I have an archive file called "Main Backup.quanta" which I use for backing up my entire hard drive (and home folder). I have a separate archive file called "Virtual Machines.quanta", which I use to backup my Virtual Machines folder (from VMware Fusion). Since I only want the VM files to get backed up to the Virtual Machines archive, I've gone into the archive settings for Main Backup, and excluded the Virtual Machines folder. Specifically, in the Exclude section, under Specific Items, I have "bgiles > Documents > Virtual Machines".

This works for a while, and then at some point it stops working. I noticed because my home folder backups seemed to be taking a LOT longer, and then I noticed that the VM folder was appearing in the Activity Monitor window. I checked the log file for the capture that was currently running, and found this:

Filter cannot make reference to item Virtual Machines
path: /Users/bgiles/Documents/Virtual Machines

And sure enough, the folder was now being archived in the Main Backup file. The first time this happened, it was just after upgrading to Catalina and the Catalina version of QRecall, so I deleted the exclude for the folder, and then re-added it, and then checked the next backup session to confirm that the folder was indeed being excluded. But sometime later, I'm not sure how long it took, the exclude quit working again, with the same message in the log. What's going on, and how do I fix it? I'm sending a report as well, in case that provides some additional information you need. Thanks!

-- Bruce

It's probably a bookmark issue. Excluded items are stored as bookmarks (which replace aliases), but like aliases changes to volume identifiers and whatnot can cause them to lose track of their original item.

As an alternative, try using an exclusion pattern, since this isn't a folder that's likely to get renamed or moved.

In the Patterns section, add a new "glob" pattern, enter the path you want to exclude on the left and make the pattern to exclude * on the right, like this:

/Users/bgiles/Documents/Virtual Machines // * ✓ ∞

That should permanently exclude every item in your Virtual Machines folder forever.

I'm still not sure why the bookmarks would have changed. I haven't renamed or moved the folders in question, nor have I done anything to the volume itself (as far as I know) that would have caused bookmarks to break. But I tried your solution of using a glob pattern, and it seems to be working. The folder itself gets backed up, but nothing in the folder does, so that's fine. Thanks!

-- Bruce

Bruce Giles wrote:The folder itself gets backed up, but nothing in the folder does, so that's fine.

If you want to exclude the folder too, use this pattern:

/Users/bgiles/Documents // Virtual Machines ☐ ∞

I am having a similar issue with excluded items not working for me.

Scenario:
- "Data" QRecall archive.
- Started capturing to it, saw it captured an unwanted item. Correct, because I did not exclude it.
- Stopped the capture, used "Delete item?" on the item I unwantedly started to capture. The layer of course was identified as incomplete. (Retain deleted item for 0 days was and is set for that archive.)
- In the archive settings, I added the folder whose contents I did not want to capture.
- Started capture action again, but the item again got captured. Stopped capturing, deleted item, turned on "log capture decisions" in Advanced preferences, restarted machine.
- Started another capture, and again, the excluded item was captured.
- Tried to find in the log window the reason why it was captured, but found no decision logs or similar whatsoever, only very basic info (I moved details all to the right and included all types of log events, of course).

Why would that folder (and contents) be captured again and again, even when it was excluded in the archive settings?

Further details:
- the enclosing item to capture(!) is a folder at the root of an external disk attached via Thunderbolt 3.
- the item to exclude(!) is a subfolder within the previous item.

I am running on macOS 10.15.3 (Catalina).

How can I see the log of the capture decision why this item is included in the capture, when it resp. its enclosing folder is added in the Excluded Items liust of the archive?

Thanks,
Christian

I suspect there's a bug in the exclusion logic. When Mojave added snapshots and Catalina added split system/data volumes, the job of trying to figure out if an item on a snapshot of a data volume mounted on a system volume is the same item as a bookmark on the startup volume got ... well ... complicated.

The exclusion logic in QRecall 3.0 has been completely reengineered so I probably won't try to address this in 2.x.

As a workaround, have you tried excluding the item using capture preferences (on the item) or using an exclusion pattern (in the archive settings)?

And, as an aside, the capture decisions that get logged are only for items that were previously captured in the archive when QRecall is trying to decide to recapture or not. (Maybe I should rename it "log re-capture decisions"?) Since you deleted the item in the archive, there was no "decision" to be made.

Thanks James for the reply.

I tried the advanced exlcusion pattern, but somehow got it wrong (the item was added again). I guess I have to grok the syntax and logic behind those patterns more before I can confidently write them up. A "Test" function would be cool where you would drop an item (file or folder) onto a little field next to a pattern and it would tell you whether that pattern would match the item or not. But again, that's my fault of not yet feeling confident with the syntax and options.

But anyway, yes, the pattern exclusion will be the next thing I'll try.

The item I want to exclude is a folder (and all of its contents), named:

/Volumes/Daten/CaptureOne Fotobibliothek/_LEGACY Christian Aperture Fotos

The above is the path obtained by using Finder's contextual menu item with the "Copy ? as pathname" option. Do I need to prefix this with something else on Catalina? Which pattern type, and which syntax would I need to use to exclude that folder (and its contents)?

Thanks,
Christian

Patterns were designed to be flexible, but that also makes them complicated.

Since Daten is the volume, the glob exclude pattern would be

/CaptureOne Fotobibliothek // _LEGACY Christian Aperture Fotos

Now if you wanted to get fancy, the following glob pattern would exclude every folder inside the CaptureOne Fotobibliothek folder that begin with the word "_LEGACY"

/CaptureOne Fotobibliothek // _LEGACY*

Now you can stop excluding folders individually inside that one folder. Just start the folder name with "_LEGACY" and it gets excluded automatically.