# Can I select more than one file/folders to create a snapshot or backup set and apply policy on it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Support\ **Created:** [November 7, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-i-select-more-than-one-file-folders-to-create-a-snapshot-or-backup-set-and-apply-policy-on-it/723 "2021-11-07T15:50:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kopia\_user](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/35a633/32.png) [@kopia\_user](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kopia_user)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 3:50pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-i-select-more-than-one-file-folders-to-create-a-snapshot-or-backup-set-and-apply-policy-on-it/723/1 "2021-11-07T15:50:40Z")
I just installed Kopia UI on Mac. I am trying to setup a backup set of files and folders. Let’s say I have ~/Pictures, ~/Movies, ~/Documents, ~/Dropbox/abc, ~Dropbox/xyz/mnp, ~/dir1/file1.ext1, ~/dir2/file2.ext2 (i.e. a total list of 29 files/folders) and I want to back them up together and also set a policy with ignore rules and scheduling for them. How do I do that? Also the moment I hit create snapshot it starts backing up (I have set my remote S3 compatible repository) and it is taking a lot of time before I can even start backing something up. I am sure there’s something obvious that I am missing. So what am I doing wrong? Or am I supposed to create 29 backup sets? What is snapshot? Is it one version of that file/folder backed to my repository at any given time after a backup run? Or is it a backup set? Or is there an “include file” that I have to create in some config directory somewhere? I am sorry if I am mixing up things but I am kinda confused. I am coming from borg, restic, backblze personal backup, tarsnap etc so I am trying to thing from that perspective. So I apologise for the confusion. ---
**Author:** ![jkowalski](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/jkowalski/32/3_2.png) [@jkowalski](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/jkowalski)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 4:08pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-i-select-more-than-one-file-folders-to-create-a-snapshot-or-backup-set-and-apply-policy-on-it/723/2 "2021-11-07T16:08:04Z")
Currently each top-level directory needs to be backed up separately. The notion of include list (virtual snapshot root that encompasses N directories) was mentioned couple times, we will add it in the future. Do you mind filing a GitHub issue for that? ---
**Author:** ![kopanla](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/kopanla/32/243_2.png) [@kopanla](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kopanla)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-i-select-more-than-one-file-folders-to-create-a-snapshot-or-backup-set-and-apply-policy-on-it/723/3 "2021-11-07T16:30:15Z")
I think it is possible to backup select top-level folders but you have to exclude everything in the home folder and then include folders using the files policy. See examples in [Git negate syntax not working? - #4 by kopanla](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/git-negate-syntax-not-working/649/5) > Also the moment I hit create snapshot it starts backing up … before I can even start backing something up This sentence does not make to sense to me … ---
**Author:** ![kopia\_user](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/35a633/32.png) [@kopia\_user](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kopia_user)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2021, 6:04pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-i-select-more-than-one-file-folders-to-create-a-snapshot-or-backup-set-and-apply-policy-on-it/723/4 "2021-11-07T18:04:23Z")
> [@kopanla](#): > > This sentence does not make to sense to me … It starts backing up. It starts creating a snapshot on the repository and in my case that’s a remote repository. ---
**Author:** ![kopanla](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/kopanla/32/243_2.png) [@kopanla](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kopanla)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 4:05am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-i-select-more-than-one-file-folders-to-create-a-snapshot-or-backup-set-and-apply-policy-on-it/723/5 "2021-11-08T04:05:43Z")
> It starts backing up. It starts creating a snapshot on the repository and in my case that’s a remote repository. What did you expect instead? ---
**Author:** ![kopia\_user](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/35a633/32.png) [@kopia\_user](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kopia_user)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 8:31am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-i-select-more-than-one-file-folders-to-create-a-snapshot-or-backup-set-and-apply-policy-on-it/723/6 "2021-11-08T08:31:10Z")
> [@kopanla](#): > > What did you expect instead? That it will ask for a confirmation. Or that it will let me add other files/folders to the set before proceeding to start the backing up part. ---
**Author:** ![kopanla](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/kopia.discourse.group/kopanla/32/243_2.png) [@kopanla](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kopanla)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2021, 10:09am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-i-select-more-than-one-file-folders-to-create-a-snapshot-or-backup-set-and-apply-policy-on-it/723/7 "2021-11-08T10:09:00Z")
> that it will let me add other files/folders to the set before proceeding to start the backing up part. You can. Instead of clicking on the snapshot you just have to click the “policy” button first. > That it will ask for a confirmation. I think that is common behavior. It is not like you are deleting or overwriting anything (for example when you start a Restic snapshot there is no confirmation either) … But you can always click the “stop” button to stop the snapshot. ---
**Author:** ![kopiauser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/58956e/32.png) [@kopiauser](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kopiauser)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2021, 3:52pm UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-i-select-more-than-one-file-folders-to-create-a-snapshot-or-backup-set-and-apply-policy-on-it/723/8 "2021-11-12T15:52:50Z")
In a nutshell I guess I was expecting to be able to create a simple “include” and “exclude” set and then start any backup or snapshot creation. I guess I was not giving coherent responses to your questions. But this what I wanted/expected based on my previous experiences of using backup apps both GUI and CLI. > you just have to click the “policy” button first What will it do? Let me add more than 1 file or folder (i.e a list of them)? I couldn’t find that option? And comments above indicate it’s not feasible via GUI yet. > I think that is common behavior. Maybe. But I’ve not experienced that. Also my comment was in response to my expectation (which was incorrect) that I am gonna get to add more files and folders before I start doing anything. At least for an option. Also, were you pointing to something like “include entire ~/“ first and then use “policy” to exclude a lot of files and folders in such a way that the final backup will be done of files and folders which have been my “include” list? ---
**Author:** ![kopia\_user](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/35a633/32.png) [@kopia\_user](https://kopia.discourse.group/u/kopia_user)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2021, 11:49am UTC](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/can-i-select-more-than-one-file-folders-to-create-a-snapshot-or-backup-set-and-apply-policy-on-it/723/9 "2021-11-14T11:49:20Z")
Ah, I am not really sure how it can work. I also saw this post [Multiple directories](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/multiple-directories/128) where it’s essentially mentioned it just can’t work (maybe by design? i.e. that’s not a use case). > Currently there is not a better way and because of how Kopia identifies snapshots and policies (by their root path) that would be quite hard to do. I guess I will eagerly watch Kopia and see if in feature there is an easy way to simply tell Kopia: - Backup these paths → backup set - Ignore these kind of patterns/extensions etc when you encounter in the backup set paths. That’s it. something like how Borg and Restic does it if I may say so. I simply couldn’t wrap my head around how to do the “include” by using the exclude syntax (the git ignore thingie). And I guess it’s my inability to grok it. Or maybe that’s the whole point of Kopia - just set one path when trying to create Snapshot and the ignore file (or the policy folder where I guess there has to be a .kopiaignore file maybe? And maybe some policy file as well somewhere?) will ignore whatever are to be ignored in that path. > [@kopanla](#): > > See examples in [Git negate syntax not working? - #4 by kopanla](https://kopia.discourse.group/t/git-negate-syntax-not-working/649/5) I didn’t get much from it. Anyway, maybe I will try again after KopiaUI 1.0 or a bit later. Thanks for the backup app however.