diff --git a/dokku b/dokku
index 8142338f1..1aa73fd23 100755
--- a/dokku
+++ b/dokku
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@ case "$1" in
   receive)
     APP="$2"; IMAGE=$(get_app_image_name $APP); IMAGE_SOURCE_TYPE="$3"; TMP_WORK_DIR="$4"
     dokku_log_info1 "Cleaning up..."
-    dokku cleanup
+    docker_cleanup
     dokku_log_info1 "Building $APP from $IMAGE_SOURCE_TYPE..."
     dokku build "$APP" "$IMAGE_SOURCE_TYPE" "$TMP_WORK_DIR"
     release_and_deploy "$APP"
@@ -192,12 +192,7 @@ case "$1" in
     ;;
 
   cleanup)
-    # delete all non-running container
-    # shellcheck disable=SC2046
-    docker rm $(docker ps -a -f 'status=exited' -q) &> /dev/null || true
-    # delete unused images
-    # shellcheck disable=SC2046
-    docker rmi $(docker images -f 'dangling=true' -q) &> /dev/null &
+    docker_cleanup
     ;;
 
   plugins)
diff --git a/plugins/common/functions b/plugins/common/functions
index 44cab7fc8..282c5715c 100755
--- a/plugins/common/functions
+++ b/plugins/common/functions
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ dokku_log_verbose() {
 }
 
 dokku_log_warn() {
-  echo " !    $@"
+  echo " !     $@"
 }
 
 dokku_log_fail() {
@@ -320,3 +320,16 @@ release_and_deploy() {
     echo
   fi
 }
+
+docker_cleanup() {
+  # delete all non-running containers
+  # if a container has the label `dokku`,
+  # then that container is not deleted.
+  # This can be used to mark data containers
+  # as non-removable by the cleanup function
+  # shellcheck disable=SC2046
+  docker rm $(comm <(docker ps -aq -f 'status=exited' | sort) <(docker ps -aq -f 'status=exited' -f 'label=dokku' | sort) -3) &> /dev/null || true
+  # delete unused images
+  # shellcheck disable=SC2046
+  docker rmi $(docker images -f 'dangling=true' -q) &> /dev/null &
+}