How to back up a WordPress.COM site

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  abigali · Member · Feb 3, 2016 at 3:05 am

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  Hey guys,

  So I’m a complete newbie using the free hosting on wordpress.com. I’m migrating my site to Dreamhost so I can use the full wordpress.org software, but I need to do a full backup–both database and files–before migrating.

  I know people ask for backup help frequently on here, but I am really struggling to find instructions that will work for me as a wordpress.com user. All of the instructions out there seem to assume that the user already has wordpress.org, so they rely on plugins or access to the php database, which I don’t have. I understand how to export my files using the main toolbar, but to my knowledge, this doesn’t help with backing up the database (and possibly not even all the files).

  I’m also a total novice at this, so I might be missing something obvious, in which case please enlighten me.

  I’m reluctant to use a paid service because this is a work project and my accounting department is extremely stingy about approving expenses for things I could theoretically do myself. Ugh, nonprofits. Anyway, at this point I’m willing to pay out of pocket if it’s cheap just to get this done, but only as a last resort and only if it’s less than like, $10. Thoughts?