title: How to Exclude Files from Backups
created at: Sun Oct 27 2024 09:51:32 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
updated at: Sat Feb 08 2025 14:22:44 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
---
# How to Exclude Files from Backups
# Overview
To exclude files or directories from your user backups, perform either of the following actions:
* Exclude the files from all users’ backups
* Exclude the files from an individual user’s backups.
The global and local exclude files apply to the account backups that you manage in WHM’s [*Backup*](https://docs.cpanel.net/whm/backup) section (*WHM » Home » Backup*) and the *Download a Full Website Backup* feature in cPanel’s [*Backup*](https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/files/backup-for-cpanel) interface (*cPanel » Home » Files » Backup*).
!! Note
!! If you initiate a *Home Directory* backup in cPanel’s [*Backup*](https://docs.cpanel.net/cpanel/files/backup-for-cpanel) interface (*cPanel » Home » Files » Backup*), the global and local exclude files do **not** affect the contents of the backup file.
!! If you perform a backup with the `/scripts/pkgacct` script, the global and local exclude files do **not** affect the contents of the backup file.
!! The `backup-exclude.conf` files **only** apply to files or directories in a user’s home directory. They do **not** apply to files or directories outside of a user’s home directory.
# Global exclude file
To exclude files or directories from your backups for all user accounts, add those files or directories to the `/etc/cpbackup-exclude.conf` file. The `/etc/cpbackup-exclude.conf` file excludes the files that you specify relative to any location from which the backup script runs.
The backup system excludes the following files and directories for all users’ backups by default:
```bash
*/.wysiwygPro_*
*/core.[0-9]
.MirrorSearch
.cpan
.cpanel/caches
.cpanel/datastore
.cpcpan
.sqmailattach
access-logs
public_ftp/.ftpquota
```
# Local exclude file
To exclude files or directories from an individual user’s backups, add the desired paths (relative to the user’s home directory) to the `cpbackup-exclude.conf` file in the user’s home directory, with one entry per line.
If the file does not already exist, you **must** create it. To do this, run the following command:
```bash
touch /home/username/cpbackup-exclude.conf
```
!! Note
!! In this example, `username` represents the name of the user who owns the files or directories.
!! If you enter a directory name, the backup system excludes all of the files that exist in the directory.
!! When you specify files, do **not** include leading or trailing characters of any kind, such as slashes (`/`) or periods (`.`).
# Example
For example, to exclude the `/home/username/example/` directory and the `/home/username/dir/example.php` file from the `username` user’s backups, create the following `/home/username/cpbackup-exclude.conf` file:
```bash
example
dir/example.php
```