Can I downsize a Droplet using a snapshot?

You cannot downsize a Droplet from a snapshot. Data is not always stored sequentially in memory, so reducing the size of a disk can result in data loss or corruption.

When creating a snapshot, the entire disk is imaged, not only the data present on the disk. This means that you can only create Droplets with as much disk space as the Droplet the snapshot was taken from, or more. There is no safe way to shrink a Droplet’s disk partitions.

A workaround to this is to create a smaller Droplet and then transfer your data over the new Droplet using rsync or a similar tool. Review our Community data migration guide for more details on how to do this.

Related Topics

Why is my snapshot's size different from reported disk usage?

Snapshots of Droplets are a best estimate based on the disk usage. Snapshots of volumes operate at the block storage level, so the snapshot size may not match what the filesystem reports.

How do I recover a deleted Droplet?

You can recover your Droplet if you have taken a snapshot of the Droplet or signed up for automated backups.

How can I destroy my Droplets while maintaining my backups?

Convert your backups to snapshots to save them indefinitely.