Question about automated backups, restore and deletion

Hi,

  we have started to manage a Moodle with automated backups which was setup by someone else. Moodle is 3.9.1 (not being updated until we change the php version).

Yesterday we found the disk was full, so we tracked it down to the automated backups. 60% of the disk usage was due to the backups. We tuned the number of days and the number of copies and managed to take the usage down to 90%. But while we were tracking the issue down we discovered the following. 

PD: I've been reading loads of posts but I think my questions are not directly or clearly solved. They might help others.

Info:

• Automated backups folder had been changed to /home/nameofwebsite/backups.   Which from what I've seen seems consistent and ok because of the name change of the files and folders since v 2
• Automated backups (I think since the change of folder) do not appear in the system (to restore) nor in the database (when searching for backup files through mysql.
• Automated backups seem fine and there are no error in system logs, apache logs nor backup logs. All seems ok.
• The backups in Moodle (in the restore menus of courses) and in the database are old backups. They are in the /home/nameofwebsite/backups but I assumed were moved there. They might be in the moodle filesystem folder too (haven't checked as I want to remove them).
• The cleanup task is not deleting these backups which are in the database (we've selected to remove backups older than 60 days and these are since January, so 2,3,4 and 5 months old.
• The cleanup task did reduce the space, so I assume it is deleting the ones in our previously mentioned folder in home.

Questions.

• Am I right to assume that once the folder is moved to another folder, they do not appear in the restore menus?
  I've seen tricks on how to create symlinks in orther to restore from the backend, but I am not interested. They are fine as long as they are being done correctly and I prefer if users cannot access them.
  
• If the backups in the system are not being deleted by the cleanup tasks I want to remove them. Do I have to do it manually in each course, or can I remove the files through cli? I assume doing it from the courses will remove file and database entry, but through cli the entries will remain.
• If there are any other backup in the folder, that does not appear in the database and Moodle, can I safely remove the file?
• If my assumptions are wrong, is there any way for Moodle t re-read the backup folder and have those backups re-registered? If the assumptions are ok there is no need as I will remove them to free space.

Thanks in advance to all.