Backup Exclusions

Outcome

You will know which backup exclusions TMXIO applies today, why those exclusions exist, and which additional plugin log tables may be good candidates for exclusion if your site generates a large amount of operational history.

Note

There are two different lists on this page. The default exclusions are applied automatically to every site without asking. The reviewed exclusions are additional tables TMXIO support has confirmed are usually safe to exclude — but they are not applied automatically. If your site is generating a lot of churn in any of the reviewed tables, contact support and they can extend the exclusion list for your specific site.

Why TMXIO Uses Exclusions

Some WordPress plugins create high-churn log, audit, redirect, mail, or security-history tables. Those tables can grow very quickly without changing the restoreable state of the site itself.

TMXIO uses whole-table exclusions for this type of operational history. TMXIO does not use partial capture rules such as “latest 1000 rows” because partial tables make restores harder to reason about and can leave plugin data in an inconsistent state. If a table is in scope at all, it is captured in full.

Current Default Exclusions

TMXIO currently excludes these tables by default. These are operational log tables and are not treated as authoritative site content.

• wsal_metadata
• wsal_occurrences
• check_email_log

If you want any of these tables actually captured for compliance reasons, contact support — the defaults can be reversed for a specific site.

Additional Reviewed Exclusions

TMXIO has also completed a wider plugin audit and identified additional tables that are good exclusion candidates when they are being used only as operational history. The table below summarizes the audit. These tables are not excluded automatically; support can extend the exclusion list for your site if you are seeing capacity or duration problems tied to one of these plugins.

Plugin	Table(s) Excluded	Reason
All In One WP Security and Firewall	aiowps_audit_log, aiowps_debug_log, aiowps_events, aiowps_failed_logins, aiowps_login_activity	Security event and audit history; rebuilt by the plugin from live state, not authoritative content.
Activity Log	aryo_activity_log	Pure activity history, not site content.
Check & Log Email	check_email_error_logs, check_email_log, check_email_spam_analyzer	Outbound email log records, recreated on next send.
Email Log	email_log	Same — outbound email log only.
FluentSMTP	fsmpt_email_logs	Mail transport log, not site content.
Loginizer	loginizer_logs	Login attempt history, recreated continuously.
Post SMTP	post_smtp_logmeta, post_smtp_logs	Mail transport log and associated metadata.
Redirection	redirection_404, redirection_logs	404 and redirect hit history, not the redirect rule set itself.
SiteGround Security	sgs_log_events, sgs_log_visitors	Security event and visitor history.
WP Mail SMTP	wpmailsmtp_debug_events	Debug event log for outbound mail.
WP Activity Log	wsal_metadata, wsal_occurrences	Audit log content; already covered in the default list.

For each plugin above, TMXIO support has confirmed that the listed tables are operational rather than authoritative. Excluding them does not affect the plugin’s rule configuration, business data, or live security posture.

What This Does Not Include

TMXIO does not treat every plugin-owned table as safe to exclude. Queue tables, configuration tables, business data, form submissions, WooCommerce data, and active security-state tables should normally remain in backups.

Examples of plugins reviewed but not added to the simple exclusion list include:

• mailpoet
• wordfence
• sucuri-scanner
• wp-mail-smtp-pro

Those plugins either mix logs with live state, expose tables that are not clearly safe to exclude by default, or did not justify a simple default rule. If you are seeing capacity problems caused by one of these plugins, contact support and they will dig into the specific tables involved rather than blanket-excluding the plugin.

If You Need a Custom Exclusion

If your site has a plugin-specific log table that is growing quickly and you want TMXIO to review it, contact support with:

• the plugin name
• the table name
• whether the data is only operational history or whether you treat it as business data

Support can confirm whether that table belongs in the backup scope or should be excluded for your site. Custom exclusions are tracked per-site so the change does not affect other workspaces.

Related Pages

• Common Tasks for everyday plugin jobs that touch backup behavior.
• Troubleshooting, specifically the Capacity tab, when a backup is failing because of table size.
• FAQ for the short-form answer to the exclusions question.