Recover a deleted description or card name

If someone changes or deletes the description of a card, it may appear that the entire description has been deleted. However, Trello tracks these changes in the background so you can recover the original description later.

Although the old description isn't currently visible via the Trello web interface, the data is available via the API and it's relatively easy to locate.

Instructions for recovering a description

1. Open the card with the missing description

2. Get the card ID for the card. You can find it in the URL of the card, after the /c/. For example, hpAcP7IS is the card ID for https://trello.com/c/hpAcP7IS/814-multiple-log-in-credentials

3. Go to https://trello.com/1/cards/[card ID]/actions?filter=updateCard:desc, replacing [card ID] with the card ID of the card with the missing description

4. Search for {"old": . Look to the right of each location where this is found. The old description can be found to the right of {”desc”

Optionally, you can install the JSONView Chrome Extension for chrome, or the JSONView Add On for Firefox. These will let you format the JSON so it’s easier to read, but it’s not required.

Instructions for recovering a card name

1. Export the card to a JSON file from the Share menu of the card

2. Using Chrome, install the JSONView Chrome Extension. Alternatively, install the JSONView Add On for Firefox to make the JSON file more humanly readable.

3. Look for the actions section of the JSON and where the previous card name will be recorded.

Additional technical explanation

The API route we use is  GET /1/cards/[card id or shortlink]/actions. We then add the parameter ?filter=updateCard:desc to only see changes to the descrition.

GET routes can use your browser authentication as API authentication, so this URL can be entered in your browser’s address bar after you log in to Trello.

Using that API route with the example card above,  hpAcP7IS, our URL will be:  https://trello.com/1/cards/hpAcP7IS/actions?filter=updateCard:desc. Within the results, you'll see actions for each time the description was changed, where you'll see data.card.desc (the new description) and data.old.desc (the old description).

More guidance on working with JSON

For more information on how to manipulate JSON data, please check out  Making Sense of Trello's JSON Export.