Most archive lookups mean opening the Wayback Machine, then archive.today, then Ghost Archive, then a few more tabs, pasting the same link into each one. This shortcut just takes a URL and checks all of them at once, then offers to make a fresh archive if nothing turns up.
What this shortcut does
Feed it a webpage and it queries the major archive services in one pass: archive.org (the Wayback Machine), archive.today (archive.ph), Ghost Archive, Megalodon.jp, WebCite, Perma.cc, and arquivo.pt. If you’d rather preserve a page than find an old copy, it can push a new archive to most of those same services, or save a local copy as a PDF or HTML file straight to Files.
It also reaches into the corners of the web that vanish fastest. Deleted Reddit posts and comments get looked up through PullPush.io, Reveddit, and Arctic Shift. Removed YouTube videos run against quiteaplaylist.com and PreserveTube, and pulled 4chan threads go through the 4chan archive.
How to install
- Install the free Actions app by Sindre Sorhus from the App Store first, since the shortcut leans on its extra steps.
- Confirm Apple’s Files and Translate apps are present too.
- Tap Add Shortcut on this page to open the preview in the Shortcuts app.
- Scroll the preview to the bottom and tap Add Shortcut to add it to your library.
How to use it
The fastest way to run it is from the Share Sheet. Open a page in Safari (or any app with a share button), tap Share, scroll to Web Archive Utility, and it reads the URL automatically. You can also run it from the Shortcuts app or a Home Screen tile and paste a link when it asks.
Once it has a URL, you pick whether you want to search existing archives or create a new one, and the shortcut routes the link to the right services. Results come back as links you can open. One handy detail: if an app hands it several URLs at once, it grabs the first one rather than choking on the list.
FAQ
Why does it want the Actions app?
A chunk of the heavy lifting (handling URLs, files, and text the way this shortcut needs) relies on actions Apple doesn’t ship in Shortcuts itself. The Actions app by Sindre Sorhus adds them, and it’s free, so install it before the first run or the shortcut will stop and ask.
I shared a deleted Reddit post and got a corrupt-URL error.
That happens when the link comes from the Reddit app, which sometimes mangles the address for removed content. Open the post or comment in your browser instead, then share that page to the shortcut and the lookup goes through.
Can it actually save a page offline?
Beyond pinging the public archive sites, it can write the page to your device as a PDF or HTML file through the Files app. That copy lives entirely on your iPhone, so it sticks around even if every online archive eventually drops the page.
