I don't want to backup any web cache files (Safari, Firefox, Chrome, etc,) to be backed-up. How do I exclude that and remove previously backed-up version in Time Machine? Thank you!
MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)
Well I looked in [~library>cache] and still didn't find exactly what I was look for so I'll just exclude that folder from TM back up. Thanks for viewing.
DON'T exclude ~/Library/Caches from your Time Machine backups! You're only going to get into some real problems if you ever need to do a full restore!
Clinton
Thanks, I just read a post by Linc Davis which suggested that also. I have a 3TB external back drive, so I am getting picky for nothing as if I shall run out of space soon.
clintonfrombirmingham wrote:
DON'T exclude ~/Library/Caches from your Time Machine backups! You're only going to get into some real problems if you ever need to do a full restore!
I'm not sure what to make of this comment because Time Machine does not backup ~/Library/Caches, whether or not users add it to their exclusions list.
See the "What's excluded from backups" section at http://pondini.org/TM/11.html for more about this. (Short version: /Library/Caches appears in the "UserPathsExcluded" section of Core Services "StdExclusions.plist" file, the list of items Time Machine automatically excludes from backups.)
Message was edited by: R C-R
Thanks for the link. I was wondering if my web visits were been backed up as I have a NAS connected to my Apple Extreme. Since it's fully backed up, I haven't done anything but surf the web; however, I see the drive active backing up (light indication as well as under TM menu). So, what could it be backing up?
Time Machine backs up a lot of things in user (& system) Library folders; the Caches folders are among only 20 or so it excludes. FWIW, here's a screen shot showing all the "UserPathsExcluded" items:
So anything in user Library folders not on that list is backed up by Time Machine, for example the contents of folders like ~/Library/Safari (except for the 3 items shown above); ~Library folders used by FireFox, Chrome, & other browsers; & the contents of Preferences, Cookies & many others.
Some of these items contain data that change as you surf the web -- or do just about anything else -- so Time Machine backs up hourly changes to them. Likewise, hourly changes to many system level files are also backed up. (Note that only files that change are backed up, as explained in http://pondini.org/TM/Works.html )
If you want to exclude certain of these items, you can do that with the Privacy pane in TM's preferences, but be careful about that since it will indeed affect what TM can restore.
Web Cache
