Jetpack VaultPress Backup: Storage and Retention

How long do you keep my backups?

Our different backup plans have different retention timeframes:

• Jetpack VaultPress Backup 10 GB: You can choose between 7 days, 30 days, 120 days, or 1 year. If your site’s storage limit is reached for the backup retention period you’ve selected, you will need to purchase a storage add-on or reduce the retention period.
• Jetpack Personal and Jetpack Premium: 30 days
• Jetpack Professional: Unlimited
• Jetpack Backup Daily and Jetpack Security Daily: 30 days
• Jetpack Backup Realtime, Jetpack Security Realtime, and Jetpack Complete: 1 year

How is storage usage calculated?

Storage is roughly calculated as the size of your most recent daily backup times how many daily backups we have saved. So if your last backup was 1GB and we keep 30 days’ worth of backups, you will be using 30GB of storage.

In reality, it’s a bit more complicated (files are replicated in multiple data servers for redundancy, we keep real-time data and metadata, etc.), so we simplify it in a way that is easier to understand and keep track of.

Can I choose how many days of backups should be stored?

You can choose whether you’d like Jetpack to save your backups from the past 7 days, 30 days, 120 days, or 1 year. To access this feature, please follow these steps:

1. Go to https://cloud.jetpack.com. 
2. In the left sidebar, click Settings.
3. Select how many days of backups you’d like us to store. You’ll see an estimate of how much storage is required for each option, and whether you’ll need to upgrade to add more storage to accommodate your choice.

Please note that reducing your retention time means you will immediately no longer have access to the older backups that fall outside of your chosen retention period.

Can I delete old backups to free up storage space?

It is not possible to delete Jetpack backups. We may do this automatically if you reach your storage limit, but it is not something you can do yourself. The best option is to adjust your retention time to a shorter timespan.

How do I get more storage?

We will reach out to you if you are approaching your storage limit, with a recommendation of a storage add-on. You can buy extra storage in the amount of 10GB, 100GB, or 1TB, so you can tailor your plan to fit your individual needs. These add-ons are currently only available for monthly billing, even if you pay for your base plan annually. We hope to add a yearly billing option for add-ons soon.

Prices*

• 10GB: $2.95/month (USD)
• 100GB: $5.95/month (USD)
• 1TB: $9.95/month (USD)

*When you are logged into your site, you will see the storage upgrade prices in your local currency.

To ensure uninterrupted, real-time backups of your site, if you’ve reached the storage limit, please either reduce your backup retention period, increase your storage, or reduce your backup size.

What will happen if I reach my backup storage limit?

When the storage limit has been reached, we’ll start removing your oldest backups to clear up storage space. We will continue removing backups down to the most recent 7 days’ worth of backups. If those backups are still over the storage limit, we will stop generating new backups. You will continue to have access to the 7 days prior to when you hit the limit, but new backups will not be generated until you upgrade your storage.

What can I do to reduce my backup size?

There are a few things that you can do to reduce your backup size:

• Delete Old Images: If you have old, unused images in your media library, deleting these will help reduce backup size.
• Optimize Image Size: There are tools online that you can use to optimize your images that will reduce image size, as well as plugins that do this as you upload them to your media library.
• Optimize Video Size: We recommend uploading videos meeting these specifications.
• Delete Old Drafts: If you have old draft posts and pages that you don’t see being published, move them to trash, and then delete them permanently from trash.
• Plugins: Reduce the number of plugins you’re using. Check out the full list of features for the Jetpack plugin. You may be using plugins that do something that Jetpack has already built-in.
• Themes: Reduce the number of themes you have installed on your site. We recommend that you keep your site’s currently used theme plus at least one WordPress default theme, such as Twenty Twenty for troubleshooting purposes.
• Exclude Large Files: You can exclude large files by putting them in a directory called donotbackup or by adding a file called .donotbackup to an entire directory that you would like Jetpack VaultPress Backup to skip.

We’re not able to provide direct assistance with managing your site’s files or reducing the overall size of your site. If you need help with this process, consider asking your web host or hiring a WordPress web developer.

There are also plugins in the WordPress.org plugin directory that can help clean up duplicate and/or unused media files.