Back Up Now runs a single backup of a guest right away, outside your backup schedule. It is the same vzdump backup that Proxmox VE runs for scheduled jobs, written to any storage that accepts backups, including a Proxmox Backup Server that is configured as storage in Proxmox VE. Use it before an upgrade or a big change, when you want more than a snapshot. Back Up Now is part of Aprox Pro.

Where to find it

  • Sidebar › plex › Summary › Actions › Back Up.
  • Or long-press the guest in the sidebar (right-click on a Mac) › Back Up Now….

On the free plan the button carries a lock (menus show "(Pro)"), and tapping it opens an overview of Aprox Pro.

Back up a guest

  1. Open Back Up Now. The Guest section shows the guest's Name and Node.

  2. Choose the storage. Only storages that accept backups are listed, for example nas-backup or a Proxmox Backup Server storage.

  3. Choose the Mode:

    Mode What happens to the guest
    Snapshot "The guest keeps running. Fastest, and what a scheduled backup uses."
    Suspend "The guest is paused while the archive is written, then resumed."
    Stop "The guest is shut down for the whole backup and started again afterwards. The most consistent archive, and the longest outage."

    For a stopped guest the mode makes no difference: "The guest is stopped, so it stays stopped."

  4. Choose the Compression: ZSTD (fast, good), GZIP (slow, good), LZO (fast) or None. A Proxmox Backup Server compresses and deduplicates on its own, so this choice does not apply there.

  5. Optional: edit the Notes. They are pre-filled with {{guestname}}. The server fills in placeholders such as {{guestname}} and {{node}} when it writes the backup.

  6. Under Options:

    • Protect from rotation: "A protected archive is never removed by a retention rule, and counts against the storage until you delete it yourself."
    • Prune older backups (on by default): after the backup, Proxmox removes older backups of this guest according to the storage's retention settings. Turn it off to keep them all: "Every existing archive is kept, whatever the retention settings say."

  7. Tap Back Up. Aprox shows Starting backup…, and the sheet closes as soon as Proxmox has accepted the job. The backup keeps running on the node.

Follow the backup

  • iPhone: a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island shows "Backing up plex" with its progress and ends with "Finished." or "Failed.". See Live Activities.
  • Android: a progress notification shows the percentage.
  • Everywhere: the guest's Tasks tab and Cluster Tasks list the backup task with its live log. See Tasks and logs.

While the backup runs, the guest is locked. The sidebar shows an orange locked: backup label, and other actions on the guest wait until it finishes.

Find and restore the backup

The new backup appears in the storage's Content › Backups list, from where you can restore it. See Browse storage content and Restore a backup. Backups on a Proxmox Backup Server also appear in that server's content in Aprox if you have added it.

Requirements on the server

  • Privileges: typically VM.Backup on the guest and Datastore.AllocateSpace on the target storage.
  • The storage must have the content type "VZDump backup file" enabled in Proxmox VE (Datacenter › Storage).
  • Snapshot mode for a container needs storage that can snapshot; otherwise Proxmox falls back to suspend mode.

Good to know

  • Scheduled backups are shown in Backup jobs. Back Up Now does not change them.
  • A failed backup is reported by alerts if you have them turned on ("A task fails"). See Alerts and notifications.