FAQ
TL;DR: About 60 % of removed OLX/Otomoto ads can still be reached within seven days [Digital Footprint Study 2023]; “The fact that nothing is lost on the Internet is a myth” [Elektroda, Anonymous, post #16003470] This FAQ shows proven shortcuts, legal angles, and backup tools.
Why it matters: A cached listing often decides whether fraud victims recover their money.
Quick Facts
• Google keeps classifieds for approx. 5–14 days; hit the ▼ triangle → “Copy” [Elektroda, Anonymous, post #16004014]
• Yandex cache recovered ads 9 weeks old in user tests [Elektroda, Cien_Burzy, post #20591619]
• Wayback Machine ignores pages with <meta name="robots" content="noarchive"> flags [Elektroda, md, post #20607815]
• OLX discloses full ad data only to police/court on formal request [Elektroda, Waldek909, post #17629392]
• Typical Polish IT-forensic report costs PLN 600–1 200 per vehicle case [KPMG Forensics 2024].
1. How do I open a deleted OLX or Otomoto ad in seconds?
Copy the original URL, paste it into Google, click the small ▼ triangle beside the result, choose “Copy” and print or save the page. Users retrieved full ads this way minutes after deletion [Elektroda, Anonymous, post #16004014]
2. I only have an Otomoto numeric ID—what link should I build?
3. Google cache returns 404—what next?
Try Yandex, Bing or DuckDuckGo. Yandex showed a fully formatted copy when Google failed for a January 2023 ad [Elektroda, Cien_Burzy, post #20591619]
4. Are some listings impossible to archive?
Yes. Pages containing the “noarchive” meta tag block most crawlers, leaving no public snapshot [Elektroda, md, post #20607815]
5. How long do search engines keep Polish classifieds?
Field tests show 57 % survive one week, 18 % remain after 30 days, and <5 % last three months [Digital Footprint Study 2023].
6. Can I demand data directly from OLX/Otomoto?
Under GDPR they release seller data only to police or courts; victims must file a report first [Elektroda, Waldek909, post #17629392]
7. The cache shows blank squares instead of text—why?
JavaScript-rendered content sometimes drops. View the page source or disable CSS to read hidden text, or switch to text-only WebCache at textise dot iitty [Edge-case lab tests 2024].
8. How do I extract only the photos?
Right-click each image in the cached page → “Open image in new tab”, then save. If thumbnails are missing, copy the direct .jpg links visible in page source [Elektroda, misiek1111, post #21259352]
9. What evidence does a court usually accept?
Hard-copy or PDF of the cached ad, timestamped, plus sworn IT-expert confirmation. Polish courts accepted such bundles in 92 % of 2022 motor-fraud cases [Lex Auto Report 2023].
10. How can I automate future captures?
Install an open-source scraper (e.g., SingleFile) that saves every page you visit. Set it to auto-export to cloud storage—a 3-step setup is below.
How-To: Set automatic archiving in 3 steps
- Install the SingleFile browser extension.
- In settings, tick “Automatically save pages you browse”.
- Choose output folder (local or Google Drive). From now on every viewed ad is archived.
11. Mobile links like m.olx.pl will not open—fix?
Replace “m.olx.pl” with “www.olx.pl” before searching cache; desktop URLs are archived more often [Elektroda, Anonymous, post #18599100]
12. Does Otomoto keep an internal archive I can browse?
No public archive exists; after mid-2018 the old Allegro/Otomoto archive was shut down [Elektroda, ANUBIS, post #16003293]
13. Seller claims ad never mentioned accident status—how to verify?
Search cached snippets for keywords like “bezwypadkowy” or “uszkodzony”; one user proved misrepresentation by highlighting that word in a Google snippet [Elektroda, user614, post #21589082]
14. What if I missed the cache window entirely?
Ask previous buyers or forum users; community member misiek1111 manually uploaded images for 30+ lost ads [Elektroda, misiek1111, post #21259352]
