Optimize system scans with scope settings

To supplement its continuous mode of data protection, the Agent occasionally scans portions or the entirety of a protected device’s drives or volumes searching for files to back up. These scans occur each time you install the Agent, restart the Agent, or change the Agent's administrative policy rules. Administrative backup policy, which determines the initial scope of these scans, includes all drives and volumes of a computer, by default.

You can optimize the scanning process by limiting the scope of a policy’s scans to locations most likely to contain user data. For example, if corporate security policy prevents users from accessing the computer drive that contains the operating system, you can configure your backup policies to skip that drive. Agents that use an optimized policy scan devices faster and complete backups more quickly than normal. In addition, the reduced scan time lessens the Agent's impact on system performance.

There are two ways to limit the scope of a policy's scans:

• Skip specific drives and volumes. Skip specific drives (for Windows-based Agents) and volumes (for macOS-based Agents) during system scans. Agents that skip drives and volumes also prevent users from selecting files in skipped locations for backup.

• Enable smart scan technology. Enable Agents to use smart scan technology to skip a predefined set of system-level folders during scans. Agents that perform smart scans prevent users from selecting files in skipped folders for backup. See list of skipped folders.

  Backup policies that use smart scan technology do not scan or back files up from the following folders:

  • Windows-based computers (all drives):

    • \$Recycle.Bin\*

    • \MSOCache\*

    • \Program Files (x86)\*

    • \Program Files\*

    • \recovery\*

    • \System Volume Information\*

    • \Windows\*

  • macOS-based computers:

    • /Volumes/%/.fseventsd/*

    • /Volumes/%/.Spotlight-V100/*

    • /Volumes/%/.Trash/*

    • /Volumes/%/.Trashes/*

    • /Volumes/%/Applications/*

    • /Volumes/%/Backups.backupdb/*

    • /Volumes/%/bin/*

    • /Volumes/%/dev/*

    • /Volumes/%/etc/*

    • /Volumes/%/Library/*

    • /Volumes/%/opt/*

    • /Volumes/%/private/*

    • /Volumes/%/sbin/*

    • /Volumes/%/System/*

    • /Volumes/%/tmp/*

    • /Volumes/%/usr/*

    • /Volumes/%/var/*

    • /Volumes/%/Volumes/*

  NOTE: The folders in these lists are subject to change without prior notice.

Although limiting a policy's scope has many advantages, it might also leave some user data unprotected. This occurs if users save files in skipped locations because they ignore best practices, inadvertently copy files to them, or use applications that automatically save files there by default. Therefore, when deciding whether to skip drives and volumes or to enable smart scan technology, carefully consider the advantages and disadvantages.