Excluding Folders from Mac Agent Backup

[emiller]

Need to create a backup policy which will backup the home folders of certain Mac users, but not their Movies, Music, and Pictures folders, as these can get quite large and are user responsibility, not school district responsibility. The username will differ on each Mac, so hardcoding path with username is not an option.

Backup mode: Custom Scope: /Users/

To exclude the subfolders within /Users/<username>/, I've tried (unsuccessfully):
/Users/*/Movies/
/Users/*/Music/
/Users/*/Pictures/
and
*/Movies/*
*/Music/*
*/Pictures/*

https://www.veeam.com/kb3236 states for Veeam Agent for Windows "Exclusions won't be applied because exclusions of folders with wildcards in the middle of the path are not supported," and then explains how to workaround this by adding a "FilesNottoSnapshot" registry key.
I realize Veeam Agent for Mac is not nearly as polished a product as Veeam Agent for Windows, yet, but clearly it is taking a snapshot of Mac at backup. Is there a way to accomplish this so I can backup over 1,000 Macs from this policy ?

Submitted to Veeam Support - Case # 04714389
Support tried using the Terminal/Environmental variable "$HOME" in place of the /Users/Username portion as well as $USER in place of the UserName portion.
Neither gave the desired results.

I could start excluding file extensions for typically large files, but that would also exclude these files from backups of all directories.

Any Veeam+Mac experts out there who have discovered a better way ?

[Natalia Lupacheva]

Hi,

Will check if we have another way to do that, but it might take time, so please keep working with Support for now. I'll come back to you when we get some news.

Thanks!

[Datacenta]

Can I add a plus 1 for this feature request. The ability to exclude specific paths or file types is essential.

[PTide]

Hi,

Noted. In fact, the requested is already being developed.

Thanks!

[BlakeR]

Has this feature been implemented yet?

I run a organisation of Macs, we currently aren't using Veeam but are looking at it as an option. Currently our devices are setup with an IT admin account, user Admin and standard user account. I would like to backup the /users folder but exclude both management accounts and the shared folder. As the standard user accounts are uniquely named I can't specify these.

If this isn't possible it removes Veeam as a potential candidate because I don't want to be backing up folders unnecessarily.

[BlakeR]

I have been trying to work out how to exclude folders from a MacOS backup, I see this feature doesn;t exist but there is a post from Aug 2021 saying this feature is being developed, is their a timeframe on this?


I run a organisation of Macs, we are currently trialing Veeam. At the moment our devices are setup with an IT admin account, user Admin and standard user account. I would like to backup the /users folder but exclude both management accounts and the shared folder. As the standard user accounts are uniquely named I can't specify these as we have close to 200 devices.

I would also like to be able to exclude other folders like downloads, movies and music.

If this isn't possible it removes Veeam as a potential candidate because I don't want to be backing up files / folders unnecessarily.

[HannesK]

Hello,
I merged your question into the existing thread.

As far as I see, your request is implemented in the beta build of the next version. The screenshots below is what I see and it should fit what you need.

Exclusions of downloads, movies etc.


include & exclude

is their a timeframe on this?

We are aiming for a release this year. Your Veeam representative should be able to provide access to the beta if needed.

Best regards,
Hannes

[BlakeR]

Awesome thank you, I will contact my account rep.

Thanks

[lwarner]

Bringing this back from the dead... it's April 2023 and I am running into this issue for our Macs. Is this feature implemented in the current build(s), or is there any news on when it will be?

Thanks

[HannesK]

Hello,
which issue do you see with which version? The screenshots above are from V12 beta-builds and they are still pretty much the same in the GA build.

Best regards,
Hannes

[JediGriffo]

Also looking for a solution to exclude a folder with a wildcard same example as the first post will do: /Users/*/Movies/

There must be some way to do this... you could have hundreds of machines in a policy and there must be a way to wildcard the user name.

[HannesK]

Hello,
wildcard folder exclusions do not exist today, but we count your request +1

Best regards,
Hannes

[antti.oksanen]

Hi

Plus 1 for this feature request also from here.
Thank you

[PTide]

Got an example of what you think would be satisfactory and sufficient for your goals (UX/UI-wise)?

Thanks!

[antti.oksanen]

I dont want to be too picky. The issue is with google drive that is mounted/accessed under user profile.
I´m open for suggestion what would be the best way to exclude it.
We have roughly 50-60 users with MAC computers and currently the solution is to make one exclusion for each user.
"/Users/%username%/Library/CloudStorage/". Exclusion for "/Users/%username%/Library/" would also be enough.
Because under user profile you can exclude / leave for example downloads folder away. Could you add Library folder to that list?
CaseID 06402407

[DavidRobertson]

Posting here as referred to this post by support. We would like this functionality as well due to having a large number of Apple EDU customers in our VCSP space.

Our issues relate to OneDrive/Google Drive and locked system folders (/tmp) that Veeam cannot access.

[rovshan.pashayev]

Hello @antti.oksanen

Have you had a chance to check file and folder exclusion with the latest version of VAM v2.1.0.244?
Additionally, I am aware that Google Drive, as of now, typically locates folder under the /Volume directory and creates a linked folder in the user's home directory.