Excluding dates from the backup schedule for all backups

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
You can exclude specific dates, such as holidays, from your backup schedule. You may want to exclude holidays, for example, to ensure that Backup Exec does not run jobs on those days. You can exclude dates from the schedule for a specific backup job or you can exclude dates for all backup jobs.
When you exclude dates for all backups, any scheduled backup jobs do not run on those dates. All jobs resume running on their normal schedules after the exclude date. You can still create and run backup jobs and restore jobs on excluded dates, as long as they are not scheduled.
You can exclude dates in Backup Exec by selecting or typing dates on the Exclude Dates dialog box. Or you can create a text file with a list of dates to exclude and then import the text file.
After you create a list of dates to exclude, you can export a new text file with those dates. Exporting the text file can be useful if you want to copy your exclude dates from one Backup Exec server to another.
See Exporting a list of dates that are excluded from all backups to another server.
You can exclude dates from all backups in the job default settings or by using the backup calendar. Both features let you exclude dates from all backups. You can only import dates using the default settings. However, you may prefer to use the backup calendar because it gives you a visual representation of all of your scheduled jobs.
This topic includes the following procedures:
To exclude dates from the backup schedule for all backups
To exclude dates from all backups using the backup calendar
To exclude dates from the backup schedule for all backups
  1. Click the Backup Exec button, select Configuration and Settings, and then selectJob Defaults.
  2. Select Exclude Dates.
  3. Do any of the following:
    To manually enter the date Complete the following steps\:
    - In the Select Date field, type the date that you want to exclude from the backup schedule.
    - Click Add . Note: You can add only one date at a time.
    To select the date from the calendar Click the date that you want to exclude.
    The calendar displays 3 months at a time. You can navigate forward and backward to view additional months by clicking the arrows.
    Note: You can select only one date at a time.
    To import a list of dates Complete the following steps\:
    - Click Browse .
    - Select the text file that contains the exclude dates.
    - Click Open .
    - Click Import .
    To delete a date from the list of dates to exclude Complete the following steps\:
    - Select the date or dates that you want to remove from the list.
    - Click Delete .
  4. When you are finished selecting dates, click OK.
To exclude dates from all backups using the backup calendar
  1. On the Backup and Restore tab, in the Backups group, click Backup Calendar.
  2. Select the date that you want to exclude from the backup schedule.
  3. Click Exclude Dates.
  4. Click Add exclude date for all backups.
    Note: To remove the exclusion from a selected date, clickRemove exclude date for all backups.
  5. Click Close.
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