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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.

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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.