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Please please please can you add a feature that allows folders to be excluded from the Dropbox account (on windows and mac). For sure I'm not the first person to request this, but I'm yet to find a good explanation of why it's not there. A quick google search reveals loads of people also looking for the same feature. I really like the workflow I have with dropbox, but it's getting to the point where I might switch providers in order to allow better selective sync.
I've seen hackish solutions using selective sync, but it would be great if this could be done in one of the following ways:
- global pattern matching eg "node_modules"
- a marker file in the directory like .dropboxignore
- a simple right click context menu "Ignore this folder"
Other than that, keep up the good work. Cheers.
Tom
Idea Status Update
We're launching a closed beta for Ignore Files feature, and weโd love your help testing it out.
1,031 Comments
Justin from Just Front-end wrote:
Are you by chance, able to explain exactly what this command is doing?
"Set-Content -Path C:\Users\yourName\Dropbox\someFolder -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1"
I read the Microsoft docs on "Set-Content", but I'm perplexed exactly on how this stops Dropbox from syncing?
Sure, what that command does is to mark a folder on the local filesystem so that it is ignored by the Dropbox sync engine. It does that by attaching an "alternate data stream" (which is a feature of the NTFS filesystem) to the folder that you want to exclude from syncing. You can think of it like putting a sticky note on a folder.
When scanning the Dropbox folder looking for changes to sync, Dropbox checks for the presence of such alternate data stream named "com.dropbox.ignore" attached to a folder. What that PowerShell command that you quoted does is to attach an alternate data stream named "com.dropbox.ignore", with the contents of the stream being "1". In computer code, 1 is the value for "true" or "enabled".
This means that the decision to ignore the folder is only stored locally (on that computer), so it only applies to the computer where you run the command, not other computers where you are also using Dropbox with the same account.
Justin from Just Front-end wrote:
Is there a list of files/folders somewhere on one's computer which Dropbox uses as a reference for
what files/folders not to sync?
Or is such a reference stored in the cloud?To answer your question, there isn't one place or list on one's computer for Dropbox to use as a reference. It builds that list on-the-fly by scanning the Dropbox folder and seeing which folders have the ".com.dropbox.ignore" sticky note attached to them.
Hope that helps!
Razvan
Emma I assume after several months of investigating after 8 years of being at the top of Top "Dropbox ideas", surely Dropbox can give us an update on a critical feature for many.
At the very least, it should have a status update from "Investigating" to "Accepted" again considering it was "Accepted" before and never actually delivered in any usable fashion.
and the silence off dropbox continues
Razvan Boxifier - Are you by chance, able to explain exactly what this command is doing?
"Set-Content -Path C:\Users\yourName\Dropbox\someFolder -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1"
I read the Microsoft docs on "Set-Content", but I'm perplexed exactly on how this stops Dropbox from syncing? Is there a list of files/folders somewhere on one's computer which Dropbox uses as a reference for what files/folders not to sync?
Or is such a reference stored in the cloud?
Wow ... same here. I can't believe that it's 2023 now, and we still don't have an easy way to accomplish local-only files.
Are you by chance, able to explain exactly what this command is doing?
Set-Content -Path C:\Users\yourName\Dropbox\someFolder -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1I read the Microsoft docs on "Set-Content", but I'm perplexed exactly on how this stops Dropbox from syncing? Is there a list of files/folders somewhere on one's computer which Dropbox uses as a reference for what files/folders not to sync?
Or is such a reference stored in the cloud?Can of confusion ๐
Thanks!
Wow, I can't believe they added this feature to Backup but not Sync! So close, and yet so far! They seem determined to ignore the most update users they have ๐
Razvan Boxifier- I would not hold my breath. They have been "investigating" since October, after they thought the solved the problem by not solving it. After 8 years, this is just absolutely ridiculous. You are better off using a competing product if you need a dropbox like solution with the requested selective ignore/sync feature.
Lars P.3 while it may feel that way, there is actually some hope for this feature to be delivered sooner than expected.
The Dropbox Backup FAQ contains a reference to a ".dbxignore" file that Dropbox places in the root of the external drive when you use Dropbox Backup with that drive. The contents of that file look like this:
You can quickly notice the structure of the .dbxignore file looks inspired by that of .gitignore files.
I tried to edit the contents of the file and added a new wildcard rule. The next time Dropbox backup was triggered (I had to restart Dropbox for that), the rule that I added took effect. Hooray!
Hope this helps at least with giving some hope that since Dropbox now has this implemented for backups, they could soon be adding it to their sync product as well.
Razvan
Happy 8th anniversary to this basic idea. 8 years and dropbox are still thinking about it. This could be implemented in an afternoon if Dropbox wanted to. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case and I'm pretty sure that we will make it to 10 years as well.
โ
