Snapshots

A snapshot saves a canister’s code and memory so you can go back to it. Take one before a deploy, a risky change or a move. Open a canister’s Snapshots section to manage them.

Take a snapshot

Choose Take snapshot, choose who runs it, and confirm. The new snapshot appears in the list with its time and size. Step by step.

The Why column records why each snapshot was taken: on demand, before a deploy, or before uninstalling code.

Restore a snapshot

From a snapshot’s menu, choose Restore and type the canister’s name. icLens stops the canister, loads the snapshot and starts it again.

Restoring brings back code and memory only. It doesn’t bring back a removed controller, undo a transfer to another canister, or return cycles already spent. Check your app’s data afterwards.

Delete a snapshot

From its menu, choose Delete snapshot and type the canister’s name. Deleting can’t be undone, so keep the ones your recovery plan needs.

Good to know

• Snapshots count towards the canister’s memory, so they cost cycles to keep. The page shows an estimate of the daily cost.
• Details in a snapshot’s menu shows its size, module and memory breakdown.
• An Agent snapshot runs as a job. “Accepted” means it started; wait for it to finish before relying on it.
• For a quiet copy, stop the canister first.