| title | sp_delete_backuphistory (Transact-SQL) | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| description | Reduces the size of the backup and restore history tables by deleting the entries for backup sets older than the specified date. | ||
| author | markingmyname | ||
| ms.author | maghan | ||
| ms.reviewer | randolphwest | ||
| ms.date | 06/23/2025 | ||
| ms.service | sql | ||
| ms.subservice | system-objects | ||
| ms.topic | reference | ||
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[!INCLUDE SQL Server]
Reduces the size of the backup and restore history tables by deleting the entries for backup sets older than the specified date. More rows are added to the backup and restore history tables after each backup or restore operation is performed; therefore, we recommend that you periodically execute sp_delete_backuphistory.
Note
The backup and restore history tables reside in the msdb database.
:::image type="icon" source="../../includes/media/topic-link-icon.svg" border="false"::: Transact-SQL syntax conventions
sp_delete_backuphistory [ @oldest_date = ] oldest_date
[ ; ]
The oldest date retained in the backup and restore history tables. @oldest_date is datetime, with no default.
0 (success) or 1 (failure).
None.
sp_delete_backuphistory must be run from the msdb database and affects the following tables:
- backupfile
- backupfilegroup
- backupmediafamily
- backupmediaset
- backupset
- restorefile
- restorefilegroup
- restorehistory
The physical backup files are preserved, even if all the history is deleted.
[!INCLUDE msdb-execute-permissions]
The following example deletes all entries that are older than January 14, 2023, 12:00 A.M. in the backup and restore history tables.
USE msdb;
GO
EXECUTE sp_delete_backuphistory @oldest_date = '2023-01-14';
GO