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vladgasan
Dropbox Product Manager
Dropbox Product ManagerCut the Clutter: Ignore Files Feature is now live
Update: This feature is now live and available to all individual plan customers! Thank you to all our testers, and share your feedback with the team, we're still eager to hear from you!
For ye...
I’m trying to use the automatic ignore feature on Windows.
I’ve set up rules in rules.dropboxignore, and it works right after I save it — for example, if I exclude main.pdf, it stays on my PC and doesn’t sync to the cloud.
But after I reboot my PC and dropbox starts again, main.pdf gets uploaded/synced to the cloud anyway. The only way I can fix it is to manually delete the file from Dropbox, edit 'rules.dropboxignore' again, and then put the file back — then it stops syncing.
Any tips to make the ignore rule persist after a restart?
(Setup: Windows 11 + latest dropbox beta version.)
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorHi jshan, is it only occurring for that specific file, or other files as well that you've added to the ignore list?
HelloJay, this happens with any ignored file if it’s in the Dropbox folder before shutdown, after reboot Dropbox starts syncing it to the cloud.
- Jay
Thanks for the update. If you delete these files with the rule still intact, do they re-upload after rebooting the machine if they are recreated?
This section of the article might help explain why the files are being re-uploaded.
I tested a bunch of scenarios, and this might sound a bit weird, but here’s what I’m seeing:
If I set up rules.dropboxignore correctly on my windows and confirm it’s working, then after an immediate restart it still works fine. Files that were already on the local machine and supposed to be ignored stay local and don’t upload, and any new files I add that match the ignore list also don’t upload.
But if I shut down the windows PC, then switch to a mac and use dropbox there for a while (the Mac also has ignore rules set, and it does not upload any files from the windows ignore list), and then come back to windows — the ignore rules stop working after boot. Local files that should be ignored start uploading, and new files that should be ignored also upload.
At that point, the only fix is to open rules.dropboxignore, make an edit, and save it again. After that, the rules start working normally on windows.
PS: The mac side is always fine.
