How Do I Clean Up RDS Backup Storage?

RDS backup storage stores automated backups, manual backups, and SQL audit logs.

• Cleaning up automated full and incremental backups

  Automated backups cannot be manually deleted. You need to change the backup retention period by referring to Configuring an Automated Backup Policy. Backups that have expired will be automatically deleted.

• Cleaning up manual full backups

  You can manually delete manual backups. For details, see Deleting a Manual Backup.

• Cleaning up SQL audit logs

  You can change the retention period. Audit logs that have expired will be automatically deleted. For details, see Enabling SQL Audit.

  You can also disable SQL audit and select the I acknowledge that after audit log is disabled, all audit logs are deleted check box.

• When deleting a DB instance, you can configure the retention policies for its automated and manual backups. For details, see Deleting Pay-per-Use DB Instances or Read Replicas and Unsubscribing from a Yearly/Monthly Instance.