You can easily reactivate your Format sites from your Format account Dashboard.
Reactivating an inactive site
When Format sites go inactive, they can be reactivated from your Format account Dashboard. When you sign in to your Format account and view an inactive site, you will see the following:
- Site Selector: From the top-left corner of your Dashboard, select the site you wish to reactivate. See more here on how to switch between your Format sites: Toggle between different sites on one account
- Update Plan: Click this button to reactivate your site. Clicking this button will prompt you to select a subscription plan for your site
Once you click Update Plan as shown in the above screenshot, you will complete the subscription process as normal. You will be prompted to select a plan, enter your payment details, and confirm the purchase. Your checkout total may show an outstanding balance if your site initially deactivated due to failed renewal attempts over several weeks of payment attempts.
If you have any questions or concerns about this process or your site's checkout total, please reach out to our Success Team via live chat or by email at info@format.com.
Downgrading your plan: You may wish to downgrade your subscription upon reactivating your site. If your site's content exceeds the limits of the plan you want to downgrade to, you will not be able to downgrade. Please reach out to our Success Team for help with next steps to downgrade an inactive site.
Old inactive sites: Site content is archived for a period of 4 months following a site's deactivation. If it has been longer than 4 months since your site's deactivation, the image content will have been removed. Site design, pages, and text still remains beyond the 4-month archiving period.
Reactivating a site with a Format Custom Domain Name
If you previously had a website with a Format-hosted domain name (i.e. you were paying for a domain name through Format), your domain name may have expired, as well.
You can check your domain name's renewal status from your Settings > Domain and Email area. You can set a domain to autorenew or autoexpire.
If your domain is expired due to your site having been inactive for a long time, it may not be renewable. Domain names enter a 30-day grace period immediately after expiry wherein they can be renewed without penalty. After those 30 days, your domain cannot be renewed, and will need to be repurchased after a 40-day expiry holding period.
If your domain is expired and you would like to renew it or talk about next steps, please reach out to our Success Team so that we can assist. Setting an expired domain to autorenew DOES NOT process a new renewal payment, you will need to reach out to our Success Team to do so.
Still have questions? Format provides human support seven days a week. Start a live chat or reach us by email at info@format.com. We're here to help!