New user question: which folders to include/exclude on macOS?

[argium]

Hello, I'd like to try Vorta+Borg on my macOS Tahoe device because of problems I've been having with TimeMachine. I primarily want to backup my home folder but I'm not sure which folders are recommended to exclude. For example, I do not want to backup folders that are synced from iCloud/OneDrive, caches (of all kinds), and I'm sure a lot of other things under ~/Library have no backup value.

I could not find any other discussions or recommendations in the documentation. I think having this prominently in the initial setup guide would help new users configure their backup following best practice from the start.

Thanks.

[m3nu]

There are some templates that you can enable in exclusion settings. Those exclude some very common cache files, but they're probably not complete for every single situation.

[justauserid]

I tried everything except <exclusion paths from all over> for long and always struggled. Now I do <inclusion paths> except <exclusion list among my included paths). This also forced me to keep files where I want to keep my files, not where the tradition is where Apple thinks/suggests I should.