Backup exclusions
QIs there a better way to exclude individual files from Time Machine backups?
AIf you don’t want to move files to volumes which aren’t backed up at all, it’s simplest to add them or their enclosing folders to the exclusion list accessed using the Options button in the Time Machine pane. There’s another method available in Terminal using the command
tmutil addexclusion
That has three variations: option -v excludes whole volumes referenced by their UUID; option -p excludes folders and files by their path, and no option (the default) excludes individual files and folders by marking them with an extended attribute. macOS also has its own standard list containing mostly hidden folders such as Spotlight indexes and Trash folders, but you can’t alter that.
Those are now listed in the hidden file .exclusions.plist in each backup.