How to Enable Backups

Backups are automatically-created disk images of Droplets. Enabling backups for Droplets enables system-level backups at weekly intervals, which provides a way to revert to an older state or create new Droplets.

You can enable backups during Droplet creation and on existing Droplets.

Enable Backups during Droplet Creation

To create a new Droplet with backups enabled, from the DigitalOcean Control Panel, open the Create menu and select Droplets. Choose the distribution and Droplet size that fits your needs.

Under the Add backups header, click the Enable Backups button:

Once you have selected any other options, choose a hostname for the Droplet and click Create.

If you’re using the API to create a Droplet, you can enable backups by adding "backups": true to the request body.

Enable Backups on an Existing Droplet

To enable Droplet backups on an existing Droplet, from the Droplet page in the control panel, click the name of the Droplet, and click Backups in the Droplet menu.

In the Backups section, click Enable Backups.