved by an administrator".
How do I get a deleted Wikipedia draft back?
G13 and U6 have their own page, Requests for undeletion/Abandoned pages, which you can also reach through the shortcut WP:REFUND/G13. The first lines say it outright: "These abandoned pages are deleted because they are not being maintained, but can be restored upon request."
Here's the process:
- Log in to the account you plan to use for the draft, so the reply reaches your talk page.
- Go to Wikipedia:Requests for undeletion/Abandoned pages.
- Press the blue "Request draft undeletion" button and enter the exact title.
- Publish. The form fills in a standard request for you, so there's no case to argue.
- Keep an eye on the page and on your talk page. An admin will answer under your request, and might ask a question first.
If the button won't work, the same page describes a manual way. Visit the old title. You'll see a red box saying "A page with this title has previously been moved or deleted". Copy the exact title from there and paste it into the request form.
What are your odds? The standard talk page notice tells creators an administrator "will, in most cases, restore the draft so you can continue to work on it." Most cases, mind you. A request can be refused when the page also has an earlier deletion for another reason, such as copyright problems or edits by a banned user. A G13 restore does not undo those.
What happens after the draft is restored?
You get the draft back on a condition. The admin's reply on a G13 restore usually asks you to keep working on it so it meets the inclusion rules "prior to another six months elapsing." If the draft had been submitted and declined, the wording is "Please edit the page to address any issues raised, and re-submit it".
What you really get is a fresh clock and the same old problems. A declined draft comes back with its decline notice and the reviewer's comment still attached, and those are what you fix first. We go through every standard reason, and the order we'd tackle them, in our post on what to do when a Wikipedia draft is declined.
Then submit it. Getting it into a reviewer's queue is the whole reason you asked for it back. For what the wait looks like, see our guide to the Articles for Creation process.
Can I keep a draft alive without finishing it?
For a while, technically. Any human edit restarts the clock. Wikipedia's Promising draft template even mentions postponing deletion "by making a dummy edit to the page", which means a tiny change that doesn't alter how the page looks.
We wouldn't lean on that. Editors have agreed that the Promising draft tag "cannot be used to indefinitely prevent" a G13 nomination. The restore form has its own warning, too: "if you keep requesting undeletion but do not work on the draft, your request may be declined." Admins can read the history. Two years of token edits look like exactly that.
Round two is tougher. If a restored draft gets deleted again with no real work done, the standard reply says the admin may restore it once more, but "only if you provide a definite assurance that you actually intend to work on it" plus a short plan.
A better habit? Put a real reminder in your calendar about four months after each edit. When it fires, add a source, fix a decline point, or submit.
When is restoring a deleted draft not worth it?
Asking costs nothing. Your time is another matter. Hold off in these situations:
- The deletion was not G13. Requests for undeletion covers a short list of speedy criteria, with G13 and U6 handled on the abandoned pages form. Promotion (G11), copyright violations (G12) and obvious machine generated text (G15) aren't on that list. For those, ask the deleting administrator on their talk page, or open a deletion review if you believe the deletion was wrong.
- There are still no independent sources. Was the draft declined for notability, with nothing new written about the subject since? Then it'll be declined again. Find the coverage first. Our guide to reliable sources for Wikipedia articles covers what reviewers accept.
- You only want the text. The undeletion pages mention other options, like restoring the draft into your user space or emailing you a copy, if you plan to reuse the content somewhere else.
- The draft read like a brochure. Starting again from the sources can be quicker than scrubbing old sales language. Our post on why Wikipedia pages get deleted covers the patterns reviewers remove on sight.
Watch out for anyone offering to "rescue" a deleted draft for a fee with a promise that it'll be approved. No outside party controls what volunteer reviewers decide. Our guide to Wikipedia page scam red flags lists the warning signs.
Do disclosure rules still apply to a restored draft?
Yes. If the draft is about you, your employer or a client, the conflict of interest guideline covers the restored version just as it would a brand new page. The guideline says "COI editing is strongly discouraged on Wikipedia." It also expects anyone connected to the subject to use Articles for Creation for new pages.
Paid work has a stricter rule. In the policy's words: "If you were paid or expected to be paid in any way for contributing to Wikipedia, you must disclose it." You have to name your employer and the client, plus any other link to the work. A note on your user page counts, so does one on your user talk page, and so does an edit summary. Our guide to paid Wikipedia editing disclosure shows what that looks like.
Want help finishing a restored draft?
Stuck in a loop of deleted, restored, declined? We can take a fresh look. Our Wikipedia page creation service starts with a notability check against the sources, then handles the rewrite, the paid-editing disclosure and the reviewer feedback after submission. If the sources aren't there yet, we'll say so early. Approval always rests with Wikipedia's volunteer reviewers, so nobody can promise it.
FAQ
How long before an inactive Wikipedia draft is deleted?
Six months without a human edit makes a draft eligible under G13. It doesn't disappear on the dot, since a bot or editor tags it and then an admin deletes it. The decline notice on Articles for Creation drafts puts it plainly: "If you do not edit your draft in the next 6 months, it may be deleted."
Does a bot edit reset the six month clock?
No. Only human edits count. A bot tidying links or categories won't restart it.
Can I see my deleted draft before asking for it back?
Not on your own, because only administrators can view deleted pages. You can ask for a restore, or ask an admin to email you a copy or put it in your user space.
Will my restored draft keep its old history?
Yes. The page returns with its revision history, earlier decline notices and reviewer comments included.
Is a G13 deletion a mark against my subject?
No. It's a deletion for inactivity. It says nothing about notability, and once the draft is restored you can submit it again.
Who can ask for a G13 draft to be restored?
Usually the person who wants to keep working on it. The page is meant for people who "still intend to work on it", so plan to follow through.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Speedy deletion, criterion G13 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Criteria_for_speedy_deletion#G13)
- Wikipedia: Requests for undeletion/Abandoned pages (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_undeletion/Abandoned_pages)
- Wikipedia: Requests for undeletion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_undeletion)
- Wikipedia: Drafts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Drafts)
- Wikipedia: Why was the page I created deleted? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Why_was_the_page_I_created_deleted%3F)
- Help: Page history (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Page_history)
- Help: Dummy edit (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Dummy_edit)
- Template: Promising draft (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Promising_draft)
- Template: UND (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:UND)
- Wikipedia: Viewing deleted content (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Viewing_deleted_content)
- Wikipedia: Deletion review (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Deletion_review)
- Wikipedia: Conflict of interest (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Conflict_of_interest)
- Wikipedia: Paid-contribution disclosure (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Paid-contribution_disclosure)
- Wikipedia: Articles for creation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_creation)
