Reducing your backup size

There are a couple of things you can do to reduce the space your backups are taking. These settings can all be changed very easily from within the CrashPlan application on your computer.

Launch the CrashPlan application and go into the Settings tab.

You can select less to back up

1. Click on the Backup tab.
2. Under the Files and folders to back up section. Click on the Change Selection… button.
3. Check or uncheck the folders you would like the remove or add to the backup.
4. Press Save

Typically, we recommend you backup your home folder (this includes all your files and settings) but exclude your applications and system files (these can usually be restored from your applications discs).

You can filter out certain types of files

Certain files, such as music, movies or video podcasts can take up a lot of room and you may not wish it to be backed up.

1. Click on the Backup tab
2. Under Filename patterns to exclude, Click on the Configure… button
3. Add in the various types of files you would like CrashPlan to ignore.
4. Press Save

Common file types you can exclude: mp3, aac, m4a, m4v, m4p, mov, avi, tiff, psd, dmg, zip and bin. Before you set this option, be sure that you want CrashPlan to ignore all files matching the file type(s).

You can remove deleted files after a certain time

Rather than keeping them forever in the backup archive, CrashPlan can be set to cull those deleted files after a given period of time.

1. Click on the Backup tab
2. Under Remove deleted files after Change the setting from never to a setting that you are comfortable with. Usually, we recommend 30 or 90 days.
3. Press Save

You can back up less often

Be default, CrashPlan runs all the time, backing up as you go along. To set a schedule:

1. Click on the General tab
2. Change the CrashPlan will run option from Always to Between specified times
3. Enter in the times you want your backups to run.
4. Press Save

Keep less versions of files.

CrashPlan usually keeps a track of all the changes you make to your files and watches your system in real-time. This offers the most protection but also takes up additional space.

1. Click on the Backup tab
2. Under # of versions to keep per file change this setting from Never to whatever value you wish. This will tell CrashPlan to keep versions up to that number. Subsequent changes will remove the oldest version to make room for the newest.
3. Press Save

To have your changes applied immediately you will need to compact the backup

1. You can do this by clicking on Destinations on the left hand menu.
2. Click on the Online tab.You should see our two backup servers.
3. Choose Backup 1 and then click on the Compact button.
4. Do the same for Backup 2.