INDEXIA BLOG
Never Lose Your Work: Restore Deleted Terms in Indexia
We've all been there: you're refining your index, making quick decisions about what stays and what goes, and suddenly you realize—you just deleted something important.
With Indexia's new Restore feature, that's no longer a problem. Every deleted term is preserved with full context, ready to be recovered with a single click.
How Restore Works
When you delete a term in Indexia, it's not gone forever. Instead, it moves to your project's deletion history where you can:
- View all deleted terms in chronological order
- See why each term was deleted (manual deletion, trim operation, merge)
- Restore any term to bring it back into your active index
- Recover relationships like cross-references and parent-child connections
Accessing Your Deletion History
Click the Restore button in the toolbar (clock icon) to open the deletion history panel. You'll see:
- Term name and original page references
- When it was deleted and by what action
- A restore button for each entry
Smart Restoration
When you restore a term, Indexia doesn't just add it back as a bare entry. The system:
- Recreates the term with its original standardized name
- Preserves page references as they were before deletion
- Attempts to restore relationships where the related terms still exist
- Places it correctly in alphabetical order and any applicable groups
When Restoration is Automatic
Indexia also uses your deletion history proactively. When you try to add a new term that matches a previously deleted entry, you'll see a prompt:
"A term matching 'artificial intelligence' was previously deleted. Would you like to restore it instead?"
Choosing to restore brings back the original term with all its accumulated page references—far richer than creating a fresh entry.
Deletion Context
Each deleted term shows context about its removal:
- Manual deletion: You explicitly removed this term
- Trim operation: Removed as part of an AI-powered trim
- Merge target: This term was merged into another (shows merge target)
- Bulk action: Removed as part of a bulk selection
This context helps you understand why something was removed, making it easier to decide whether to restore it.
Best Practices
Review Before Major Operations
Before running a Trim operation or executing bulk deletes, remember that Restore has your back. Don't hesitate to make aggressive cuts—you can always bring terms back.
Use Restore During Final Review
When doing your final quality check, keep the Restore panel open. If you spot a gap in coverage, check if a relevant term was previously deleted.
Consider Merge History
If you can't find a term you're looking for, it might have been merged rather than deleted. Check the merge target—the original term's references now live there.
Limitations
A few things to keep in mind:
- Syntheses aren't restored: If the deleted term had an AI-generated synthesis, you may need to regenerate it
- Some relationships may break: If you deleted Term A, then deleted Term B that referenced Term A, restoring A won't automatically restore B's reference
- History is project-specific: Each project maintains its own deletion history
See It in Action
Watch the Restore tutorial video for a complete walkthrough of the deletion history panel and restoration workflow.
Restore is one of several new features in our January 2026 release. See the full feature announcement for everything new in Indexia.