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# What is the backup passphrase, and what happens if it is lost?

The organisation passphrase encrypts backups on your server before upload. Learn how to store it, what changing it means, and why a lost passphrase cannot be recovered.

2 min readUpdated: October 22, 2026[Baca dalam Bahasa Indonesia](/help/passphrase-backup)

The backup passphrase is your organisation's encryption key. Jobs that use the **Encrypted** option encrypt artifacts on your server (age: scrypt + ChaCha20-Poly1305) before upload, so the backup contents cannot be read without the passphrase.

## How to set it

1.  Open **Settings → Security**.
2.  Enter a **New passphrase (min. 12 characters)**.
3.  Click **Save passphrase**.

The passphrase is stored encrypted in the control plane and sent to the agent only during a run or restore. That is why restores from the dashboard stay automatic without you typing the passphrase.

## If you change the passphrase

Changing the passphrase does not re-encrypt older backups. Older artifacts still need the old passphrase, while restores from the dashboard always use the passphrase that is currently active. Keep the old and new passphrases together in a password manager until every older backup has passed its retention period.

## If the passphrase is lost

We cannot recover backups if their passphrase is lost. Artifacts encrypted with a passphrase that nobody knows any more cannot be opened by anyone, including our team. The passphrase is also needed to open manually downloaded artifacts with `age --decrypt`.

## Recommendations

-   Store the passphrase in your team's password manager, not in personal notes.
-   Test restores regularly to a staging database.
-   For non-sensitive data or test environments you can choose **Unencrypted**; artifacts are only compressed and can be opened directly with database tools.

## See also

-   [Scheduling backups](/docs/jadwal-backup)
-   [Restoring a backup](/docs/restore)

Still need help?

Open a support ticket from the dashboard and our team will reply as soon as possible.

[Browse the docs](/en/docs)[Open a ticket](/app/support/new)