Exclude WordPress cache & backup folders from Softaculous backup

If you are using Softaculous backups you may notice that Softaculous backups also the cache folders (wp-content/cache and wp-content/litespeed) and backups created by WordPress backup plugins (wp-content/updraft & wp-content/ai1wm-backup).

This significantly increases the size of Softaculous backup files. To exclude these folders from Softaculous backups SSH into your server and navigate to the following path:

cd /usr/local/cpanel/whostmgr/docroot/cgi/softaculous/enduser/hooks

Copy the existing file filter.txt to filter.php and edit it:

cp filter.txt filter.php
nano filter.php

Uncomment the following part inside filter.php then add the path to the cache and backup folders:

$exclude_files[] = $softpath.'/wp-content/cache';
$exclude_files[] = $softpath.'/wp-content/litespeed';
$exclude_files[] = $softpath.'/wp-content/updraft';
$exclude_files[] = $softpath.'/wp-content/ai1wm-backups';

$exclude_files – This will be the list of files to be excluded calculated by Softaculous.
$softpath – This is the path of the backup installation.

Save the file and next time Softaculous backups run, these backup & cache folders will be excluded.

More information can be found in Softaculous documentation