What is a COMPLETE backup?

All your content: posts, Pages, comments, settings – are stored in MySQL database. That’s why.
Settings are not “exported”.

From the WP files all you need is your custom theme; eventually, plugins that are not available anymore… and (if you were brave enough) your modified WP core files.

The rest is always available from the download archives.

So, the simple answer would be: backup your DB and you are OK. You always keep a copy of your theme anyway on your computer, so don’t worry about that ??

I’d say the simple answer would be: backup your DB, .htaccess, wp-config.php and the ./wp-contents directory for a minimum backup. If you don’t do that, you lose all of the files you’ve uploaded.

I use my upgrade script to do a full backup of my files periodicly and to ensure nothing has been hacked away from the core. It dumps the db to a zipped file and creates a zipped version of the directories. As an added benefit it can do this for any number of blogs on one felled swoop.

Gee helps to include the link https://www.thecodecave.com/easywpupdate

Since I have the ability to use Cpanel with my hosting company, I use the backup feature of Cpanel to create full backups which include the database and file structure of the domain so that I will have everything I need to get back on track.

Thanks for these tips. Brian, your backup script looks like a great idea, but I’m not sure I can use it with my host.

Since I posted this question yesterday, I have installed sevral plug-ins. I want to make sure those plug-ins and their settings are preserved.

So your suggestion to back-up wp-contents makes sense. But what should I backup to make sure I have all my Dashboard settings saved?