Best Option for Making Site Backups

There are many ways to do backups – see:

https://codex.www.ads-software.com/WordPress_Backups

For plugins, I’d suggest searching the plugins page and looking at reviews, support forum for the specific plugin and any details about the particular plugin.

I use this for the database…
https://www.ads-software.com/plugins/search.php?q=WP-DBManager
…and I have it pointed to a secure folder…
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/can-i-add-a-folder-in-bps-backup-without-causing-trouble?replies=3

Then, I use FileZilla-SFTP to download a complete backup of my site (public_html folder containing three sites, actually), and that includes the folder holding the database backups…and about a week ago I used that local backup of my own to completely restore all three of my sites after having my host delete-and-remake my public_html folder.

Along with the above, I also pay a small fee at my host for them to do regular backups of my entire account, and I had found that invaluable (and still consider it so) prior to making my own backups locally.

Thanks WPyogi and leejosepho. Is it sufficient to do a full site backup via cPanel and download to my pc?

No. You need to specifically backup your database. Have a look at the page that WPyogi link to above. Other than that, all that you need to download is a copy of your wp-content folder.

…and wpconfig.php and .htaccess in case you have to do a complete restoration.

The wp-admin and wp-includes folders are optional since you will likely not have modified anything there, but you will still need fresh copies (you can first download from elsewhere at the time) to upload if you ever need to replace what is already there.

Ok, thanks all for the helpful advice.

So rather than doing a full site backup, I need to do the following:
1) Download a MySQL Database Backup (from cPanel). I haven’t been able to follow the instructions in the above link – I can’t find what i’m looking for, but what I did seems to make sense.
2) Download a copy of my wp-content folder
3) Download wpconfig.php and .htaccess
4) Download wp-admin and wp-includes, just in case

Am I safe just to do the above?

Download a MySQL Database Backup (from cPanel).

One of the Support Techs at my host suggested I do a phpMyAdmin export as a download to my local machine, but I do not know whether that would be any different. Other than possibly that, it looks to me like you are good-to-go!

Thanks leejosepho. So the 5 steps are needed; the 4 I listed and the one you suggested? Or do you mean just the database and the phpMyAdmin export?

I was only meaning to say I do not know for certain whether “Download a MySQL Database Backup (from cPanel)” and “phpMyAdmin export as a download to my local machine” are the same. Personally, I use WP-DBManager to do backups from my Dashboard and store them in a safe place…
https://www.ads-software.com/support/topic/can-i-add-a-folder-in-bps-backup-without-causing-trouble?replies=3
…and then I occasionally also use phpMyAdmin for its convenience while trying to learn about working with the database directly. The simplest way to decide what is best in your own case is to step through the process you hope you will never have to actually use to restore your database. If you do a local download and could easily load that right back in right there wherever you might be, then you have what you need to do a restoration right there at the server if one might ever be needed. In contrast, backups made with a plugin such as WP-DBManager might not be as accessible from there as they are from the WordPress Dashboard.

Great advice, thanks!