Knowledge Base

After I add a website, how do I change what files are backed up?

Updated on September 4, 2026

Overview

By the end of this article, you will be able to change which parts of your website CodeGuard backs up, by editing its exclusions — the files and folders you have told CodeGuard to leave out. The article explains how exclusions work, walks through changing them in your dashboard, covers adding a new exclusion through the file picker, and confirms when the change takes effect. Two points are worth knowing before you start: any new file or folder you add to your site is backed up automatically without any action from you, and CodeGuard also applies its own default exclusion list, which is separate from your choices and is covered in a related article.

How exclusions work

When you first add a website to CodeGuard, you choose which folders to include in the backup. Anything you did not select becomes an exclusion, and CodeGuard skips it on every backup from then on.

Two behaviours follow from this:

New content is backed up automatically. Files and folders you add to your site later are included without any action from you, unless they sit inside a folder you excluded.
Exclusions persist until you change them. An exclusion set during initial setup stays in place indefinitely. The steps below are how you review and change it.

CodeGuard also applies a built-in list of default exclusions — cache files, log files, temporary files, and similar — to every site. Those are separate from your own choices and cannot be edited on this screen. See What kind of files does CodeGuard exclude from backups? (opens in new window) for that list.

Before you begin

Access to your CodeGuard account.
The website already added to CodeGuard.
Knowledge of which folders on your site you want backed up or skipped.

Open the Manage backup content screen

In your CodeGuard dashboard, select your website name.
Select the Settings tab at the top of the screen.

Figure 1: Website page with the Settings tab in the top navigation
Scroll to the Backup Content section and select Manage backup content.

Figure 2: Settings page Backup Content section with the Manage backup content option

The screen that opens lists every exclusion currently applied to the website. If you excluded nothing during setup, the list is empty.

Figure 3: Manage backup content screen listing current exclusions with remove options

Remove an exclusion

To start backing up a file or folder that is currently excluded, select the red X beside its path in the list. CodeGuard includes it from the next backup onwards.

Add an exclusion

Select Select a New Pattern to Exclude. A file picker opens showing your site's folder structure — the same picker you used when first adding the website.

Figure 4: File picker showing site folder structure with checkboxes for excluding items
Select the checkbox beside each file or folder you want to exclude. To look inside a folder, select the arrow beside it and choose items within.
When you have finished selecting, choose Update.

The new exclusions appear in the list on the previous screen.

When the change takes effect

Changes apply from the next backup — they do not alter backups already taken. Content you excluded remains available in earlier backup versions and can still be restored from them. Content you un-excluded is captured the next time the site is backed up; run a backup manually from the Files page if you do not want to wait for the scheduled one.

Verify the change

The change was saved correctly when both of the following are true on the Manage backup content screen:

The exclusion list matches what you intended — removed entries are gone, and new ones are listed.
After the next backup completes, the file listing for that backup version reflects your changes.

Troubleshooting

A file I did not exclude is still missing from my backup. It may match one of CodeGuard's default exclusions. Check the default exclusion list in the related article below.

A folder does not appear in the file picker. The picker shows only content CodeGuard can reach through your connection. If a folder is missing, CodeGuard's account may not have access to it — check the permissions on your server.

My change did not take effect. Changes apply from the next backup, not retroactively. Confirm a backup has run since you made the change.

If the problem persists, contact Sectigo support.