Add .dropboxignore directory to exclude folders without using selective sync

@Ray C.

You can try Mega.co.nz's MegaSync. It's installable on linux (I'm using on a Raspberry Pi), has pattern exclusion (not using files but on the web interface) and file sharing/collaboration too. And it's cheaper.

But... you are giving your files (private and/or work related) to this guy:

... which is maybe not what you can consider safe.

Your choice. Give it a spin. 50GB are free.

Hey Mat,

I'm not a bot (I have a family too!). Perhaps a gif would help proving that? :)

(or maybe I'm in fact an advanced bot.. )

Is there a Dropbox competitor which:

1. Has support for "exclude files", preferably with pattern matching.
2. Works with FreeBSD/FreeNAS.
3. Still supports Dropbox-style shared folders, sharing, and (most importantly) file requests?

Right now I only continue to use Dropbox for the reasons in item 3. I have to work around the first two lacking features at the moment.

Every time I see a response to this thread that isn't from someone at Dropbox (or IS someone from Dropbox giving an empty boilerplate answer) and I hate Dropbox that little bit more.

I suggest we give up trying to get Dropbox to treat us like customers they care about and instead use this thread to focus on helping each other: Let's continue to list Dropbox's competitors, along with their prices and all their pros and cons, in an attempt to find a decent alternative.

If I hear Dropbox support suggest "selective sync" one more time I'm gonna lose it (and lose all hope).
It makes it just so painfully obvious how little they care. I mean st least read the damn thread title! It seems there is just no chance for us to get past the barrier of "customer support" and their template answers.

In a last attempt to make things clear:
What selective sync is: Files on Dropbox cloud you don't want to sync to local.
What WE want: Local files that should not be synced to Dropbox cloud.

Dear Dropbox support and Dropbox support bots. Do not just "pass it on to the development team". Call your boss and have them call their boss and make him get someone from development to read this and reply. We want to know if this is ever going to be done and if yes when and if no we know it's time to start using alternatives. So everybody here can get back to working instead of worrying about their workflows.

I twitted a link of this post to Drew Houston directly. I wrote 'this 2 years old post is an example of why you are losing a lot of zero hour customers like me' then linked here. Feel free to do the same. Hope it can 'trigger a reaction' that is not coming from here.

@ Adam P.   Well said!  I could't agree more.

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@Jeremy B.  Exactly. Somehow Dropbox seems to live in La-La land and think that what they have is great and works well. I think the medical term for it is "delusion".  Or is it "arrogance"? ;-)

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@Elad O.  You might agree with this thread [ FAILED: Selective Sync feature is a complete JOKE!! ] (by yours truly) about this very issue. 

To overcome these problems I would suggest you give Sync.com a try (5GB free) and test things out there. 

As you can see from my post above (and in the screenshot) you can deselect "node_modules" and git folders. I'm doing that without any problems so far.

Sync.com is so much better than Dropbox, I just wish I had known about them long ago and saved myself aggravation.

Hi all,

@Ed - I knew I could wake you up by mentioning Sync.com (competitor) and questioning Dropbox's so called "management".

Could you please post something that proves that you are a human being that cares about your job and the customers that are paying for your salary?

I'm thinking (with 99% certainty) that you @Ed is a bot that replies empty platitudes based upon the mentioning of certain keywords in a post on these forums. Please prove me wrong if you know how to.

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@Jason B. You do know that Dropbox uses ZenDesk.com, right?

Most likely Dropbox is using ZenDesk's "time-saving tools like triggers and automations" which can automatically reply empty platitudes to customer emails all day long without ever requiring a human being doing any real work.

It makes the support staff look good and efficient to upper "management", but does little for real customer support. (no offence intended to ZenDesk that are great)

By the way, you do also notice the "canned responses" formatting of all these 'official' Dropboxer answers.

IF I was a conspiracy theorist, I would suspect that this forum was secretly setup and staffed by Dropbox's competitors to dirty DB's name.

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@TAM+CZ A.  I think you were amazingly positive!! I'm trying hard and struggling to reach even 1% of your positivity ;-)

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@Stefano Valicchia s.

Sync.com does not really have an exclude pattern a la ".dropboxignore". BUT it does have a great Selective Sync feature in the control panel (see screenshot below) that actually works well!!

Simple speed comparison (on the same MacBook Pro with 16GB of RAM):

Dropbox's Selective Sync: => a 99 year old with walking difficulties

Sync.com's "selective sync": => an F1 (Nascar / Indy) racing car at full speed.

If I worked at Dropbox and saw Sync's performance and usefulness and then compared it with the current (and long-time) Dropbox version, then I would be so ashamed I would wear a paper bag over my head for the rest of my life.

Look at this screenshot of Sync.com's control panel taken just now: 

With that Sync.com control panel I can exclude/include folders as I wish in seconds (syncing takes a bit longer). Trying the same thing with Dropbox is a pointless task that takes hours.

And @Ed, guess what, Sync.com's control panel window does not stay locked on top of all other windows like your's do. Amazing isn't it?? Them Canadian's sure are smart, yeah?

PS:  I'm not affiliated with Sync.com nor do I add any referral links to them. I am just an unhappy long-term customer of Dropbox that have found something much better. Thank God!

Selective Sync takes more than an hour to fully load (no kidding), and multiple times it deleted my files from file system, so I stopped using it.

Every node_modules update or git interaction (in .git folder) re-uploads megabytes of small files, kills the CPU and computer battery.

I started identifying when it happens - when my MacBook's fans are going crazy.

Exactly @Adam P.

Selective sync does not solve the problem.

Yet Dropbox and their ignorance seem to think it does.