Time Machine is an essential Mac utility that backs up your computer files to an external drive on a regular basis. There may be some files or folders, however, that you wish to exclude from your Time Machine backups. For instance, I have several VMWare Fusion virtual machines that run an average about 25 gig each. Every time I open a virtual machine and make any changes, the entire virtual machine could be copied over the my Time Machine drive. This would no doubt fill up my backup drive in no time at all. Thus, I exclude my virtual machines from my hourly backups and instead, back them up to a separate drive on a more infrequent basis.

To Exclude a File or Folder from Time Machine Backups:

1. Launch the System Preferences application.
2. Under the System category, click the Time Machine icon.
   
3. Click the Options button
   
4. Click the plus (+) symbol on the left corner of the Exclude Items window.
   
5. Navigate to the location of the file or folder that you want to exclude.
6. Select the file or folder and click the Exclude button.

The item will no longer be included in your Time Machine backups.

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