I'm trying to backup Documents folder only. Folder contains 10GB. Entire User folder is about 50GB.
When trying to exclude all folders (included hidden ones ), I get to 48GB of backup storage required.
What do I do wrong ?
MacOS – Time Machine – How to backup only Documents folder
macostime-machine
Related Solutions
If you use the Finder's menu "goto" while holding down the Alt, the library folder is visible in the menu:
Select it. The finder shows the content of /Users/<your name>/Library. Now start Time Machine by clicking on its icon in the dock – violà, you have what you want:
When you want to access another invisible folder that is not listed in the 'Go' list in Finder you can go to the same folder and choose for 'Go to Folder' or CommandShiftG. Here you can type in any location you want to goto.
Parallels has a specific setting to optimize its VMs for backup by Time Machine and prevent backing up unchanged data.
To enable improved integration with Time Machine, please go to Virtual Machine Configuration, choose Options and hit Backup.
Select "Optimize for Time Machine" in SmartGuard menu.
Similarly, VMWare Fusion has some support for Time Machine, which appears to involve turning on snapshots.
Related Question
- Mac – clone the Time Machine backups folder to an image file, to essentially backup the entire Time Machine
- Mac – excluding Windows 7.pvm from Time Machine
- Time Machine – Determining Safe Folders Exclusion from Backup
- macOS – Time Machine Not Detecting Changes in Certain Folders
- Time-Machine – Failing to Complete Backup
- Mac – Remotely accessing Time Machine folder structure using Back To My Mac
- Mac – Truncated transfer of Time Machine backup contents to new flash drive
- Time Machine Backup Size Issue – Larger Than Source
Best Answer
The estimates are often off to be conservative, make sure enough space is there to not run out if the estimate is not perfect. Just exclude every folder and allow a token empty one to back up. After several intervals, the estimate will be better and you can add documents back by removing it from the exclusion list.