Your data and your term

Getting your files off a machine

There is no export button. Here is what actually works, and what a backup on this product is and is not.

Start with the part that is easy to get wrong by assuming: **there is no export button, no download-your-machine, and no restore.** Not on your machine's dashboard, not on this site, not in a command. If you need something off a machine, you move it yourself, and this page is the how.

Do this before the date on your billing page, not after. When a term ends the machine is reclaimed and its disk is wiped, we keep no copy, and nothing can be recovered — what happens when a term ends has the timings.

Push it out from the machine

This is the route that works today with no caveats. Outbound traffic from the machine is allowed by default — the only thing blocked is outbound TCP 25, so mail submission on 465 and 587 is unaffected. Open a terminal from your dashboard and send the files somewhere you control.

git push — the obvious one, and the right one for anything that is a repository.
rsync or scp **outbound** to a host of your own.
rclone, aws s3 cp, gh release upload, curl -T — whatever you already use.

rsync -avz ~/projects/ you@your-host:/backups/projects/

Everything you care about is under your home directory, and ~/projects is where the terminal, the editor and every agent open. Do not forget ~/.vmbox/env if your keys are worth keeping — see the environment file.

The File manager

The File manager at /files/ on your machine's own address browses that same home directory from the browser, and it is one of the four tools a fresh machine starts. It is the answer to "how do I get a file *onto* the machine" without a terminal. For getting a lot of data *off*, pushing from a terminal is the route described above, and it is the one to reach for.

Pulling from your laptop

scp, rsync and sftp *from* your own computer need SSH to the machine, and **port 22 is not reachable from the internet today** — the change that opens it is written and not yet applied, so an attempt currently times out. Until it lands, push from the machine rather than pulling to it. SSH, your own keys, and what a reinstall does to them has the detail.

What a backup on this product is

Some plans are sold with a backup and the entry plan is not; the pricing table says which. It is worth being exact about what that buys, because it is not the thing the word usually means.

It is **the provider's automated backup**: a periodic snapshot held in the provider's systems, not a copy on your machine and not a copy you hold.
**You cannot restore it yourself.** You would ask us.
**We have not committed to how far back a snapshot reaches, or how long a restore takes.** Those are not published numbers because they have not been decided.
It is bought when a machine is **created**, and never afterwards. A machine that was already built when you ordered has whatever it was built with, so if a backup matters to you, ask us to confirm yours has one rather than assuming.

Keep your own copy of anything you cannot lose. A snapshot nobody has promised to keep is not a copy you control, and there is no snapshot taken before a machine is wiped at the end of a term.

Wrong, out of date, or missing the case you have? Tell us. A page that describes the machine incorrectly is a fault, not a typo.

Push it out from the machine

git push — the obvious one, and the right one for anything that is a repository.

rsync or scp **outbound** to a host of your own.

rclone, aws s3 cp, gh release upload, curl -T — whatever you already use.

rsync -avz ~/projects/ you@your-host:/backups/projects/

The File manager

Pulling from your laptop

What a backup on this product is

Some plans are sold with a backup and the entry plan is not; the pricing table says which. It is worth being exact about what that buys, because it is not the thing the word usually means.

It is **the provider's automated backup**: a periodic snapshot held in the provider's systems, not a copy on your machine and not a copy you hold.

**You cannot restore it yourself.** You would ask us.

**We have not committed to how far back a snapshot reaches, or how long a restore takes.** Those are not published numbers because they have not been decided.

It is bought when a machine is **created**, and never afterwards. A machine that was already built when you ordered has whatever it was built with, so if a backup matters to you, ask us to confirm yours has one rather than assuming.

Keep your own copy of anything you cannot lose. A snapshot nobody has promised to keep is not a copy you control, and there is no snapshot taken before a machine is wiped at the end of a term.