Export site content

I need to export the full site content for migration: create a single ZIP containing the XML export, uploads folder, and the active theme folder, then validate the XML imports cleanly into a blank install. Do this by Thursday so I can hand it to Sam in hosting support for the DNS cutover — check the export for missing media and list any plugin-generated content that won’t transfer first.

Before I hand the export to hosting, make the migration-ready package obvious: put the media count and total size at the top, surface any posts or pages flagged as private or draft, and call out plugins that store data outside the standard content tables. Flag anything that will require manual rebuild (forms, e-commerce orders) so Sam doesn’t get surprised.

I just finished the built-in export and the uploads folder is much smaller than our current media inventory. I’m the content lead and Sam in hosting needs a reliable package by Thursday. I don’t know whether images were stored by a plugin, offloaded to a CDN, or missed in the export. What's the most likely cause and the fastest check-and-fix so I can repackage and meet the deadline?

Across several migrations we keep losing images and plugin data during export, which costs hours and damages trust with the client. I lead the agency migrations team. Where are we breaking the process — discovery, checklist, or technical test — and what single habit change (or checklist item) will stop us from shipping incomplete exports?