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I want to have the most # of backups of my actual files, not of temporary files, and easily restorable data.

  • What can I exclude from a Time Machine backup to get the most efficient backups?

(I use VMs, so tips for Parallels, Virtual Box, etc, are welcome)

In the sample below, I blocked

  • Backups of all Drive sync technology (Google Drive, One Drive, etc)
  • Xamarin project output (in the Simulator). All this is stale cached data
  • iOS emulators with Xcode.
  • Stuff in the MacOS app store
  • Stuff in the iTunes App Store
  • Backups of my iPhone devices

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  • You can't back up part of a VM unfortunately, the entire drive is flagged as changed, so you'll gain the most space by excluding them. Use snapshots & allow those to backup.
    – Tetsujin
    Commented Jun 5, 2017 at 16:15

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Most efficient backups would mean leaving Time Machine alone, not twisting knobs randomly.

The only thing you should be excluding are the VM's.

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