File Exclusions in TI2019

Peter, what type of backup are you making here?

If this is a Files & Folders backup, then you should exclude your music & pictures folders by deselecting them in the Source selection panel.

Looks to me like you didn't do anything wrong. That should have worked. I can only suggest you try doing an uninstall and reinstall of TI. Sometimes when you allow TI to be installed over the top of an existing version, you end up with a blend of files from the old and new versions. This can cause certain features not to work properly.

Here is what the documentation says about excluding items from a backup:

How to add an exclusion criterion:

 You can enter explicit file names for exclusion from the backup:

 file.ext - all such files will be excluded from the backup.
 C:\file.ext - the file.ext file on the C: disk will be excluded.

You can use wildcard characters (* and ?):

 *.ext - all files with a .ext extension will be excluded.
 ??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.

 To exclude a folder from a disk-level backup, click the plus sign, click the ellipsis button, go to the directory tree and select the folder you want to exclude, and then click OK.

The "ellipsys" reference refers to the three dots to the right of the Path box.  Clicking on that allows you to browse/navigate to the folders you wish to exclude.

What I have found is that the folders themselves still appear in the backup file for instance when the file is mounted however, the folders themselves are empty so no data within them was backed up.  You are saying this is not the case?

Steve Smith wrote:

Peter, what type of backup are you making here?

If this is a Files & Folders backup, then you should exclude your music & pictures folders by deselecting them in the Source selection panel.

Steve, I'm doing a full backup of the entire C: drive minus a few folders.  The problem is the folders I have put on the exclude list are included in the backup.

Enchantech wrote:

Here is what the documentation says about excluding items from a backup:

How to add an exclusion criterion:

 You can enter explicit file names for exclusion from the backup:

 file.ext - all such files will be excluded from the backup.
 C:\file.ext - the file.ext file on the C: disk will be excluded.

You can use wildcard characters (* and ?):

 *.ext - all files with a .ext extension will be excluded.
 ??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.

 To exclude a folder from a disk-level backup, click the plus sign, click the ellipsis button, go to the directory tree and select the folder you want to exclude, and then click OK.

 

The "ellipsys" reference refers to the three dots to the right of the Path box.  Clicking on that allows you to browse/navigate to the folders you wish to exclude.

What I have found is that the folders themselves still appear in the backup file for instance when the file is mounted however, the folders themselves are empty so no data within them was backed up.  You are saying this is not the case?

I have followed those instructions however the folders I have put on the exclude list are included in the backup along with all of the files in those folders.  The exclude function doesn't seem to be excluding.

I ran a test on one of my machines and found that a full disk backup from which I excluded the users\pictures\ folder backed up the folder but not the files within that folder.  I think this is expected behavior.  Since you are experiencing what you describe I would follow Mustangs advice first and uninstall/reinstall the product.  If that fails to correct the issue then open a support ticket with Acronis.

In my tests entering in the exclusion box:

\Users\name\folder           (Nothing was excluded.)

C:\Users\name\folder       (The entire folder and all subfolders were excluded.)

The drive letter must be specified.

Peter, do you have 'Sector by Sector' backup method enabled?  If yes, then this ignores all the Exclusions set for the task by simple virtue that all sectors are included in your Disk & Partitions backup image.

I ran another test on another one of my machines.  The machine used in my first test has user folders moved by hard link to another drive in the computer.  Again, on that machine the folder is backed up but the data is not.  I can explain that as due to the hard link used.

The machine used in this last test has the \users\username\folder in the default location on drive C:\.  Excluding the folder and running a full disk backup produced the same result as recorded by Mustang.

So, if Sector by Sector is not in play for you here then again follow my recommendations in my previous post.

Thanks to everyone who replied with suggestions to my original message.  I have tried all of them including uninstalling/re-installing TI2019.  Unfortunately, the problem persists:

I have added the Pictures, Music and Videos folders to the Exclusions list however those folders and all of the files in them are included in the backups TI2019 creates.  (I am doing a full backup of the C: drive.)  Because of this the backup files are much larger (several times larger) than they should be and take much longer to create.

I don't recall having this problem with TI2017 or TI2018.

Any other advice appreciated!

Peter

My best advice here would be to include wildcards along with the folder path in the Exclusion list.

Example: C:\User\Username\Foldername\*.*

This should exclude all files in the folder named which would reduce the size of your backup at least achieving your objective.

Enchantech - Thanks for the suggestion to use wildcards.  I tried but unfortunately it didn't change anything.

Peter, please download / use the MVP Log Viewer tool (link below) and use this to find the backup task log for this issue, then please either post the log file as a file attachment, or copy / paste the contents from the default 'short' view.  This may help us better understand what is happening here and why?

Steve, I'm attaching a log file from a recent backup.  Please let me know if this has any clues as to why some excluded folders are not being exluded.  Thanks!

Peter

Peter, the key difference between how your exclusions are shown and how my working backup with the same exclusions are shown is as per below:

C:\Users\Nancy\Pictures\*.*;
C:\Users\Nancy\Music\*.*;
C:\Users\Nancy\Videos\*.*

C:\Users\smiths\Pictures\;
C:\Users\smiths\Music\;
C:\Users\smiths\Videos\

Your backup is making a Disk & Partitions image therefore the *.* ending is not needed, and if you use the option provided on the Exclusions page to select these excluded folders, it would show as mine does.

Steve, thanks for the feedback.

I originally did not have the *.* at the end of each exclusion but I added them at the suggestion of someone here.  It made no difference.  I have the same issue with or without the *.*

I see you have a semicolon ; at the end of your Pictures and Music exclusions (but not Videos) above.  Do the semicolons do something in TI or are they just for display purposes in this forum?

Peter

Peter, the semicolon is just from the log file where it is used as a separator for the values shown for the exclusions set for the task.  There is no semicolon in the screen image taken from the GUI.

What happens if you create a new backup task and set the same exclusions - are these still ignored and included in the backup.  This is essentially what I have just done and then checked the Recovery page where the excluded folders were not shown.

This is what I tried today.  What worked and what didn't work.

First, I uninstalled TI2019 then re-installed it.  I then set my options including three folders to exclude.  I ran a backup and once again TI ignored my exclusion of those three folders.

Next, I uninstalled TI2019 again then installed TI2018.  I set my options including three folders to exclude.  I ran a backup and those three folders were excluded!

So, my folder exclusions work fine with TI2018.  Not with TI2019.

I'm OK with keeping TI2018 on this one PC but on principle I'd still like to resolve this.

Peter