Can't add a folder to exclusions options

Exclusions work a little differently between Disks & Partitions backups and those for Files & Folders backups.

For Disks & Partitions you can use the ... at the end of the entry box to navigate to and select the folders to be excluded.

For Files & Folders, this option is not available as indicated by the text shown in the background of the entry box.

As shown above, a File extension or mask is expected, not a qualified folder path.  This is because you have the option to exclude such folders in the Backup source selection, not by means of using exclusions.

To exclude a folder, simply deselect it from the Backup source panel.

I had already seen this explanation but I believed that this could be just something palliative because it is not logical.

There is no point in not allowing to exclude folders from the "File & Folders" option.

If I use your solution, every time I create a new folder in the root directory of my drive, I will be forced to update my backup configuration to add these new folders.
In my case, for example, I want to back up ALL (including new) folders on my drive, EXCEPT some folders.
Thus, the "exclude" option is useless in this mode.

If I use your solution, every time I create a new folder in the root directory of my drive, I will be forced to update my backup configuration to add these new folders.

Sorry but this is not true:  If you create a new folder in the root directory then this will be automatically included in your backup image.  The only time you will need to modify the Backup source selection would be if you want to exclude a new folder that you have created.

If you do a Disk & Partitions backup for your data drive, then this would allow you to do what you ask.

Esparanto said:
"I had already seen this explanation but I believed that this could be just something palliative because it is not logical.

There is no point in not allowing to exclude folders from the "File & Folders" option."

What is obvious or logical to one person may be illogical to another.  You could just as easily argue 'There is no point in allowing an exclusion list in a "Files and folders" backup because inclusion/exclusion is inherent in the selection process.'

You should submit a Feedback to the developers suggesting the addition of the exclusion processing.  If it's an easy addition the developers might include it in a future release.  If it requires a significant change to existing logic they may reject the suggestion.  After all, it's just an alternative to the existing definition process.

" If I use your solution, every time I create a new folder in the root directory of my drive, I will be forced to update my backup configuration to add these new folders. "

If you are backing up everything in the root directory except for a small number, why not use a "Disk and partition" backup rather than "Files and folders".  That way you will have exclusion processing.

Acronis is giving you what you want - just not in the way you expect it.

I think using File & Folder is an option that takes up less backup space than "Disk & Partitions", since it is not necessary to store MBR, FAT, etc data, right? In short, just to take up less space.

And the logic of exclusion would be as follows:
If I want to back up the "My Documents" folder, and inside it I have 20 folders, but I want to back up only 19 of them.
Within your method, under "Backup Source" I should mark the 19 folders and leave unchecked the folder I want to exclude, right?
But when I make a second backup (incremental) and at the moment, inside the folder "My Document" I have created 5 new subfolders, these 5 new folders will not go into the new backup, right? Since I had just registered the previous 19 folders, right?

I just tested that.  I built a "File and folders" backup task - full + 5 incr - with the source being about half of subfolders in my Documents folder.  I ran the backup, added a new Documents subfolder, and ran the backup again.  The incremental .tib file contains the new subfolder (and its contents).  And just to be sure, I made sure it did not contain any of the files or folders I had not included in my initial selection.

In other words, the default seem to be to include any newly created subfolders.  You would have to go and specifically unselect newly created subfolders.  And just to be sure that works, I went and unselected a subfolder that had been in my initial selection and ran another backup.  The newly excluded subfolder was not in the latest backup - the 2nd incr.  (It was, of course still in the previous backups.)

I recall that the ability to re-edit the file/folder selection list was broken for awhile in a previous version of ATI but it works now.

The bottom line: The inclusion/exclusion specification in ATI "Files and folders" backup tasks is just as flexible as in "Disks and partitions" backup tasks.  Acronis developers just put that specification in a different location

I also tested it here and it really works.

I had not done this test before because I did not find it "logical".

This is a different industry standard behaviors. 

I have been working with IT for 35 years and all backup programs have a standard and I never imagined it would be different with ATI.

But now that it's clear, it's settled. 

Thanks for the support.

Hello,

I'm having the same issue in Dec 2023. Is the official response that we should not use the "Exclusions" tab?

In the video I am typing two folders that exist and pressing "Enter" but it just removes what I typed.

Hello,

I'm having the same issue in Dec 2023. Is the official response that we should not use the "Exclusions" tab?

In the video I am typing two folders that exist and pressing "Enter" but it just removes what I typed.

Asher, welcome to these public User Forums.

Please see the posts earlier in this topic.  For a Files & Folders backup you have to deselect the unwanted folder in the Source panel.  You cannot just type in the folder path in the Exclusions panel because you are effectively telling the application to both include and exclude that folder! 

Thanks for your response. It seems to make sense that the software should disable the "Exclusions" tab to avoid confusion. At the moment is just appears to be a bug. 😊 Although I understand what you're saying and will uncheck the files.

The Exclusions tab can still be used for Files & Folders backups when wanting to exclude a specific type of file by using a wildcard mask, i.e. to exclude all MP4 video files using *.mp4 as the exclusion entry.

I understand. 😊 Why is it enabled for disk/partition backup though? Shouldn't it be disabled or hidden for that type of backup?

For a disks / partitions backup you choose at a partition / disk level so there is no option to exclude folders from the Source selection screen, hence the option is available on the Exclusions panel.

Example: I create a disk backup of a drive where I also store Virtual Machines (using .vdhx files), so have excluded the VM folder from those backups because they are very large and I use a sync program to mirror those folders to my storage drive as it is faster!