pfSense Updating Woes: Crisis Aversion

Here is a little guide from a nightmare I encountered whilst trying to perform a maintenance update on a pfSense router… I hope my pain and suffering can help someone else :’).

DO NOT MAKE MY MISTAKE - CREATE A BACKUP FOR YOUR PFSENSE SETTINGS AND STORE IT LOCALLY BEFORE UPDATING!!!!.

pfSense DOES create a backup of settings before updating, but accessing it can be problematic to say the least… (see below)