How to Backup Your Blogger Site Completely - 2019 Edition

Well, if you're like me you have been putting off getting fresh backups of your Blogger site content, template, images and videos. It's amazing that Blogger has been around almost two decades and through that journey it has transformed its templates while modifying the underlying infrastructure to support it. Google has moved much of your content to newer services typically without you knowing it.

That is why it is time to take some fresh backups. But, be aware, many don't realize that your content is spread across different components--template, posts and comments, images and videos--so if you just had been using the single 'Backup' button you were not getting everything.

Let's start!

Step1: Backup your Template

Though this isn't totally necessary, you should backup your template separately just to make recreating your blog easier. Step 2 also backs up your template with your content but having them separate is a good idea. Be sure to create a backup folder somewhere for all of your site content. I typically use a Dropbox folder so it gets automatically backed up offline.

In your Blogger editor select 'Theme' and click the 'Backup/Restore' button in the upper right as shown below:

You will now see a popup screen to backup your template. Just click the 'Download theme' button and save it on your main drive or backup drive folder:

The file will have a name like theme-4829847293492863492873.xml.

How to Backup Your Blogger Template

I originally had this section within another post but felt it warranted a separate post for anyone's reference. It is always a good practice to backup your templates just in case something goes awry. Before you do any modifications to a Blogger template be sure to either practice these changes in a test blog or backup your template to disk before starting. This is critical!! Modifying a template is prone to errors and may disable your blog. If you haven't done this before it is very easy. Please note - this only backs-up your template, not your posts! Posts are exported in the Settings/Other/Export Blog section. See how to Backup your full blog site and content in this post.

Backing Up Your Blogger Template

Just go into the Blogger main menu for your specific blog and choose the 'Template' option. Up in the far right corner is the 'Backup/Restore' option for your template. Just click on that to start the backup process:

A pop-up dialog will appear with the Backup / Restore options with the button to 'Download full template' like this: