Exclude Folders from Time Machine Backups
Jan 27, 2012 - 4 Comments
Excluding folders and files from Time Machine backups is very easy and can make a big difference in the size and speed of backups on a Mac:
- Launch System Preferences and click on “Time Machine”
- Click on “Options”
- Drag and drop folders into the ‘Exclude items from backup’ list
- Click Save and close out of System Preferences
If you’re averse to dragging and dropping, you can also click the + plus button and manually select items and folders to exclude. Removing items from the exclusion list is a matter of clicking the name and hitting either the Delete key or clicking the minus button in the exclusion window.
Changes will not impact past Time Machine backups, but future backups with Time Machine will acknowledge the exclusion list and prevent those items from being backed up.
It’s generally a good idea to keep a complete backup of a Mac, and if you don’t know what to exclude you probably shouldn’t exclude anything.
You can use Time Machine (the application) to look at the ~/Library/, then highlight the Caches folder for example, control-click or right-click to get the contextual menu to delete all backed up copies of this folder to free up the space wasted if you won’t be backing this folder in the future.
You will save a bunch of space in general if you only focus on the users home folder. Since the Mac App Store keeps all of our apps anyway, this is a fine strategy for those of us with not much outside the home folder.
time machine automatically excludes ~/Library/Caches for you. there’s no reason to exclude it yourself.
Informative!!