You can exclude files or folders from a backup. For example, you want to reduce backup size or time, some files are protected in another backup or do not need to be protected at all.
To exclude files from a backup:
- After you have selected what to back up and where to back up, click Options:
- Click Exclusions:
- Make sure the Files matching the following criteria check-box is selected:
- Click the + sign:
- Specify a folder, a file or a criterion. See details below.
Exclude a folder
If you need to exclude a folder, you have two options.
You can provide its path and name manually:
Or you can click the ... sign, go to the directory tree, and select the folder you want to exclude.
(!) If you are backing up a network share, specifying exclusions via UNC path (\\Share\folder) will not work. Mount the network share and specify exclusions as for a local folder.
Exclude a file
If you need to exclude a specific file, type file name, including path, manually. Say, you want to exclude the "bigfile.txt" file located in folder "Folder123" on drive C. In exclusions, specify C:\Folder123\bigfile.zip
Exclude all files matching a specific criterion
If you need to exclude all files matching a specific criterion, specify this criterion.
- file.ext - all such files will be excluded from the backup.
For example, you have multiple files named Capture.jpg in different folders and want to exclude them all. In exclusions, specify Capture.jpg - *.ext - all files with a .ext extension will be excluded.
For example, you want to back up all contents of a drive except for the video files (.mov-files) stored on this drive. In exclusions, specify *.mov - ??name.ext - all files with a .ext extension, having six letters in their names (starting with any two symbols (??) and ending with name), will be excluded.
For example, you back up a folder with work documents, but want to exclude all reports. These reports have standard names like Jun_report.doc, Jul_report.doc, Aug_report.doc, etc. In exclusions, specify ???_report.doc