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Forum Discussion

rjclardy's avatar
rjclardy
Helpful | Level 6
6 years ago

The ignore folder feature is not working.

I can confirm that I'm seeing the same behavior that cabreu described: ignored folders don't get synced BUT the dropbox app continues to monitor them anyway and performs some level of processing when...
desktop
edit
FAQ
sync
teadrinker's avatar
teadrinker
New member | Level 2
4 years ago

I'm having an issue on windows 10, files can be ignored, but not folders. 
I tried running as admin, both relative and full paths, and with and without trailing backslash
For folders, I always get this error:

Set-Content : Could not open the alternate data stream 'com.dropbox.ignored'

+ Set-Content -Path Library -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-Content], FileNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.IO.FileNotFoundException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetContentCommand

Dragorion's avatar
Dragorion
Helpful | Level 5
3 years ago
teadrinker wrote:

I'm having an issue on windows 10, files can be ignored, but not folders. 
I tried running as admin, both relative and full paths, and with and without trailing backslash
For folders, I always get this error:

Set-Content : Could not open the alternate data stream 'com.dropbox.ignored'

+ Set-Content -Path Library -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+ CategoryInfo : NotSpecified: (:) [Set-Content], FileNotFoundException
+ FullyQualifiedErrorId : System.IO.FileNotFoundException,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.SetContentCommand

I had this issue for folders with the 'R' attribute (which they have, for example, when they were configured to show a custom icon).
The solution is to 1. unset 'R', 2. ignore directory, and 3. reset 'R'.
 
I created a .bat file for execution in such folders that I want to be ignored by Dropbox:
attrib -r "%cd%"
powershell -command "Set-Content -Path \"%cd%\" -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1"
attrib +r "%cd%"
pause

And to unignore:

attrib -r "%cd%"
powershell -command "Clear-Content -Path \"%cd%\" -Stream com.dropbox.ignored"
attrib +r "%cd%"
pause

 

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