# What is "(do not include files)" when creating a backup manually?

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-do-not-include-files-when-creating-a-backup-manually/33568
**Category:** Support
**Created:** [September 22, 2015, 9:41am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-do-not-include-files-when-creating-a-backup-manually/33568 "2015-09-22T09:41:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
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### Author: ![dandv](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/dandv/32/169779_2.png) [@dandv](https://meta.discourse.org/u/dandv)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2015, 9:48am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/what-is-do-not-include-files-when-creating-a-backup-manually/33568/3 "2015-09-22T09:48:55Z")

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I’ve just triggered a manual backup with “Yes (do not include files)” and it’s ~20x as small as the automatic backup that occurred yesterday:

 ![](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/3X/d/0/d09da17edba00f7617244006fa1f4e4c92b9fdfd.png) 

I’ve just migrated the forum from MyBB and there are no attachments (the migration doesn’t support them). What causes the difference in [size](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-are-backups-so-large/31401)? Is the last backup incremental? Are linked images from remote URLs downloaded in the first one?

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