Why are excluded folders in Time Machine Backups?

I have my top-level Virtual Machines folder excluded from Time Machine Backups. Yet, they are there, granted, only back to the top of this month, 4 days ago, but, there they are.
Why is this?

No, it has been in the exclusion list since June 2013 when I got the AirPort Time Capsule. (and even before that, when I got VirtualBox)

Similar Messages

Can't exclude folders from Time Machine backups

I am trying to exclude Folders from backups to preserve space.
Go into Time Machine preferences and Options - I can select + to Exclude Folders, and select a Folder, but on then selecting to Exclude nothing gets returned to the "Exclude these items from backups" form.
Help!

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Mails are stored on ~/Library/Mail, being ~ your user folder. As you are running Snow Leopard, it's easy to exclude your mails from your Time Machine backup.
Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and add ~/Library/Mail to excluded items, so the next backup won't include mails. Note that you have to go to your user folder, in order to access to this directory

HT201250 How can I exclude mail from Time Machine backups?

How can I exclude mail from Time Machine backups?

Welcome to the Apple Support Communities
Mails are stored on ~/Library/Mail, being ~ your user folder. As you are running Snow Leopard, it's easy to exclude your mails from your Time Machine backup.
Open System Preferences > Time Machine > Options, and add ~/Library/Mail to excluded items, so the next backup won't include mails. Note that you have to go to your user folder, in order to access to this directory

2 user folders after time machine backup. Macbook Pro 13", Mac OS X 10.6.8

After a time machine backup my macbook pro runs fine, however the backup has created a 2nd user file. my new user file is now named like my old one, just with " 1" added. I have 2 user folders, can I delete the old one?
After a random check of the content in both user folders I found out that it's not identical. Some files that weren't backed up with the time machine before the re-setup are in the original folder, while the new uder folder obviously only backup what it could find on the time machine disc. (Time machine backed up my whole hdd about 2 days before the crash & re-setup)
Due to this situation my local HDD is almost full now. The original user folder has 205 GB, the new one user 1 has 210 GB, plus applications with a 500GB HDD, I now have only 44GB left.
Can I delete the old user folder?
Can I then re-name the new one (user 1) back to "user"?
Thanks
J.

I've never heard of a 'problem' as you're having - and I searched Pondoni's Time Machine Troubleshooting FAQs and couldn't fine anythig similar.
I would be wary of deleting anything manually from your TM backup - the sparsebundles are rather sensitive. If you like, however, you could always erase your TM backups and start anew... that's the only way I would know to 'fix' the problem.
Good luck,
Clinton

Deleting folders on Time Machine backup disk

How do I delete certain folders on the TM backup disk? There seems to be a tool in time machine to do that, but it doesn't seem to work.
I've tried choosing a folder (safari cache ~/Library/Caches/Safari), then selecting tools/delete all backups of "Safari". Then nothing happens. It asks me to confirm the delete but it doesn't do anything else. No disk activity. No freed space on the backup disk. The folder remains there even though I close time machine and re-enter it.
The folder is currently excluded from Time machine backups but I'd like to get rid of the old crap in there.
/hv

~/Library/Caches is not backed up by TM so there is nothing to delete there.
To see the list of things that TM never backs up Quciklook
/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/StdExclusions.pli st

Exclude Movies from Time Machine backups

Is there a way to exclude iTunes movies from Time Machine backups? The "Movies" folder is visible and can be selected, but the "exclude" button grayed-out. I ask this question because I add TV shows and movies to iTunes really just for a short term, maybe a day or two, until I can watch them using AirPlay on my TV, and then they're deleted. For example, four 1-hour TV episodes equals about 20GB of mp4 files, and it's a waste of Time Capsule space to back them up. I can exclude individual movie files, but I need to exclude the entire folder because the file names are always changing.
Is there a terminal command I might be able to enter to exclude the "Movies" folder? Thanks in advance.

Exposing the /Home/Library/ Folder
Pick one of the following methods:
A. This method will make the folder visible permanently. Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder and paste the following at the command prompt:
chflags nohidden ~/Library
Press RETURN.
B. Click on the Desktop, press the OPTION (⌥) button, select Library from the Finder's Go menu.
C. Select Go To Folder from the Finder's Go menu. Paste the following in the path field:
~/Library
Press the Go button.

Creating a script to exclude files from Time Machine Backup

Hi guys,
I was looking for some input as I have rolled out Sophos Safeguard to a number of MacBook's in our company and with this you need to exclude sevral files from the Time Machine backup.
Rather than manually doing each user is there a scripting tool I could use to exclude these files? Have taken a look at apple script but don't think this supports the time machine application. Could the terminal be used? If so does anyone have any guidelines I could follow to create this?
Thanks for your time.

The exclusions are contained in the file
/Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist
I suggest you deploy that file rather than trying to edit it, which could be quite complex.

Lost folders after time machine backup

I have been moving my office and did not do a time machine since 2/09. Finally found the drive while unpacking and plug it into my laptop...took a bit but finished with no issues. This morning I turned the laptop on and every folder that had a 2009 label is GONE!...missing, everything from photo folders to work and customer folders with everything inside too. Even my 2009 Quickbook program is gone alone with the data!
I finally got back from the office and plugged in the time machine backup and there is nothing there either!
HELP, any ideas?

SLee_Meridian wrote:
The drive is portable and hard wired when running TM. Both backups are in a folder called Backups.backupdb. There are a few other folders on the drive, but I looked through them and nothing there either.
What is strange is that many recent files and folders are still on my computer and on yesterdays backup. It is only folders that started with 2009 (and the contents) that are missing.
Are you talking about the +backup folders+ or your +data folders?+
Via the Finder, in List mode, you should see something like this (dots representing indentations):
(note: be *extremely careful not to move, change, or delete anything via the Finder.)*
Backups.backupdb
....Your Computer Name
........Date/Time
............Your HD Name
........Date/Time
............Your HD Name
. . . etc . . .
...Your Son's Computer Name
........Date/Time
............His HD Name
........Date/Time
............His HD Name
. . . etc . . .
Each of those Date/Time folders represents one backup. What are the last three dates & times shown for your Mac?

What Files are Saved during a Time Machine Backup??

Hi,
When I carry out a time machine backup, what files are saved?
I have just plugged in my external hard drive to carry out a back up and its 56GB!, my last TM backup was only 2 weeks ago and I haven't downloaded that much data!
Many Thanks
Chris

Sorry, that wasn't typed very well!!
The TM backup is 56GB
;o)

Cannot restore some files/folders from Time Machine Backup

When I try and restore files or folders from my Pictures folder, which is a sub folder of my user I get the message "The operation can’t be completed because you don’t have permission to access xxxx". As far as I can tell this has only just started to happen because I've recovered stuff from the folder since I bought the machine in July. Yesterday I deleted an old Time Machine backup folder from the Time Machine disc. This caused empty trash to go berserk - the "files to delete" count went negative and I had to stop/restart the empty trash command about 20 times before it sorted itself out. Maybe this has screwed some permissions somewhere? I have run disc utility and repaied permissions on my hard drive and verified the TM drive. Still no joy. The permissions for Pictures look OK. Anyone any ideas?

Yesterday I deleted an old Time Machine backup folder from the Time Machine disc. This caused empty trash to go berserk - the "files to delete" count went negative
Probably you corrupted your Time Machine Backup by manually deleting older backups- that is dangerous.
See Pondni's advice on how to fix it - Time Machine trouble Shooting
I hope that helps
Léonie

Why are some of my Time Machine windows greyed out?

When I enter Time Machine, some of the windows (say Finder windows) are white and I can access them for a restore. Others are greyed out (actually a purple color) and I cannot access them, even though they are relevant to my User files i.e. not someone else's. There are two standard users on this laptop, plus a User with Administrator rights plus a guest User.
The same pattern of windows appears in each of the other Users.
Not a desperate issue at the moment, but I am interested to know why.
Paultageist
(my present kit is 15" Macbook Pro, OS X Lion, 500Gb Time capsule, and wireless network.)

The unavailable snapshots don't include the folder from which you're entering Time Machine. Start from the top-level view in the Finder that shows all volumes connected to the computer. Enter Time Machine and then descend to the folder you want to restore from.

What are the stages of Time machine backup

I often leave my Time Machine to back up and am never really sure where it is in the process. For example, where does "Indexing backup" come in the process? Is it almost done when it's indexing?
I've seen many others have problems with this stage lasting a long time. What happens if I stop the backup during indexing? Are my files already backed up? Would I be able to restore from the un-indexed backup?
Thanks

If you see indexing for more than a few moments, and especially on a number of backups, there's likely a problem of some sort. Just what depends to some extent on what version of OSX your Mac is running.
If you cancel a backup before it completes normally, you cannot view or restore anything from it.
You can always tell if a backup has completed successfully, by clicking the TM icon in your menubar and/or going to System Preferences > Time Machine. If it shows a recent date & time for Latest Backup, that's when it was done.

Where are emails stored in time machine backups?

I just upgraded to Maverick and am trying to use time machine to restore emails that have disappeared form the inbox. The directions are pretty straightforward except, I can't find where on the most receent backup the inbox and its messages are stored. I am feeling dense and frustrated by my inability to do something that should be easy.

Thank you Arthur & Barry for your advice.
The issue (which I did not explain clearly and perhaps am still fuzzy about) is the actual file location, I think. I have a backup from Sunday which appears in Time Machine. I will try Barry's directions to see if the emails so indeed appear when Mail is open.
Alternatively, Arthur's advice would mean finding the ~/Library/Mail/V2 folder on the backup disk. Is that correct?
Thanks again for your help

Exclude Contacts from Time Machine backups

Hi Everyone.
Does anyone know if there is a way to exclude contacts db from my TM backups.
I know about and use the options button within TM to exclude folders and/or files from backup sessions, but since contacts metadata directory is under the hidden Library folder, I have not find a way to list it there.
Any help would be highly appreciated.

Exposing the /Home/Library/ Folder
Pick one of the following methods:
A. This method will make the folder visible permanently. Open the Terminal application in your Utilities folder and paste the following at the command prompt:
chflags nohidden ~/Library
Press RETURN.
B. Click on the Desktop, press the OPTION (⌥) button, select Library from the Finder's Go menu.
C. Select Go To Folder from the Finder's Go menu. Paste the following in the path field:
~/Library
Press the Go button.

Why won't my encrypted time machine backup mount?

I'm using Time Machine to back up to an external usb drive. I formatted the drive as guid partition table and checked the encryption box when setting up Time Machine. After the initial backup Time Machine won't perform is backup schedule unless I mount the drive manually. It seems to unmount the drive everytime I log out and it just won't mount again.
Thanks for any suggestions!

Learn Time Machine - it is a total backup system and you have to use the TM program to access backups - see http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US for instructions - you do not directly acces sthe TM backup - you use TM to access it
There is a Time Machine forum for TM questions
LN

Why are excluded folders in Time Machine Backups?

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