What is not backing up
The CrashPlan app is intended to back up your user files (pictures, music, documents, etc.), not your operating system or applications. For this reason, CrashPlan excludes certain temporary files and system files. Additionally, some metadata is unsupported. This article describes the files and metadata that are not supported by CrashPlan.
What am I not allowed to back up?
Since CrashPlan is not intended to back up your operating system, the CrashPlan app excludes some files, which we call "admin excludes". The files types and folders that are excluded on all platforms contain:
- Caches
- Temporary files
- Trash/Recycle bin
In addition to these built-in exclusions, CrashPlan also respects the OS X com_apple_backup _excludeItem metadata, which is commonly used to flag things like iTunes movie rentals.
These files that match the built-in invisible exclude patterns cannot be selected for backup and the excludes cannot be removed. You can add your own exclusions if you want to exclude a particular type of file.
Is my metadata backed up?
Metadata is data about data. A good example of metadata is the file creation date. When saving a file on your hard drive, your computer automatically records information about when the file was created. You don't manually say, “I created this on 1/19/2019 at 16:25pm.” Your computer does it for you.
CrashPlan supports backing up metadata on all platforms; however, some metadata is unsupported.
Restoring metadata. Metadata cannot be restored via the web restore. To preserve metadata, restore from the CrashPlan app.
Unsupported metadata
| Windows | OS X |
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Admin excludes
All patterns are in Java Regular Expression format.
Universal patterns
(?i).*/CrashPlan.*/(?:cache|manifest|upgrade)/.*
(?i).*/Dropbox/\.dropbox\.cache/.*
(?i).*/Google/Chrome/.*cache.*
(?i).*/Mozilla/Firefox/.*cache.*
.*/(?:42|\d{8,})/(?:cp|~).*
.*/\.metadata/\.plugins/org\.eclipse\.dltk\.core\.index\.sql\.h2/.*
.*/Google/Chrome/Safe Browsing.*
.*/iPhoto Library/iPod Photo Cache/.*
.*/iTunes/Album Artwork/Cache/.*
.*/Music/Subscription/.*
.*\.cprestoretmp.*
.*\.part
Windows
win:(?i).*/Microsoft.*/Windows/.*\.edb
win:(?i).*\$RECYCLE\.BIN/.*
win:(?i).*\.rbf
win:(?i).:/Config\.Msi.*
win:.*/All Users/Microsoft/Windows/DRM/Cache/.*
win:.*/AppData/Local/Google/Chrome/User Data/Default/Cache/.*
win:.*/AppData/Local/Temp.*
win:.*/AppData/Temp.*
win:.*/Application Data/Adobe/Acrobat/([1-9]|1\d)\.0/Security/CRLCache/.*
win:.*/Application Data/Adobe/Flash Player/AssetCache/.*
win:.*/Application Data/Application Data.*
win:.*/Application Data/Sun/Java/Deployment/cache/.*
win:.*/Application Data/Sun/Java/Deployment/SystemCache/.*
win:.*/Common Files/Symantec Shared/VirusDefs/.*
win:.*/I386.*
win:.*/Local Settings/Application Data/Google/Chrome/User Data/Cache/.*
win:.*/Local Settings/Application Data/Trusteer/Rapport/user/.*
win:.*/Local Settings/Temp.*
win:.*/Microsoft.*/RecoveryStore.*
win:.*/Microsoft/Search/Data/Applications/Windows/Projects/SystemIndex/Indexer/CiFiles/.*
win:.*/MSOCache.*
win:.*/pagefile.sys
win:.*/RECYCLER/.*
win:.*/Symantec/Definitions/VirusDefs/.*
win:.*/System Volume Information/.*
win:.*/Temporary Internet Files/.*
win:.*/Windows/Installer.*
win:.*/Windows/Prefetch/.*
win:.*/Windows/Temp.*
OS X
mac:(?i).*/backups\.backupdb/.*
mac:.*/Caches/Google/Chrome/Default/Cache/.*
mac:.*/iP.* Software Updates/.*
mac:.*/Library/Application Support/SyncServices/.*
mac:.*/Library/Caches/.*
mac:.*/Library/Calendars/Calendar Cache
mac:.*/Library/Extensions/Caches/.*
mac:.*/Library/Mail/AvailableFeeds/.*
mac:.*/Library/Mail/Envelope Index
mac:.*/Library/Mirrors/.*
mac:.*/Library/PubSub/Database/.*
mac:.*/Library/PubSub/Downloads/.*
mac:.*/Library/PubSub/Feeds/.*
mac:.*/Library/Safari/HistoryIndex.sk
mac:.*/Library/Safari/Icons.db
mac:.*/Library/Safari/WebpageIcons.db
mac:.*/Library/Saved Application State/.*
mac:.*/lost\+found/.*
mac:.*/Microsoft User Data/Entourage Temp/.*
mac:.*/Network Trash Folder/.*
mac:.*/Trash/.*
mac:.*/VM Storage
mac:.*\.fseventsd.*
mac:.*\.hotfiles\.btree.*
mac:.*\.Spotlight-.*/.*
mac:.*\.Trash.*
mac:.*Mobile.*Backups/.*
mac:/\.vol/.*
mac:/afs/.*
mac:/automount/.*
mac:/cores/.*
mac:/Desktop DB
mac:/Desktop DF
mac:/dev/.*
mac:/mach.sym
mac:/mach_kernel
mac:/net/.*
mac:/Network/.*
mac:/Network/Servers.*
mac:/Previous Systems.*
mac:/private/Network/.*
mac:/private/tftpboot/.*
mac:/private/tmp/.*
mac:/private/var/automount/.*
mac:/private/var/db/com\.apple\.backupd\.backupVerification/.*
mac:/private/var/db/dhcpclient/.*
mac:/private/var/db/efw_cache/.*
mac:/private/var/db/fseventsd/.*
mac:/private/var/db/Spotlight-V100/.*
mac:/private/var/db/Spotlight/.*
mac:/private/var/folders/.*
mac:/private/var/lib/postfix/greylist.db
mac:/private/var/run/.*
mac:/private/var/spool/cups/.*
mac:/private/var/spool/fax/.*
mac:/private/var/spool/postfix/.*
mac:/private/var/spool/uucp/.*
mac:/private/var/tmp/.*
mac:/private/var/vm/.*
mac:/System/Library/Caches/.*
mac:/System/Library/Extensions/Caches/.*
mac:/tmp/.*
mac:/Users/Shared/SC Info.*
Linux
linux:.*/.config/google-chrome/Default/Application Cache/Cache/.*
linux:.*/lost\+found/.*
linux:/dev/.*
linux:/proc/.*
linux:/selinux/.*
linux:/sys/.*
linux:/tmp/.*
Solaris
solaris:.*/lost\+found/.*
solaris:/dev/.*
solaris:/proc/.*
solaris:/sys/.*
solaris:/tmp/.*