Include/exclude Filters

[justinhow]

I recently realised that I had accidentily added a filter that I had intended to be an "exclude" filter but had actually added as an "include". The effect was that it removed 100 GBytes of (backup) data from a cloud drive and that I also took many days to realise this problem.
I therefore think it should be made very obvious when adding a filter to a job, as the unintended consequence of getting it wrong can be very bad. Maybe highlight (using different colours) the include/exclude field to draw ones attention to it.
Also when creating a B4All "system wide" filter (file/options...) you should be able to set the preference for whether when adding it to a job the filter should default to either include or exclude, as nearly always any added filter is for one or other and not both. This would reduce the likelihood of adding it to a B4All job in the wrong mode.
My point is that for a complex product like B4All with many options, this particular setting (include/exclude filter) is one of the most crucial and should therefore somehow be made difficult to get wrong/miss.

[Adrian (Softland)]

Hi,

I'm sorry to hear about your incident.

We will think about your suggestions.

[jweisbrod]

I have a complex tree of files and use the date to separate some of the files. Example:
I have a backup built to backup only 2022 files as an archive.
In the attached example, you can see I have selected most of the 2022 folders. The problem is that whenever I add a newer file to the same parent folder, it gets marked to be included and therefore triggers a backup.
I have tried a few filters but then nothing gets backed up ever (even when I change the destination).
I tried ...\2022*, ...\2022*.*

Any suggestions would be helpful!

[Adrian (Softland)]

Hi,

This is how the backup works: if you add a new file/folder to a folder which is included as backup source, the new file/folder will be automatically included.
As I can see from your selection, a global filter mask could not be used as you have some folders from 2022 included and some excluded.

Could you use a "date creation" filter? to exclude files newer than a given date.

[jweisbrod]

Okay, a date range sounds like a great idea!
I'll give it a try.

[Adrian (Softland)]

Hi,

Let us know if you still need assistance.