diff --git a/README.asciidoc b/README.asciidoc
index 60aacac..945fd80 100644
--- a/README.asciidoc
+++ b/README.asciidoc
@@ -564,6 +564,11 @@ For the standard ARK server, this should be `ShooterGame/Binaries/Linux/ShooterG
     The directory in which to store backups.  Can be overridden in
     the instance config.
 
+`arkbackupcompress`::
+    Enable/Disable backup compression. Default true. 
+    Helps to remove the load on the CPU, but increases the size of backups, 
+    see arkMaxBackupSizeMB
+
 `arkBackupPostCommand`::
     Command to be run using `eval` after backup completes.
     `$backupfile` will be set to the full path of the backup tar.bz2 file.
diff --git a/tools/arkmanager b/tools/arkmanager
index c3371a0..8c59832 100755
--- a/tools/arkmanager
+++ b/tools/arkmanager
@@ -3174,7 +3174,12 @@ doBackup(){
   echo -ne "${NORMAL} Compressing Backup "
   backupfile="${arkbackupdir}/${daystamp}/${instance}.${datestamp}.tar.bz2"
 
-  tar -jcf "${backupfile}" -C "${arkbackupdir}" "${datestamp}"
+  if [ "$arkAutoUpdateOnStart" == "false" ]; then
+    tar -cf "${backupfile}" -C "${arkbackupdir}" "${datestamp}"
+  else
+    tar -jcf "${backupfile}" -C "${arkbackupdir}" "${datestamp}"
+  fi
+
   rm -rf "${backupdir}"
 
   if [ -f "${backupfile}" ]; then
diff --git a/tools/arkmanager.cfg b/tools/arkmanager.cfg
index 1ec77b8..a3b0a5c 100644
--- a/tools/arkmanager.cfg
+++ b/tools/arkmanager.cfg
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ steamcmd_workshoplog="/home/steam/Steam/logs/workshop_log.txt"      # Steam work
 # config environment
 arkserverexec="ShooterGame/Binaries/Linux/ShooterGameServer"        # name of ARK server executable
 arkbackupdir="/home/steam/ARK-Backups"                              # path to backup directory
+arkbackupcompress="true"                                            # Enable/Disable backup compression
 arkwarnminutes="60"                                                 # number of minutes to warn players when using update --warn
 arkprecisewarn="false"                                              # set this to true to obey warnminutes even if no players are connected (recommended for clusters)
 arkNoPortDecrement="true"                                           # unset this to use the old Port - 1 behaviour