I have the following vicfg, group UUID1 = PodA group UUID2 = PodA group UUID3 = PodA group UUID4 = PodB wanted UUID1 = groupwanted wanted UUID2 = groupwanted wanted UUID3 = groupwanted wanted UUID4 = groupwanted groupwanted PodA = present and not copies=PodA:1 groupwanted PodB = present and not copies=PodB:1 at this point repos 1 2 3 combined has 1 copy of each file and repo 4 has full copy of all files. (used to move files around manually before grouping repos). What I am trying to achieve is to have a copy of a file in one of the 3 repos (1 2 3) and one copy in 4. running git annex get --auto starts getting all files, files with copies on other disks. testing using git annex find --want-get --not --in . returns all remaining files not in the repo but has enough copies on other repos both PodA and PodB has copies. numofcopies is set to 2.