Divi Restore Theme Builder Templates

A WordPress plugin for recovering deleted or missing Divi Theme Builder templates and template parts. Compatible with Divi 4 and Divi 5.

Background

Divi's Theme Builder uses four custom post types to store its data:

All data is stored in the WordPress database. When a template or template part is deleted through the Divi Theme Builder interface, Divi does not trash or delete the post — it stamps it with a _et_theme_builder_marked_as_unused meta value (a timestamp). After 7 days, Divi's cleanup job moves the post to the WordPress trash. This plugin intercepts that process and lets you restore items before they are lost.

Install the Plugin

1. Download the plugin zip file
2. In your WordPress Dashboard go to Plugins > Add New
3. Click Upload Plugin at the top
4. Choose the zip file and activate

How to Use

Once activated, navigate to Tools > Restore TB Templates in your WordPress Dashboard. The plugin has three tabs.

Tab 1 — Templates

Lists all et_template posts that have been deleted or marked as unused by Divi.

Each row shows:

• Template title and ID
• Assigned to — which pages or post types the template was applied to (parsed into readable labels)
• Linked parts — which header, body, and footer layout parts were linked to this template, and whether each part is also deleted
• Marked unused — the date Divi marked it for deletion, plus a countdown showing how many days remain before it is auto-trashed
• Status — whether the post is still Published or has already been moved to Trash

Restore re-links the template to the root Theme Builder post, removes the unused mark, and restores any linked template parts at the same time.

Restore All restores every deleted template and its linked parts in one click.

After restoring, open the Divi Theme Builder to verify the templates are correctly assigned. In Divi 5, opening the Theme Builder will fully re-establish any internal connections managed by Divi's interface.

Tab 2 — Template Parts

Lists all et_header_layout, et_body_layout, and et_footer_layout posts that have been deleted or marked as unused — including parts that were removed individually from an otherwise active template.

Each row shows the part title, type (Header / Body / Footer), the date it was marked unused, and its current post status.

Why a dropdown is required: When Divi deletes a template part it deliberately clears the link between the part and its parent template (sets _et_footer_layout_id to 0 on the template post). There is no way to determine the original parent from the database alone. The dropdown lists all active templates so you can manually identify the correct one.

Select the template the part belongs to (the part title usually matches the template name), then click Restore & Re-link. This:

1. Removes _et_theme_builder_marked_as_unused from the part post
2. Updates the parent template's layout ID meta to point back to this part

If you restore without selecting a template, the part's content is preserved in the database but it will not be visible in the Theme Builder until you manually reassign it.

Tab 3 — Revisions

WordPress automatically saves revisions every time a template part is edited. This tab lets you browse and restore those revisions — useful when you want to roll back changes rather than recover a deleted part.

Overview lists every template part that has at least one revision, showing the part type, its parent template (if linked), the total revision count, and the date of the most recent revision.

Click View Revisions to see all saved revisions for a part, listed newest-first alongside the current version.

Click Compare with current on any revision to open a side-by-side diff view:

• Left column (Current Version) — the content currently in the template part
• Right column (This Revision) — the content stored in the selected revision

The diff highlights exactly which blocks or lines were added or removed. Content is shown as raw Divi block markup (Divi 5) or shortcode (Divi 4) — a visual preview is not available, but the diff is sufficient to identify what changed.

Click Restore This Revision (in the diff view) or Restore (in the revision list) to replace the template part's current content with the content from that revision. If the part was also marked as unused, the unused mark is cleared at the same time.

The 7-Day Window

Divi marks unused templates and parts with a timestamp. Its cleanup job runs on every admin page load and trashes any item marked more than 7 days ago. This plugin handles untrashing automatically, but items that have been in the WordPress trash for longer than WordPress's own trash retention period (default 30 days) may have been permanently deleted and cannot be recovered.

Act promptly — the sooner you restore, the less risk of permanent data loss.

Multisite

Activate the plugin at the sub-site level, not at the Network level.

Known Compatibility Issues

WPML / Polylang and other translation plugins

Translation plugins intercept WordPress post queries for custom post types, which can prevent the plugin from reading or restoring template data correctly.

Recommended approach:

1. Deactivate the translation plugin
2. Use this plugin to restore the templates
3. Reactivate the translation plugin

Divi 5

After restoring templates or template parts in Divi 5, always open the Divi Theme Builder to verify everything is correctly linked. Divi 5 manages some template associations through its own interface layer — opening the Theme Builder triggers a re-sync that finalises the connections.