Categories Suddenly Vanish

[MrMedia]

So I have just noticed in google analytics that lots of my posts that were loading as -

sitename.com/categoryname/post

are now loading as

sitename.com/uncategorized/post

Any ideas as to why suddenly 1700+ posts have decategorized themselves?

 

[Ryuzaki]

Did you do any kind of database optimization recently?
Did you change your permalinks?
Did you add anything like Rank Math or Yoast, or change something within them recently?

 

[MrMedia]

I suspect it was database clean up that the host was doing for me.

I am now in fear that a ton of dupe content on uncategorized urls is going to bring the house down.

 

[Ryuzaki]

You can export all of your URLs in a traffic report from Analytics and then re-assign them at least to the main category so the URLs don't change on you.

With Wordpress, 301's are usually set up for you if you change category or change the slug but in your case they likely were not processed.

Alternatively you can just roll back to a previous backup. Your host might even have "save points" you can pick from and not have to do it yourself.

 

[MrMedia]

The disk was full so it deleted the categories....??

Stuff like this gives me the heebie jeebies, of course it would have to happen as we enter Q4

 

[Ryuzaki]

The disk was full so it deleted the categories....??

That's a crock of shit. Someone or some script made a mistake. I'd consider changing hosts once you get a good backup restored, largely because they're not interested in being honest.

 

[MrMedia]

I can tell these final months with these sites are going to be a white knuckle ride to the finish line.