Making Your Own Archive - How to Use ArchiveBox to Mirror Wayback Snapshots

There comes a point when relying on archive.org alone doesn’t feel quite safe enough.

Maybe it’s the fear of losing a crucial snapshot. Maybe it’s that recurring "excluded by robots.txt" message. Or maybe it’s just that you want a copy - your own copy - of what you’ve found in the Wayback Machine.

That’s where ArchiveBox comes in.

ArchiveBox is an open-source self-hosted archiving system that lets you save web pages in your own environment - complete with full HTML, screenshots, WARC files, PDFs, and more. Think of it as your personal Wayback Machine. One you control. One that doesn’t forget.

In this guide, we’ll walk through how to use ArchiveBox to mirror snapshots from the Wayback Machine, so you can preserve what you’ve found, audit changes, and rebuild digital trails independently.

And if you’re already scripting downloads with PHP, like we showed in this guide, ArchiveBox fits right into that kind of workflow.

What Is ArchiveBox?

ArchiveBox is a self-hosted archiving system developed to help users collect, store, and browse web pages long-term, without depending on third-party platforms. It’s built to ingest URLs from all kinds of sources - browsers, bookmarks, RSS feeds, even PDFs - and save them in multiple formats.

You can learn more or grab the code from the official site at https://archivebox.io/ or its GitHub repository https://github.com/ArchiveBox/ArchiveBox.

What makes it powerful for Wayback snapshots is that ArchiveBox doesn’t just grab a link - it downloads the page, the media, the scripts, and even the original archive.org wrapper. It makes the moment portable.

Why Mirror Wayback Captures?

If the Wayback Machine already exists, why mirror it?

Because snapshots get blocked. Because sites get delisted. Because robots.txt rules can hide what was once accessible. And because, frankly, some content is too important to leave to chance.

Mirroring Wayback snapshots with ArchiveBox allows you to:

• Create a local archive of pages you’ve found during OSINT, research, or monitoring

• Save the exact version of a page you plan to cite or analyze

• Avoid future surprises when a snapshot becomes unavailable

It’s like printing out the web - but smarter, searchable, and stored under your own roof.

Step 1: Install ArchiveBox

ArchiveBox is built to be flexible. You can run it via:

• Docker

• Python/pip

• Homebrew (on macOS)

• Or install it inside a VPS or local server setup

Most users go the Docker route for isolation and ease of setup:

That’s enough to get a web interface up and running at http://localhost:8000 where you can start adding URLs.

More detailed instructions are available at https://archivebox.io/docs/installation/docker/

Step 2: Add Wayback Snapshot URLs

Now the fun part: feeding it Wayback links.

You can start with one snapshot:

Or bulk-add from a list:

You can even automate this - query the CDX API, extract timestamped URLs, and feed them to ArchiveBox. If you’re already using PHP or a scraper to collect snapshot links, it’s a simple handoff from script to archive.

Once added, ArchiveBox will:

• Save the HTML

• Download images, CSS, JS (as available)

• Generate a screenshot

• Store WARC and plaintext versions

• Let you browse locally through a built-in UI

Now you’re no longer just viewing the archive - you’re owning it.

Step 3: Organize, Search, and Use

Everything you add gets a timestamped directory inside ArchiveBox’s storage. You can search entries, filter by tag, or export lists of archived items.

It’s perfect for:

• Case files in OSINT investigations

• Research footnotes and reference preservation

• Local mirrors of lost or decaying sites

• Comparing versions of a page over time

And unlike the live Wayback Machine, ArchiveBox doesn’t care about robots.txt or crawler exclusions. Once you’ve captured the page, it’s yours to keep.

You know... Save First, Regret Later

There’s a strange relief in seeing a webpage preserved - safe from edits, deletions, or politics. Whether it’s a policy page, a forum post, or a forgotten tutorial, some pages deserve permanence.

Using ArchiveBox to mirror Wayback snapshots gives you that control. It’s not about replacing the archive - it’s about protecting what you found, when you found it.

Because someday you might go back to that link and find a message that says:

“Blocked by robots.txt”
“Content unavailable”
“Snapshot not found”

And when that day comes, you’ll be glad you mirrored it.