# Schedule automatic backups

Back a site up automatically every hour, day, week or month, and keep only as many backups as you need.

## Before you start

- Backup storage connected to Nuvlo. See [Connect backup storage](https://app.nuvlo.dev/docs/connect-backup-storage).
- A role that can manage sites. By default that is **Owner**, **Admin** and **Developer**.

## Step 1: Open Schedules

In the sidebar, select **Operations** and then **Backups**, and scroll to the **Schedules** card on the [Backups](https://app.nuvlo.dev/dashboard/backups) page. It has one row per site.

Each row shows the site’s schedule and the next run, or **Not scheduled**.

![The Schedules card listing sites with their schedule, next run and an Automatic backups switch](https://app.nuvlo.dev/docs/shots/backup-schedules--schedules-card.webp)

## Step 2: Open the schedule for a site

Click **Schedule backups** on the site’s row, or **Edit schedule** if it already has one. The button stays disabled until you have connected backup storage.

![The Schedule backups dialog with storage provider, bucket name, backup type, frequency, hour and backups to keep](https://app.nuvlo.dev/docs/shots/backup-schedules--schedule-dialog.webp)

## Step 3: Choose the storage

Pick the **Storage provider**. **Bucket name** is filled in with that account’s default bucket; change it if you want this site’s backups somewhere else.

## Step 4: Set what, how often and how many

- **Backup type**: **Full**, **Database only** or **Files only**. Sites without a database only offer **Files only**.
- **Frequency**: how often a backup is made. See the table below.
- **Hour**: the hour of the day, from 0 to 23, in the timezone shown in the label. New schedules use your browser’s timezone.
- **Backups to keep**: from 1 to 365. The default is 14.

![The Frequency list open in the Schedule backups dialog, from Every hour to Every month](https://app.nuvlo.dev/docs/shots/backup-schedules--frequency.webp)

## Step 5: Save the schedule

Click **Save schedule**. The row now shows the schedule, how many backups are kept, and **Next:** with the date and time of the first run.

Automatic backups appear in the backup list like any other, marked **Automatic** on a WordPress site’s **Backups** tab.

![The Schedules card listing sites with their schedule, next run and an Automatic backups switch](https://app.nuvlo.dev/docs/shots/backup-schedules--schedules-card.webp)

## How often backups run

| Frequency | When it runs |
| --- | --- |
| **Every hour** | Once an hour. No time to choose. |
| **Every 6 hours** | Four times a day, 6 hours apart. Pick 02:00 and it runs at 02:00, 08:00, 14:00 and 20:00. |
| **Every 12 hours** | Twice a day, 12 hours apart. |
| **Every day** | Once a day at the hour you pick. |
| **Every week** | Once a week on the day you pick, at the hour you pick. |
| **Every month** | Once a month on a day from the 1st to the 28th, so every month has that day. |

A backup starts within the hour you pick. Nuvlo spreads sites across the hour so they don’t all start at once.

The **Schedules** card has no day picker: weekly schedules made there run on Mondays and monthly ones on the 1st. For a WordPress site, choose the day on the site’s own **Backups** tab, described below.

## Schedule a WordPress site from its page

Open the WordPress site, go to **Backups** and click **Schedule and settings**. The **Backup schedule for** dialog has everything from the **Schedules** card, plus:

- **Back up automatically**: switch automatic backups on or off without losing the settings.
- **Day** for weekly backups and **Day of the month** for monthly ones.
- **Timezone**: the timezone the **Time** is in. For 6- and 12-hour schedules the field is called **First backup of the day**.
- **Advanced: leave folders out of file backups**: see the next section.

Click **Save schedule**. The card’s subtitle then shows the schedule and the next run, or **Automatic backups are off**.

![The Backup schedule dialog on a WordPress site with the Advanced section expanded](https://app.nuvlo.dev/docs/shots/backup-schedules--site-schedule-dialog.webp)

## Leave folders out of WordPress backups

Caches and the archives of other backup plugins can make every backup much larger. Under **Advanced: leave folders out of file backups**, list them in **Folders and files to leave out**, one per line:

```
wp-content/cache
wp-content/ai1wm-backups
```

- Each path must be inside `wp-content`. Wildcards are not allowed.
- You can leave out up to 30 paths.
- The list applies to manual backups too, not only automatic ones.
- When you restore such a backup, the left-out folders stay as they are on the site.

## How old backups are removed

After each automatic backup finishes, Nuvlo deletes the oldest automatic backups of that site beyond **Backups to keep**, from your bucket and from the list.

Only automatic backups in the schedule’s own storage account and bucket count. Backups you made by hand, and backups stored somewhere else, are never removed by a schedule.

## Pause or remove a schedule

To pause, turn off the switch in the **Automatic backups** column. The schedule is kept; turn the switch back on to resume.

To remove it, open the row’s **…** menu, choose **Remove schedule** and confirm with **Stop automatic backups**. Backups already made are kept.

## Good to know

- While a site is stopped, or paused because the account is over its plan, its scheduled backups are skipped. They continue at the next run after the site is back.
- Application sites can only be backed up with **Files only**.
- If you disconnect the storage account a schedule uses, the schedule is removed. Set it up again with another storage account.

---
Source: https://app.nuvlo.dev/docs/backup-schedules