The N360 interface is not very intuitive.  I want it to backup my iTunes songs, but not my podcasts since they're updated daily and there's no use to back them up.  So I set all the podcast folder to NOT be backed up.  However, N360 still insist on backing them up.  See attached snapshots for an example.

What am I missing?  What should I do different so N360 does not backup those podcast folders?

[edit: Resized image for better fit.]

Here's another example.  I don't want N360 to backup my vmware virtual machines.  They're way too big.  But it insists on backing them up regardless if I specified to NOT back up that path!

How is this supposed to work?

<<edit: Image resized for fit>>

Hi Marc,

Could you check via Norton Backup drive if these files/folders were indeed backed up to your online location ?

(Perhaps try to restore them to a different location ?)

It's just that I also see, during backup, that norton is sort of scanning a lot of files and displaying them on screen without actually backing them up.

Kind regards

Rony

Hi RHE,

I canceled the backup before it could end when I saw this so it never completed.  Now I'm trying to start it again, but it's giving me a new problem.  Can't seem to figure out this software.  I have N360 Premium with 25GB of storage.  When I go to "Manage Backup Sets" and look at the WHERE tab, I see this inconsistency:

It's saying that I need almost double the space the files are actually going to take!  And if I move to the WHAT tab, it changes to this:

I can't figure out why all the file types added together can add up to 31.1GB.  They don't by a long shot.  If I unselect and re-select a file type checkbox, then the count goes back down to 16.1GB.

So I'm trying to restart the backup, but it keeps stopping on its own with a "Canceled" message.

<<Edit : Resized images for better fit>>

Marc,

Check your first screen,

Norton says it's still searching your system for files to back up. So I think the calculation is not finished at that point.

I'm not sure but I think it may be possible that norton is not taking the exclusions into account when it's calculating the backup space, needed to perform the backup.

(perhaps some symantec guys can clarify this for us)

I would like to suggest you do a test with a smaller backup source, starting from a new backup set

For instance just your picture files with most of the folders that contain these files excluded from backup.

This will give you a quicker test result and it will also be easier to check your norton backup drive file when it's not so large.

For your information, I also have backup exclusions but only in a backup set that backs up to a local hard drive, this works fine for me.

I also have a backup set that backs up to online storage, but there I have backup additions, no exclusions. This also works fine here.

Kind regards

RHE

Turns out that my backup cache folder is way bigger than my actual backup set. 

C:\ProgramData\Norton\<product id>\Norton\Backup

The path above was over 30GB in size.  I just finished uninstalling and re-installing N360 and ensured that the folder is completely wiped out for a fresh restart.  I'm trying again.

I also have the latest build of Acronis True Image 2010 which seems to not be playing nice with N360.  Still investigating.

Question: How do I clear this backup cache without having to uninstall/reinstall N360?

Hi MarcP,

What is the version of Norton 360 you are running on?

I tried this my self and when i ignore a folder it is ignored while creating a backup.

My version is 3.5.2.11, probably if your's is not the latest, update your product to 3.5.2.11 by running Live update then check for the issue.

- Kris