How Backups Work
Daily automatic backups with a 7-day retention, manual backups against a 30 GB quota, and a restore that takes a safety copy first.
Automatic Backups
Every server is backed up once a day, automatically, and there is nothing to switch on. By default the last 7 backups or the last 7 days are kept, whichever limit is reached first.
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| How often? | Once a day |
| How many are kept? | The last 7 |
| For how long? | 7 days |
| Do they use my 30 GB manual quota? | No — they are accounted separately |
| Can I restore and download them? | Yes |
| Can I label or delete them? | No — retention owns them |
They appear in their own "Automatic Backups" section on the Backups page, with the reason each one was taken in the Type column: scheduled for the daily copy, pre restore for the safety copy described below.
Because automatic backups are accounted separately from your manual quota, a busy automatic schedule can never crowd out the backups you took yourself.
The retention numbers above are the platform default. They can be changed — how many to keep, how many days, an overall size ceiling, and whether a scheduled backup should wait until nobody is playing — through the Customer API rather than from the panel. See Customer API Reference.
The two safety copies
Two extra copies are taken automatically at moments when something is about to overwrite your files. They are not the same thing, and only one of them is yours to restore.
Before a restore
An automatic backup of your current save is taken immediately before a restore overwrites it, so there is always a copy of what you had a moment ago. It appears in your list as pre restore and it is exempt from retention — it is never the backup that gets deleted to make room for a newer one.
Before a game update
A copy is also taken on the machine your server runs on immediately before a game update is applied. That one is a safety net for the update itself: it does not appear in your backup list and cannot be chosen for a restore.
If you want a restorable copy before you update, take a manual backup first. The pre-update copy is not offered back to you.
Manual Backups
On the Backups page, optionally fill in "Backup label (optional)" and "Note (optional)", then click "Create Backup Now". The backup is queued and appears in the list once it has been taken and verified — the button does not wait for it.
Your server does not need to be stopped, and the copy is taken as the files stand at that moment. The platform has a hook for asking a game to save before the copy begins, but no game on the platform declares one today, so there is no flush — stop the server first if you want a guaranteed clean copy of a busy world.
A file the running game is holding open fails the copy, and the backup is then refused rather than recorded as a partial. The Status column names the file when that happens.
The one exception is Minecraft's session.lock, which the server holds open for its whole life and recreates on start. It is skipped with no fuss and costs the restore nothing.
Manual backups sit in their own "Manual Backups" section. You can restore, download, re-label ("Edit Label") or delete them at any time, and they are never removed automatically.
Uploading an archive from your own computer
There is an "Upload Backup" button for restoring an archive you already hold. It accepts .zip, .tar, .gz and .tar.gz.
It is not usable for a real world archive today. The file is sent inline through the API, which caps it at roughly 1.5 MB — smaller than almost any saved world.
Use FTP or SFTP to put a large archive on the server instead. Your credentials are on the server's Overview page.
Restoring a Backup
On the Backups page, find the backup you want and click "Restore". Only a backup whose state is "verified" offers the button — one still being taken, or one that failed, cannot be restored.
If players are connected when you press Restore, a dialog tells you how many and asks you to confirm before anything happens.
The restore then runs in stages, and the page shows which one it is on:
1. Validate — the archive is checked before anything is touched.
2. Safety copy — a backup of your current save is taken, and it is the one exempt from retention.
3. Stage — the incoming files are extracted somewhere else entirely; your live save is still untouched.
4. Swap — the staged files are moved into place in one atomic step.
5. Health check — the restored server is checked before the restore is called complete.
Two different failures are reported differently, and the difference matters.
| Result | What it means for your files |
|---|---|
rolled_back | Your server's files were not changed at all. |
failed | They may have been. The safety copy taken at the start is in your backup list and can be restored. |
Backup Quota
Every server gets 30 GB for its own manual backups. The "Storage Quota (Manual Backups)" card at the top of the Backups page shows how much of it is used, as a bar and as a figure.
| Quota rule | Detail |
|---|---|
| What counts against it | Manual backups only |
| What does not | Automatic backups, which retention governs instead |
| When it is full | The new manual backup is refused with a quota error |
| What gets deleted to make room | Nothing of yours, ever |
Delete a manual backup you no longer need and try again. If 30 GB is not enough for your server, open a support ticket — the quota is set per server and we can raise it.