Backup
Intro - As they say; "No backup – no pity"
When you choose to update or flash OpenPLi, you willingly take the risk that it can be for better or worse. So, when things don’t turn out for the better, having a backup is essential. If you don’t like the changes that the update has made and want to revert to before these changes were made.
When changes have been made it is always meant to make things better, but there are no guarantees. Keep in mind that the developers have day time jobs and all this is done in their spare time.
Updating isn’t necessary, when things work there is no good reason why you should update. Remember, If it ain’t broke than don’t try to fix it! It is always sane to check the commit logs or read the forum if there is good cause to update or not.
As always, make a backup before upgrading or any change you want to make and have install media of the version you are coming FROM handy. Then you are never more than a few minutes from being right back were you started when you have those two things in-hand.
Here I will deal with two types of backup that are a must have. These two can make you always go back to the state of OpenPLi when they were created, in say less than 5-10 minutes or so. There are much more details about the two types of backup I could mention here, but I want to keep it simple.
First things first, AutoBackup which is native to OpenPLi and second BackupSuite. There are differences between these two that (can) make them complementary.
Difference
So the main difference between these two is that with AutoBackup you will restore OpenPLi to the exact state you configured it, when you made the AutoBackup. So all settings and some plugins (well those that are in the OpenPLi feed) will be restored, but none of system files of OpenPLi. The system files will stay the same as to the day you flashed or when you last updated.
The BackupSuite or RecoveryMenu Backup makes a complete copy of OpenPLi, so all files, including the system files, like drivers (which are closed source). When you restore it, all files will be in the same state and version as when you made the Backup, that's why this backup will be a lot bigger that the one made by AutoBackup.
Complementary
So using these two backups, AutoBackup and BackupSuite, you are fairly safe, well as safe and stable as at the time you created them. These two methods are complementary. AutoBackup when you’ll need to flash and don’t want to set all the settings manually and BackupSuite when you want to restore to the "exact" state of OpenPLi, (including the system files).
Advice
Set AutoBackup to run every day at a certain time and use it when you want to flash. Use the BackupSuite to make a backup when your OpenPLi is in a stable configuration, so when you try things, you can always return to this state.
