What data should I back up?

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SpiderOakONE is designed to back up your personal files, such as documents, music, photos, and videos. It is not designed to back up application data or operating system data. Application and system data is constantly changing, so SpiderOakONE gets stuck in a never-ending loop of trying to back it up before it changes yet again. The results are that your computer's resources (processor, memory, battery, hard disk access) are tied up on a hopeless and unending task, and SpiderOakONE never has a chance to back up your personal files.

Some people, intending to be safe, select their entire hard disk for backup. That is a mistake, as it includes much application and system data. SpiderOakONE will not work properly that way.

If SpiderOakONE is running constantly and uses up your computer's resources yet the files that are important to you never get backed up, this may be the problem. Open the Backup tab and confirm that the only folders selected to be backed up contain only your personal files.

Some good choices to back up are the folders Documents, Movies, Music, Pictures, and Desktop. The names of these folders might vary on your computer.

Some bad choices to back up are:

On Windows:

  • The entire C: hard drive
  • C:\Windows or C:\Users\YourUserName\AppData
  • Anything outside of C:\Users\YourUserName

On Mac:

  • The entire hard drive where your Mac is installed
  • /Applications, /Library, or /System
  • /Users/YourUserName/Library
  • Anything outside of /Users/YourUserName

On Linux:

  • The entire filesystem or "/"
  • The entire user directory /home/YourUserName, as that includes hidden things that shouldn't be backed up such as ~/.cache, ~/.config, and application data like ~/.thunderbird
  • Anything outside of /home/YourUserName

On any operating system:

  • Anything that changes by itself
  • Anything you aren't sure what it is or what it's for
  • Anything being backed up or synchronized by another service
  • Anything automatically created or modified by the computer or an application