Retention

Backup retention is the number of backups you want to keep available.

This value will be a number, ranging from 0 (unlimited retention, meaning we never delete your backup files) to whatever retention number you might need.

How does backup retention work?

Every time a backup runs, we check the number of backups you already have stored and if this number is higher than the retention value we delete the oldest backup files still stored.

When should I use backup retention?

A good practice is to always define a retention value, in order to avoid using too much storage.

The value will mainly depend on the context of the project you're backing up. When you created your backup, ask yourself the question "Till how long back in time do I need to be able to go if something goes wrong with my site/database"?

Can I delete some of my backup files?

It’s not possible to delete specific backups manually from within SimpleBackups. Setting the job retention option to a certain number will remove older backups as newer ones are created. You can always, however, manually remove the files from your own storage, unless you are using the built-in SimpleStorage. For SimpleStorage, you can purge all backups from within your dashboard.