Some other TimeMachine exclusions

In my other post on the topic I excluded my local Mail app files from my TimeMachine backups because they were tripping over McAfee AntiVirus. I thought that it might be sensible to add a few other exclusions to trim down the total amount backed up and reduce the impact of frequent TM backups on my laptop.

As you can see, my total backup size is about 380Gb. Included in that are a fair few transient / temporary files that aren't needed as well as some files that are backed up elsewhere anyway plus a handful of things that maybe I don't need or want to back up.

Caches

Really, you want to keep them? I thought not. They include the browser caches for Safari and Firefox amongst other things.

1. Click the “+” button.
2. In the finder window that's displayed, press Cmd + Shift + G.
3. Enter ~/Library/Caches in to the path field and click Go.
4. Click Exclude.

Downloads

You can download them again, right?

1. Click the “+” button.
2. In the finder window that's displayed, select your Downloads folder.
3. Click Exclude.

Trash

1. Click the “+” button.
2. In the finder window that's displayed, press Cmd + Shift + G.
3. Enter ~/.Trash in to the path field and click Go.
4. Click Exclude.

Virtual Machines

This is a choice really. The VMs that I have can easily be rebuilt.

1. Click the “+” button.
2. In the finder window that's displayed, select Documents / Virtual Machines.
3. Click Exclude.

Sleep File

It's a bit like the Windows hibernation file.

1. Click the “+” button.
2. In the finder window that's displayed, press Cmd + Shift + G.
3. Enter /var/vm in to the path field and click Go.
4. Click Exclude.

Results

That's better! TM is backing up 40Gb less than before and fewer of the transient files that really aren't needed but change often.

I could go further and exclude my Dropbox folder and iTunes Media too (as they're stored elsewhere if I need them). That would shave another 200+Gb off.