Time Machine excluded Items list includes old folders after migration

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Level 1

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Time Machine excluded Items list includes old folders after migration

I have just updated my old 2016 MacBook Pro running Monterey to a new MacBook Air M3 running Sonoma 14.5. I have also upgraded my old iMac (Monterey) to a Mac mini M2pro (Sonoma). I used Migration Assistant to move everything to the new machines, and everything seems to be working fine.

I have a small niggle with Time Machine. I have what appears to be legacy file paths listed in the Time Machine excluded items list in Time Machine options on both machines. If I select it and click the - button, nothing happens, and the file path remains in the list.

Anyone know of a solution to tidy this up? It's annoying me.

Many thanks!

MacBook Air (M3, 2024)

Posted on May 22, 2024 8:12 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

dieselfish Author

Level 1

27 points

May 22, 2024 4:08 PM in response to dieselfish

I've solved it, thanks anyway!

Bit of searching on Google found me the location of the plist file /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist, and I was able to edit that in Xcode. I deleted the old file path and then rebooted.

Thanks for your help anyway.

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Answer 2

Old Toad

Level 10

215,814 points

May 22, 2024 1:53 PM in response to dieselfish

Give this a try: boot into Safe Mode according to How to use safe mode on your Mac and test to see if the problem persists. Reboot normally and test again.

NOTE 1: Safe Mode boot can take up to 3 - 5 minutes as it's doing the following;

• Verifies your startup disk and attempts to repair directory issues, if needed

• Loads only required kernel extensions (prevents 3rd party kernel/extensions from loading)

• Prevents Startup Items and Login Items from opening automatically

• Disables user-installed fonts

• Deletes font caches, kernel cache, and other system cache files

NOTE 2: if you have a wireless keyboard with rechargeable batteries connect it with its charging cable before booting into Safe Mode. This makes it act as a wired keyboard as will insure a successful boot into Safe Mode.

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Answer 3

dieselfish Author

Level 1

27 points

May 22, 2024 3:11 PM in response to Old Toad

Thanks, Old Toad, just tried that but it behaves just the same in Safe Mode.

What I've also tried is creating a new user with the MacBook Pro username (with administrator rights) to match the file path. If I then restart and log in as that user, the file path shows as ~/Downloads as you'd expect, but I still can't delete it from the Time Machine excluded item list. In fact I can add it a second time. I can then delete only one of the two entries.

If I delete the new user, the old spurious entry remains. Is there a library file somewhere that stores these items?

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Time Machine excluded Items list includes old folders after migration

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