Hello. I’m a little bit confused about how the character cloning works for WOTLK classic.
I played classic WoW in 2020 and had a max level character. When I resubscribed my characters were on WOTLK classic realms. I do have interest in playing WOTLK but I thought that there was a way to keep my character on classic instead of moving it? I woudl rather have that character still on classic
somebody said that you could purchase something in game to do this but I cannot find it in the shop.
how do I get my character back to it’s original realm now without that? or is it forever gone?
You don’t. Just like it’s stated in the many other threads about this.
Blizzard did you dirty bud. Hopefully they clean up their mess. 
so it’s permanently gone? is there anything I can do to get it back or do I have to start leveling again from level 0 on classic?
Allegedly.
I like to think it’s lost in the void.
Not really. The community is already making thread after thread about it.
Level 1 but yes. Hey, maybe we can run Uldaman together!
If you don’t mind leveling up on a “dead” server ;p
Yep, start leveling!
Hey, can you run me through Uldaman?
did they give any reason for doing this? or did they just lose the player files for classic realms?
“the community”
Yes. Back when they were introduced, it was to help free up names and make a choice between Progression or Era. This was never forever.
Even I want Clones, but this is silly.
I bet. this is my first time hearing about it and it’s pretty confusing. I thought those classic characters would be availible forever.
Then you weren’t listening, when they were first introduced. This was NEVER promised.
Time-Stamped, for your convienence:
Answer
Well, that’s a great question! And, I think kind of building on what Holly said, it really is like a “snapshot” taken, at the time we launch the patch. And, so, at that point, you do have your name, in both places. Um, of course, part of the reason we want to make people, uh, make a choice here, and encourage them to choose the place they want to go, is
so that we don’t have people parking on those names, forever. So, at some point, we might, uh, decide to, uh, relax that, and let those names be unreserved.
But, if you decide on “Launch Day”, that you’re gonna pay for the clone, and you want to have that Clone in both eras, you’ll have your name in both places. Uh, one of the things, we’re (also) concerned about is, though, what that looks like, in Classic Era. Like, uh, as we expect most players go to “Burning Crusade”, and we’ll probably have to do something to resolve that. Our current plans is that you’ll be able to keep your current name but probably have something similar to our "Connected Realms, that let’s you have a (the) “Realm Name”, on the end, so we could resolve any conflicts, if we have to do any mergers, like that.
Classic characters were permanently deleted unless you bought the battle pass so most people are having to start fresh.
That post is from 2021. I created my character in 2019 on classic. at the time there was no indication that my realm was a temporary seasonal realm. I fully thought that it was a permanent classic realm that would be around forever.
Why did they move them in the first place, and why did they get rid of the cloning?
Yes 'cause BC was coming and a WARNING on what was happening with the characters.
And, Classic was ASSUMED to be the gateway of Legacy Servers which INCLUDES BC (RIP), Wrath, etc. You would think you would wonder HOW they were going to do that, and what it meant for our characters.
At the time, there was conversations about OTHER Legacy Servers, and what it would mean to OTHER Legacy Servers, if implemented. Alas, at least us Vanilla’ers still HAVE a SERVER. Not only are the BCers cloneless, but they don’t even have a server!
There are many like you. We took a break and our characters are on WoTLK which we do not want to play. IF enough of us can make our voices heard, they could restore the cloning service. I would be willing to pay, would you? see post below for my same topic