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How to Delete Snapshots

Validated on 31 Oct 2019 • Last edited on 18 Dec 2024

Snapshots are on-demand disk images of DigitalOcean Droplets and volumes saved to your account. Use them to create new Droplets and volumes with the same contents.

Snapshots remain in your account until you manually delete them. Deleting a snapshot does not affect the usability of any other snapshots.

Delete a Snapshot using Automation

How to Delete a Snapshot Using the DigitalOcean CLI

Install doctl, the official DigitalOcean CLI.
Create a personal access token and save it for use with doctl.
Use the token to grant doctl access to your DigitalOcean account.
```
doctl auth init
```
Finally, run doctl compute snapshot delete. Basic usage looks like this, but you can read the usage docs for more details:
```
doctl compute snapshot delete <snapshot-id>... [flags]
```
The following example deletes a Droplet snapshot with ID 386734086:
```
doctl compute snapshot delete 386734086
```

How to Delete a Snapshot Using the DigitalOcean API

Create a personal access token and save it for use with the API.
Send a DELETE request to https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/snapshots/{snapshot_id}.

cURL

Using cURL:

curl -X DELETE \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/snapshots/fbe805e8-866b-11e6-96bf-000f53315a41"

Go

Using Godo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Go:

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    "github.com/digitalocean/godo"
)

func main() {
    token := os.Getenv("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN")

    client := godo.NewFromToken(token)
    ctx := context.TODO()

    _, err := client.Snapshots.Delete(ctx, 'fbe805e8-866b-11e6-96bf-000f53315a41')
}

Ruby

Using DropletKit, the official DigitalOcean API client for Ruby:

require 'droplet_kit'
token = ENV['DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN']
client = DropletKit::Client.new(access_token: token)

client.snapshots.delete(id: 'fbe805e8-866b-11e6-96bf-000f53315a41')

Python

Using PyDo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Python:

import os
from pydo import Client

client = Client(token=os.environ.get("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN"))

resp = client.snapshots.delete(snapshot_id="fbe805e8")

Delete a Snapshot using the Control Panel

To delete a snapshot from your team, in the control panel’s left menu, click Backups & Snapshots. The Snapshots tab lists all snapshots in your account.

Snapshots are separated into two lists: one for Droplet snapshots and one for volume snapshots. To remove a snapshot, open its More menu and click Delete. In the confirmation window that opens, click Delete Snapshot to permanently delete the snapshot.