Comments on: Good folders to exclude from Time Machine backups http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/ Editor and technology critic in the midst of founding a new web startup: gdgt. Tue, 24 Aug 2010 03:59:37 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: gawin http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112891 gawin Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:38:58 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112891 I would like to suggest to also locate your largest folder/files. This caused me to exclude an extra 10+ GB, which I don't have to sync over iSCSI :-) GrandPerspective can give you a good visual representation of your disk usage: http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net I would like to suggest to also locate your largest folder/files.
This caused me to exclude an extra 10+ GB, which I don’t have to sync over iSCSI :-)

GrandPerspective can give you a good visual representation of your disk usage:
http://grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net

]]> By: Backups mit Time Machine und Backblaze ‹ dreitehabee http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112889 Backups mit Time Machine und Backblaze ‹ dreitehabee Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:14:00 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112889 [...] Podcasts in der iTunes-Bibliothek oder der EyeTV-Ordner, lässt sich trefflich und kompakt bei Ryan Block [...] [...] Podcasts in der iTunes-Bibliothek oder der EyeTV-Ordner, lässt sich trefflich und kompakt bei Ryan Block [...]

]]> By: Jackson http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112887 Jackson Thu, 22 Jul 2010 13:24:34 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112887 Another good one to exclude is /var/vm which stores virtual memory swap files and the safe sleep image. Those things definitely don't need to be backed up. I do like having an intact backup so that I can restore from my Time Machine image and continue using my system as it was previously set up, so I do back up my apps and my /usr/bin folder and my mail etc. but the virtual memory files definitely don't need to be backed up. Another good one to exclude is /var/vm which stores virtual memory swap files and the safe sleep image. Those things definitely don’t need to be backed up. I do like having an intact backup so that I can restore from my Time Machine image and continue using my system as it was previously set up, so I do back up my apps and my /usr/bin folder and my mail etc. but the virtual memory files definitely don’t need to be backed up.

]]> By: Jeff http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112874 Jeff Wed, 09 Jun 2010 15:47:05 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112874 Thunderbird is another culprit. I was getting over 1.5 GB added to each backup from that. I used a tool called "TimeTracker" and it worked great to root out where the large amounts of data were coming from. Thunderbird is another culprit. I was getting over 1.5 GB added to each backup from that. I used a tool called “TimeTracker” and it worked great to root out where the large amounts of data were coming from.

]]> By: Ryan Sandridge http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112869 Ryan Sandridge Tue, 25 May 2010 15:11:58 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112869 If you use Adobe Lightroom. You'll want to exclude from backups .lrdata file containing previews... it is essentially a cache (and Adobe *should* store that in ~/Library/Caches as they do for Adobe Bridge, but for some reason don't for Lightroom). Also, if you're using TimeMachine, you can turn off the Lightroom feature that automatically backs up your .lrcat file regularly... since TimeMachine is already creating versioned backups of the file. If you use Adobe Lightroom. You’ll want to exclude from backups .lrdata file containing previews… it is essentially a cache (and Adobe *should* store that in ~/Library/Caches as they do for Adobe Bridge, but for some reason don’t for Lightroom). Also, if you’re using TimeMachine, you can turn off the Lightroom feature that automatically backs up your .lrcat file regularly… since TimeMachine is already creating versioned backups of the file.

]]> By: Gus http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112868 Gus Thu, 20 May 2010 19:30:54 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112868 I have read a few postings and articles regarding Time Machine exclusions (including http://shiftedbits.org/2007/10/31/time-machine-exclusions/comment-page-1/ ), and I have not been able to figure out what has gone wrong since my upgrade to 10.6. If anyone happens upon this post and has some input, I would greatly appreciate it. To avoid hassles with FileVault, I don't use it. Instead, at login I mount an encrypted disk image that I use to hold all client data and I do not store the password in my keychain. Under Leopard, Time Machine would backup the files inside this mounted volume just like any other drive/volume. I could exclude the folder where the disk image itself was stored (though backing up a sparse image could partially address this under Snow Leopard) so as not to have massive backups, and I could rely on Time Machine to make backups of the individual files, revisions, etc. inside the volume. Under Snow Leopard, Time Machine seems to not even try to backup the contents of the mounted volume. I cannot quite figure out why or how this is excluded. Maybe I am doing something else wrong that I am not detecting. I did, for a variety of reasons (e.g., CrashPlan, etc.), make a new encrypted volume using a sparse image but I don't see how that would cause the problem. How does Time Machine know to backup external drive volumes that are mounted and yet not to backup volumes that are mounted from a disk image? Any thoughts? Thanks very much. I have read a few postings and articles regarding Time Machine exclusions (including http://shiftedbits.org/2007/10/31/time-machine-exclusions/comment-page-1/ ), and I have not been able to figure out what has gone wrong since my upgrade to 10.6. If anyone happens upon this post and has some input, I would greatly appreciate it.

To avoid hassles with FileVault, I don’t use it. Instead, at login I mount an encrypted disk image that I use to hold all client data and I do not store the password in my keychain.

Under Leopard, Time Machine would backup the files inside this mounted volume just like any other drive/volume. I could exclude the folder where the disk image itself was stored (though backing up a sparse image could partially address this under Snow Leopard) so as not to have massive backups, and I could rely on Time Machine to make backups of the individual files, revisions, etc. inside the volume.

Under Snow Leopard, Time Machine seems to not even try to backup the contents of the mounted volume. I cannot quite figure out why or how this is excluded. Maybe I am doing something else wrong that I am not detecting. I did, for a variety of reasons (e.g., CrashPlan, etc.), make a new encrypted volume using a sparse image but I don’t see how that would cause the problem.

How does Time Machine know to backup external drive volumes that are mounted and yet not to backup volumes that are mounted from a disk image?

Any thoughts? Thanks very much.

]]> By: roostaar http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112795 roostaar Thu, 07 Jan 2010 20:40:38 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112795 /Library/FileSync if you keep a local copy of your iDisk... /Library/FileSync if you keep a local copy of your iDisk…

]]> By: briank http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112790 briank Wed, 16 Dec 2009 16:04:40 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112790 Thank you for the tips. Although more for a reduction in system resource usage than space, I've been using <a>Time Machine Editor</a> (free) for custom scheduling of TM. It has been working well so far. I wish there was a TM setting to specify a maximum disk usage. Thank you for the tips.

Although more for a reduction in system resource usage than space, I’ve been using Time Machine Editor (free) for custom scheduling of TM. It has been working well so far.

I wish there was a TM setting to specify a maximum disk usage.

]]> By: nic http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112732 nic Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:48:37 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112732 I just found 80 gigs in my trash i just got a new 500 gb hdd for my mac book and put all my personal stuff back on and threw a lot in the trash thanks a lot I just found 80 gigs in my trash i just got a new 500 gb hdd for my mac book and put all my personal stuff back on and threw a lot in the trash

thanks a lot

]]> By: RJM http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112731 RJM Tue, 01 Sep 2009 21:00:51 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112731 To exclude the above mentioned files/documents from TM, do you type in exactly as is what you suggested above? How do you exclude Entourage in the preference window for TM? What steps fo you take? RJM To exclude the above mentioned files/documents from TM, do you type in exactly as is what you suggested above?

How do you exclude Entourage in the preference window for TM? What steps fo you take?

RJM

]]> By: dradogg http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112685 dradogg Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:59:26 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112685 This article and the comments that followed were very helpful. I was extremely frustrated in trying to get TM to work. I had spent hours on the project, scouring the web for information and reformatting three different hard drives (journaled,journaled and case sensitive or Extended only). Determined not to give up, I finally reformatted the Seagate 1.5T drive as journaled, excluded the Parallels Folders, the caches, the Microsoft Office Identities Folders, Missing Synch Folders, Mark/ Space folder and the virus protection app, ClamXav. I still was not able to get TM to work. After reading the article above and another article that suggested files in the Library (Home) may hold the culprits, I began to systematically exclude the Library Folders. Using a method learned with the Conflict Catcher app in OS 8, I exclude half of the folder to see what happened and then the other half of the folders, if the first exclusion did not work. I made images of what files I had excluded on the desktop for a reference. The exclude files were highlighted in the images, so that I could compare what worked and what did not work. (Detailed written notes would do as well.) I finally narrowed the bad folded down to the "Livetype" folder. I did not tried to determine which files in that folder (LiveType) were causing the problem. I just excluded the whole folder. Remember to delete the backups that don't work from TM and the trash each time you run your test or the backup hard drive will fill up. Hold down the Option key when starting to delete the files from the trash, so that the process of emptying the trash is not interrupted. Someone should make an app like Conflict Catcher to identify the files that conflict with TM. Addendum: A little more research pointed me to, "TM Error Logger". It tracks the logs for TM. Examining the logs generated by TM, I found that the backups were stopping when the LiveType folder was encountered. Starting with this app (TM Error Logger) first will save a great deal of time and headache. Reading the logs is a bit tricky. I did not know what all the error codes meant. A quick search in the TM Error Logger app and the web helped. TM Error Logger will only work when one has logged in as an administrator. Since it is recommended that one doesn't use the admin account regularly (this is to protect your computer) you may have to sign into two accounts; an admin account and an non-admin account . This will depend on how you have your computer set up. Cheers, This article and the comments that followed were very helpful. I was extremely frustrated in trying to get TM to work. I had spent hours on the project, scouring the web for information and reformatting three different hard drives (journaled,journaled and case sensitive or Extended only). Determined not to give up, I finally reformatted the Seagate 1.5T drive as journaled, excluded the Parallels Folders, the caches, the Microsoft Office Identities Folders, Missing Synch Folders, Mark/ Space folder and the virus protection app, ClamXav. I still was not able to get TM to work. After reading the article above and another article that suggested files in the Library (Home) may hold the culprits, I began to systematically exclude the Library Folders. Using a method learned with the Conflict Catcher app in OS 8, I exclude half of the folder to see what happened and then the other half of the folders, if the first exclusion did not work. I made images of what files I had excluded on the desktop for a reference. The exclude files were highlighted in the images, so that I could compare what worked and what did not work. (Detailed written notes would do as well.) I finally narrowed the bad folded down to the “Livetype” folder. I did not tried to determine which files in that folder (LiveType) were causing the problem. I just excluded the whole folder. Remember to delete the backups that don’t work from TM and the trash each time you run your test or the backup hard drive will fill up. Hold down the Option key when starting to delete the files from the trash, so that the process of emptying the trash is not interrupted.
Someone should make an app like Conflict Catcher to identify the files that conflict with TM.
Addendum:
A little more research pointed me to, “TM Error Logger”. It tracks the logs for TM. Examining the logs generated by TM, I found that the backups were stopping when the LiveType folder was encountered. Starting with this app (TM Error Logger) first will save a great deal of time and headache. Reading the logs is a bit tricky. I did not know what all the error codes meant. A quick search in the TM Error Logger app and the web helped. TM Error Logger will only work when one has logged in as an administrator. Since it is recommended that one doesn’t use the admin account regularly (this is to protect your computer) you may have to sign into two accounts; an admin account and an non-admin account . This will depend on how you have your computer set up.
Cheers,

]]> By: yumimaki http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112630 yumimaki Thu, 07 May 2009 03:33:31 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112630 i restored my whole system from Time Machine last week after reformatting my hard drive to partition it. I'd tried to use boot camp to repartition, but it didn't work since i had a message that said i had files that couldn't be moved. Anyway, after restoring from TM, none of my CS3 programs work, so i tried to reinstall. But it won't let me, saying that the file system doesn't work on my OS volume. I have no idea what this means. Any ideas on what i can do? i restored my whole system from Time Machine last week after reformatting my hard drive to partition it. I’d tried to use boot camp to repartition, but it didn’t work since i had a message that said i had files that couldn’t be moved. Anyway, after restoring from TM, none of my CS3 programs work, so i tried to reinstall. But it won’t let me, saying that the file system doesn’t work on my OS volume. I have no idea what this means. Any ideas on what i can do?

]]> By: Chris Thomson http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112596 Chris Thomson Sun, 19 Apr 2009 22:57:14 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112596 You exclude /Applications? Honestly, if I have to do a restore, I'd much rather have all of my applications right there. It's much more valuable to spend 10 minutes every week deleting apps that I installed and don't use, than to re-install all of the applications if I have to restore that folder from a Time Machine backup. You exclude /Applications? Honestly, if I have to do a restore, I’d much rather have all of my applications right there. It’s much more valuable to spend 10 minutes every week deleting apps that I installed and don’t use, than to re-install all of the applications if I have to restore that folder from a Time Machine backup.

]]> By: Tom (not Hanks) http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112595 Tom (not Hanks) Fri, 17 Apr 2009 07:06:22 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112595 I fould the ultimate solution for finding out what is backed up on each run. I was for example wondering why I have 22 MB on each backup, doing nothing else than Gmail and webbrowsing(it was my Firefox Profile). Use the Google code page of Nathan Fiedler, he offers 2 scripts: 1. Timedog to identify which folders are changing every hour. 2. Timecopy to move your old USB Time Machine Backup to the new place preserving the hard link mechanism. Here is the Link: http://code.google.com/p/timedog/ http://code.google.com/p/timedog/wiki/UsingTimecopy You need: 1. Root Permission 2. confidence in terminal commands 3. If you run timecopy: time They are Phyton scripts, readable and easy to understand. Thanks to Nathan Fielder, my incremental backups are reduced in idle from 22.8 mb to kb, unless I modify larger files somewhere else which are on the TM Radar. Share this to the world please! I fould the ultimate solution for finding out what is backed up on each run. I was for example wondering why I have 22 MB on each backup, doing nothing else than Gmail and webbrowsing(it was my Firefox Profile). Use the Google code page of Nathan Fiedler, he offers 2 scripts:
1. Timedog to identify which folders are changing every hour.
2. Timecopy to move your old USB Time Machine Backup to the new place preserving the hard link mechanism.

Here is the Link:
http://code.google.com/p/timedog/
http://code.google.com/p/timedog/wiki/UsingTimecopy

You need:
1. Root Permission
2. confidence in terminal commands
3. If you run timecopy: time

They are Phyton scripts, readable and easy to understand.
Thanks to Nathan Fielder, my incremental backups are reduced in idle from 22.8 mb to kb, unless I modify larger files somewhere else which are on the TM Radar.

Share this to the world please!

]]> By: Tom (not Hanks) http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112592 Tom (not Hanks) Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:57:36 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112592 TM makes so called hard links. A file exists on time in the Harddrive, but shows up on several places in the file system. In our case, in all the TM dated folders. Only if you change a file you will find different versions, therefor you use up some little space on the backup drive. If you have 10 timed folders in your backup, and you go by hand into all 10 folders to delete in each folder the identical file, only when the last file (e.g. 10MG) is deleted, the space is freed up. Other way around calulate the size of your Files backed up, and multiply it with the numbers of backups there. You will see it does not match, TM uses much more less space. All this is possbile due to using HFS+. TM makes so called hard links. A file exists on time in the Harddrive, but shows up on several places in the file system. In our case, in all the TM dated folders. Only if you change a file you will find different versions, therefor you use up some little space on the backup drive. If you have 10 timed folders in your backup, and you go by hand into all 10 folders to delete in each folder the identical file, only when the last file (e.g. 10MG) is deleted, the space is freed up.

Other way around calulate the size of your Files backed up, and multiply it with the numbers of backups there. You will see it does not match, TM uses much more less space. All this is possbile due to using HFS+.

]]> By: Becky http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112573 Becky Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:10:57 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112573 Apple says that "following the initial backup, Time Machine makes only incremental backups — copying just the files that have changed since the previous backup. Time Machine creates links to any unchanged files, so when you travel back in time you see the entire contents of your Mac on a given day." When I set up and launched Time Machine yesterday, it appears that it made a new copy of EVERYTHING every hour! The first folder is the same size as the last one. I don't see any links to unchanged files. and what about the daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for everything older than a month? Sorry, I'm not getting this and there's nothing in TM Help to explain it. Please enlighten... Apple says that “following the initial backup, Time Machine makes only incremental backups — copying just the files that have changed since the previous backup. Time Machine creates links to any unchanged files, so when you travel back in time you see the entire contents of your Mac on a given day.” When I set up and launched Time Machine yesterday, it appears that it made a new copy of EVERYTHING every hour! The first folder is the same size as the last one. I don’t see any links to unchanged files. and what about the daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for everything older than a month? Sorry, I’m not getting this and there’s nothing in TM Help to explain it. Please enlighten…

]]> By: Jenn http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112530 Jenn Sat, 14 Feb 2009 13:39:35 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112530 Thanks for your help. Really useful and straightforward. Helped me out heaps. Now following you on Twitter so can stay more updated. Cheers Jenn Thanks for your help. Really useful and straightforward. Helped me out heaps. Now following you on Twitter so can stay more updated.
Cheers
Jenn

]]> By: Ferd http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112510 Ferd Mon, 19 Jan 2009 05:33:04 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112510 It appears that TM already excludes a bunch of stuff on its' own, including some of the items listed above. I found a blogpost on Shifted Bits that gives the standard list of exclusion. http://shiftedbits.org/2007/10/31/time-machine-exclusions/ It appears that TM already excludes a bunch of stuff on its’ own, including some of the items listed above. I found a blogpost on Shifted Bits that gives the standard list of exclusion.

http://shiftedbits.org/2007/10/31/time-machine-exclusions/

]]> By: Eric http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112508 Eric Sun, 18 Jan 2009 05:05:14 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112508 Thanks Ryan, just what I was looking for. Podcasts and virtual machines saved the 55GB I needed. Now I can again fit my both my TM and full Carbon Copy back on my 500GB ext HD. Thanks Ryan, just what I was looking for. Podcasts and virtual machines saved the 55GB I needed. Now I can again fit my both my TM and full Carbon Copy back on my 500GB ext HD.

]]> By: Jeff http://ryanblock.com/2008/05/good-folders-to-exclude-from-time-machine-backups/#comment-112501 Jeff Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:54:41 +0000 http://www.ryanblock.com/?p=847#comment-112501 Thanks Ryan! Your advice on what files to exclude were very helpful and it also made my backups FLY! Cheers! Thanks Ryan! Your advice on what files to exclude were very helpful and it also made my backups FLY!

Cheers!

]]>