Retention policy - 1 day possible?

[djxx]

Using Cloudron version 9, under Configure Backup Schedule & Retention is it possible to get an option for 1 day?

I store my backups on a ZFS pool, so I automatically get daily, weekly, and monthly snapshots of my data. Having this as 2 days causes me to spend 2x the storage space (and bandwidth) on backups.

[james]

Hello @djxx
Currently, no. The minimum is two days.
I am converting your topic into a feature request.

[girish]

This is possible via the API, just not via the UI.

[djxx]

@girish Great! Can you give an example of how, or point me to the documentation?

[james]

Hello @djxx
The API Documentation is still outdated.
But I can guide you.
Create yourself a Cloudron API Token, see https://docs.cloudron.io/profile#api-tokens

Get your backup site ID

export CLOUDRON_ACCESS_TOKEN="YOUR_TOKEN_GOES_HERE"
curl "https://my.cloudron.dev/api/v1/backup_sites?page=1&per_page=1000&access_token=${CLOUDRON_ACCESS_TOKEN}"

Example Output:

{
  "backupSites": [
    {
      "id": "3db47cce-dab7-46b6-9db3-1892ab14cd21",
      "name": "default",
      "provider": "filesystem",
      "schedule": "00 00 23 * * *",
      "format": "tgz",
      "enableForUpdates": true,
      "creationTime": "2025-10-10T08:12:57.000Z",
      "ts": "2025-11-10T11:22:44.000Z",
      "config": {
        "backupDir": "/var/backups"
      },
      "limits": {
        "memoryLimit": 1073741824,
        "uploadPartSize": 10485760,
        "syncConcurrency": 10,
        "downloadConcurrency": 10,
        "copyConcurrency": 10
      },
      "retention": {
        "keepWithinSecs": 172800
      },
      "integrityKeyPair": {
        "publicKey": "-----BEGIN PUBLIC KEY-----\nMCowBQYDK2VwAyEAZ18PRnLfQIf08IKl9bf9YkIHL7zT2eeeRJ8XuCx1+C0=\n-----END PUBLIC KEY-----\n"
      },
      "contents": null,
      "encrypted": false,
      "encryptedFilenames": false,
      "encryptionPasswordHint": null
    }
  ]
}

So the backup site ID is 3db47cce-dab7-46b6-9db3-1892ab14cd21.

Set the retention time in seconds:

export BACKUPSITE_ID="3db47cce-dab7-46b6-9db3-1892ab14cd21"
curl "https://my.cloudron.dev/api/v1/backup_sites/${BACKUPSITE_ID}/configure/retention?access_token=${CLOUDRON_ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  --data-raw '{"retention":{"keepWithinSecs":86400}}'

This will lead to a little buggy looking dashboard since there is no display option for values outside of the avaiable selections.

Normal 2 Days:

Set to 86400 seconds = 1 Day:

[djxx]

@james Thanks! This was helpful. I made this change. Looking forward to the next sync so I can see if the data has been cut in half.