Excluding items from Time Machine

[disasterdrone]

I have a time machine backup. I can add new excluded items, and remove them, but there is a list of items that used to be on my hard drive, and are no longer, that remain in the exclusion list. I can remove them, but when I close and re-open TM they reappear.
It's a long list, so makes using exclusions more difficult than it has to be, otherwise I wouldn't bother - is there a way to remove a plist file to reset this without having to re-back up? If I need to re-create the backup I'm happy to do that, although the problem exists for new tm disks.
Thanks!

 

[Weaselboy]

Just follow this guide to reset Time Machine. You will not need to start over.

 

[disasterdrone]

Just follow this guide to reset Time Machine. You will not need to start over.

Thanks - I tried that. I deleted the com.apple.Timemachine.plist (following the instructions), but it was recreated with the exclusions I'm trying to eliminate. I even went in and manually edited the plist with textedit, and it was still recreated with the exclusions. I'm at a bit of a loss to know where this is coming from...

Thanks

 

[Weaselboy]

Thanks - I tried that. I deleted the com.apple.Timemachine.plist (following the instructions), but it was recreated with the exclusions I'm trying to eliminate. I even went in and manually edited the plist with textedit, and it was still recreated with the exclusions. I'm at a bit of a loss to know where this is coming from...

Thanks

You know what, since Mavericks, plist files are cached and when you delete one you need to reboot otherwise the cached copy gets restored. I should have thought of this when I first posted. That Pondini web site has not been updated to reflect this change in Mavericks.

Sorry for the trouble.

Go through the same process again, but reboot after you delete the plist and I bet it will work.

 

[disasterdrone]

You know what, since Mavericks, plist files are cached and when you delete one you need to reboot otherwise the cached copy gets restored. I should have thought of this when I first posted. That Pondini web site has not been updated to reflect this change in Mavericks.

Sorry for the trouble.

Go through the same process again, but reboot after you delete the plist and I bet it will work.

The bastards. Thanks for the tip!