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Manage Backups

This guide covers the four main backup operations: creating a manual backup, downloading a dump directly from a deployment, downloading an existing backup, and restoring a backup to a branch.

note

All backup operations require the Admin role on the project.

Create a manual backup​

Skysize automatically backs up your production environment daily. You can also trigger a manual backup at any time — for example, before a major deployment or a data migration.

  1. Open your project and go to the Deployments tab.
  2. Find the deployment you want to back up.
  3. Click the ⋮ (three vertical dots) menu on the deployment.
  4. Select Create Backup.
  5. Optionally, add a note to describe why this backup was taken (e.g. "before v2 migration").
  6. Confirm. The backup will appear in the Backups tab once ready.

Manual backups follow the same multi-region redundancy as automatic backups and are included in the retention policy (7 daily, 4 weekly, 2 monthly).

Download a dump from a deployment​

You can generate a downloadable dump directly from a running deployment without creating a permanent backup entry. This is useful for local development, quick exports, or one-off migrations.

  1. Open your project and go to the Deployments tab.
  2. Find the deployment you want to dump.
  3. Click the ⋮ (three vertical dots) menu on the deployment.
  4. Select Download Backup.
  5. Choose your export options:
    • Filestore — include or exclude uploaded files and attachments.
    • Neutralize database — strips sensitive data (emails, payment details, outgoing mail servers) so the dump is safe to use in non-production environments.
  6. Confirm. The dump will be processed and appear in the Backups tab when ready.
  7. Go to the Backups tab and click Download next to the entry to get the file.
caution

Download links expire after 2 hours. If your link has expired, you can generate a new one from the Backups tab.

Download an existing backup​

  1. Open your project and go to the Backups tab.
  2. Find the backup you want to download in the list.
  3. Click the Download button next to it.
caution

Download links expire after 2 hours. Return to the Backups tab and click Download again to get a fresh link if yours has expired.

Restore a backup​

You can restore any backup to any branch in your project — not just the branch it was taken from. A common use case is restoring a production backup into staging to get realistic test data.

  1. Open your project and go to the Backups tab.
  2. Find the backup you want to restore.
  3. Click Restore.
  4. Select the target branch where the backup should be restored.
  5. Confirm the operation.

The target branch will restart with the restored database and filestore once the process completes.

caution

Restoring to an existing branch replaces its entire database. Any data in that branch will be lost. If you need to preserve it, create a manual backup of the target branch before restoring.