Backups Reference

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.


The DigitalOcean API lets you manage DigitalOcean resources programmatically using conventional HTTP requests. All the functionality available in the DigitalOcean Control Panel is also available through the API.

You can use the API to enable or disable backups on Droplets, then list, update, and delete backup images. You can also transfer and convert specified backup images.

doctl is a command-line interface for the DigitalOcean API and supports many of the same actions.

doctl supports managing backups from the command line. See the doctl documentation or use doctl compute droplet-action enable-backups --help for more information.

Lists backup images for a Droplet, including each image’s slug and ID.