How to exclude (or ignore) files from syncing (different thing than Selective Sync)

I would like to see the feature like git has: .gitignore file where I can list specific folders and file names mask preventing them from syncing. I have tons of node_modules folders, *.tmp, *.log files. They are part of the projects and they consuming a lot of space but I don’t need them in my Dropbox. Selective sync is not the solution for this.

Hi @ashutoshw3. I simple use MegaSync.
The Desktop App is available for Windows, Linux and Mac.
And Yes. You can define recursive exclusions just like in .gitignore.
Another feature that was decisive in my choice is the ability to watch one or more directories that are outside the main sync folder.
Example: Documents, Music, etc ... Individually, without moving them to the main sync directory.

If Dropbox implements at least these 2 features I'll be using it again.

Hello!

For sure that Iam not the only that need this Simple option.

We just need a option to add a folder to a ignored list.

Because we need to upload a MAIN folder, but for example, inside this folder we have a folder that dont need to get uploaded.

Thanks!

I use Dropbox for syncing my development project files but every time all the libraries are uploaded to Dropbox which increases the size of the project by a huge margin. 

It would be very helpful if there is a file like .gitignore implementation for Dropbox sync which will ignore files to be uploaded.

Please implement this feature in the upcoming version, it would be a great help for all of them in the developer community. 

Dropbox has already implemented selective sync in the desktop client so this might not be a very difficult task for Dropbox.

Totally agree with this request!

I can't believe Dropbox has been ignoring this for so long when the selective sync feature is already there... We just need a different way to tell it what to ignore, something similar to .gitignore or, even better, just be able to tell it to use the existing .gitignore files!

In my opinion, part of the problem is that no other storage providers like Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive are doing that either, at least not that I know. Otherwise, we might see some progress as Dropbox would probably want to catch up with what others are offering to avoid losing users...

 +1
@Mark You are doing a great job at degrading Dropbox Inc's PR.

It has been a very popular request from developers which has been ignored for years by Dropbox. Implementing a .gitignore like logic would simply make dropbox usable by developers.

Actually, it is not.

anyone know of any alternative services with this feature?

I would also like this feature. Not being able to exclude node_modules ruins Dropbox for me (I know this can be done manually at the start of each project but that is not a reasonable solution). I use git and bitbucket but would like to have a copy of my entire development directory on Dropbox with the node_modules files excluded. The node_modules directory can have hundreds of thousands of files and sym links. I have to throttle the Dropbox process in order for my computer to not overheat while using Dropbox, even when I'm not even updating any files! I'll have to stop syncing my node projects and look for an alternate provider with this feature.

Hey Sherwino

I have the same problem. I do the same thing as you, and I agree it is a pain. Especially with  a hard day coding, that little Dropbox icon is working overtime. BUT, you can tell Dropbox to ignore the .git folder.

http://www.dropboxwiki.com/tips-and-tricks/exclude-folders-from-syncing

Yes it is a workaround, BUT it will work. Usually though, when I am coding, I will pause the sync completely while I am actively working. Then when I am done for a while, I'll resume the sync and just let it work for a while (usually just let it do it's thing overnight). No it isn't perfect, no I don't need those useless files on Dropbox. Yes, it would be AWESOME if this could get implemented for a new feature like .dropboxignore.

Lusil Where can i find this post that you moved to? I am also very interested in ignoring the node modules folders

Nobody could deny the utility of Dropbox, it is an incredibly useful tool.
The ability to be able to work on one computer and just pick up where you left off on another is great.

The best part about it is that cloud based synchronization is a feature that can be utilized by pretty much every industry. As a Software Developer I use Dropbox to synchronize and backup code from workstation to workstation with ease.

Developers use a lot of tools to make sure they have some kind of version control to keep track of all the changes that a project has gone through, because things break. One of the most common tools is Git.

Git creates a hidden folder called .git that contains a variety of information needed to help Git catalog and keep track of all your files. If you want to learn more about it you could read this article by a developer trying to make sense of its structure, or you could go directly to Git's website.

I mention Git for two reasons:

• The .git folder could have thousands of files, for a small project.

Screenshot of .git folder

• Git has a special file called .gitignore that could tell the Git program ignore folders or files, recursively.

I commonly use my Dropbox folder, as my active working directory because it is convenient that as soon as I press save it uploads it to the cloud. So if I randomly drop my laptop into a large body of water I would be able to pull out my phone and continue working there as if nothing happened. Then, after completing a certain task I use Git to commit all of the changes I did to my code. Git keeps track of the specific changes I did so if I changed the name of a variable from,

const customersFirstName = "Bob";

to

const name = "Bob";

Git would keep track of all of those changes and let me know that I changed that specific line in my code. Dropbox doesn't keep track of those specifics, and that is fine. I just need it to back me up.

Now there are a few problems with this scenario, remember .git could have thousands of files? If I make a change lots of those files are constantly being modified which trigger a synchronization by Dropbox. Dropbox is usually going to update and index those .git files before it uploads your file and you will sometimes see the Dropbox icon spinning for a while before it makes it to the cloud.

There are situations where I would want to backup the .git folder, but in most cases that is not necessary because I use services like GitHub, and GitLab to store my .git history along with the code it is keeping track of.

So here I am using all of my computers resources to index and upload thousands of files that I don't even need to save on to Dropbox while my laptop is flying in the air getting ready to visit the fishes.

The .git folder is not even the real problem, the real problem has to do with files generated by package managers, or libraries utilized to make the code work. Developers constantly use resources and tools created by others to solve common problems. They often package these tools into libraries that we could just download into our project. For example I commonly use this library created by Facebook called React. So I use a package manager like NPM or Yarn to download the latest version of React into my project directory along with all of the tools and libraries that React relies on to work, because they too rely on other libraries for their library to work.

When you download a library like React.js using NPM or Yarn creates a folder called node_modules and it saves everything Facebook used and needs to make React work. Now this folder is exponentially worse than the .git folder. It is common for the node_modules to have more than 20,000 files! The screenshot below is pretty much the smallest node_modules folder you could have using a React project.

This 20,000 file headache makes my computer kick up its fans and use all of its processing power to sync a node_modules folder and upload it to the cloud. It easily takes 2 hours for Dropbox to finish indexing and uploading this folder. 2 hours of Dropbox consuming your battery and CPU resources. As you could see in the screenshot above it is not because the folder is massive, it is because of the amount of items in the folder.

When developers backup their code using sites like GitHub, BitBucket, and GitLab they usually update the .gitignore file to exclude the node_modules, because you don't need to keep track of and upload other people's code. Especially when you could easily download it again in another workstation if needed using the package manager.

The .gitignore file could also be set to ignore the node_modules recursively, or any file/folder including ones created by package managers such as, Composer, Cargo, or PIP.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could have ignored that folder using Dropbox?

Well we kind of have that with Selective Sync, but that doesn't quite solve the problem.
This 4 year long thread with 93,212 Views 625 Comments kind of expresses why. Dropbox also offers Smart Sync, which mimicks the behavior that OneDrive has where the files are all on the cloud until you click on them, and decide to open / download a file.

 

+1 Absolutely! Being able to exclude

.git

directories especially would save a lot of headaches, since they can be very large relative to the normal folder contents and are likely to already be backed up GitHub anyway!

Let me also say, that this is an issue that does not just apply to us few that commented on here. The internet is full of people wanting a feature like this: dropbox gitignore - Google Search. Many "solutions" have been proposed, all of which are either not updated in the last few years, actively broken by Dropbox updates or are utterly overcomplicated, like not blocking every file matching that name and instead having to select each one manually, defeating the purpose. None of the solutions is as simple and elegant as one built into Dropbox would be. Especially "moving the files out of Dropbox" requires lots of work and confusing file structures, defeating the purpose of easily syncing folders with my friends and colleagues.

A solution like this is required for many people to have Dropbox do exactly what they want and too many people have to live with workarounds, suboptimal solutions or even completely given up on that.

Please implement this feature! This is not directly meant as negative criticism, but as an illustration of the issue and its widespreadedness. I hope we can somehow get you to reconsider!

Thanks for elaborating on this undegroundalien - most appreciated. 

I can assure you that your feedback is always welcome and monitored. We're always looking for our users' input when creating the next version of the Dropbox app this why I made sure your comments are passed along to our dev team.

Have a lovely day!

Walter Gathering feedback and passing that to the team is indeed nice and I appreciate that it is done.

But please understand proposing solutions that users have repeatedly said don't fit their needs just signals that Dropbox is unwilling to even understand the request, much less act on it.

Sorry to hear you felt this way undegroundalien - it wasn't my intention at all. 

As I do understand the importance of this, I thought it would be nice to gather all feedback to pass along to the team so as to voice your concerns and requests. 

I know it's not optimal and I wish I could help more than this. 

Walter With all due respect, none of the "workarounds" are even close to what people's posted use cases actually need.

While I appreciate some sort of feedback, this answer is pretty condescending as it mischaracterizes the request and dismisses it without second thought.

But this hand-waving is what I'm learning to expect from Dropbox.

Hey there JMurph2015 - how are you today?

I am writing to let you know that while there aren't any plans to implement such function at the moment, I have made sure to pass all of your comments and suggestions to the dev team for review. Thank you for this feedback.

Should you need anything else, just let us know! 

Hey All, 

First off, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and ideas on how to improve our features and functionalities moving forward - I'll make sure to pass your comments to the team as feedback! 

In the meantime, mind that, as our Community Manager Ed has already outlined here,  there are no plans to implement such feature at the moment as there are several workarounds to solve this (for example moving the folder out of your Dropbox folder or using Selective Sync).

Having said that, I'd really like to help with this so I have passed all of your comments to the team in my internal report. If there's anything else I can do for you, just let me know! 

Cheers Folks!

I also want to see this.

Example usage: I've got a shared LaTeX project in a dropbox folder. Every time I compile it builds a crapload of auxilliary files which I don't want to sync that just annoy the other people in this shared folder. I already put them in a folder named aux_tex, but I still have to disable sync manually for every new LaTeX document I start.

PLEASE ADD THIS FEATURE!

Dear PhotonWarrier,

I apologize if I offended you.  This string appeared to be about reasons Dropbox should have the ability  for the user to specify files to exclude by filetype, and I was giving another example, at the same trime trying to be polite and give my reasons for using Dropbox rather than alternatives.  This is the first time I have posted to any such discussion group, and I will not do it again.  I have neither the time nor inclination to reply to personal attacks, as you apparently do.  I have plenty of other private venues for communication and to effect change.

The world doesn't revolve around how you and how you want to do things. So glad dropbox works for you, but why are you even posting here? What is your point? To brag about how awesome dropbox is?

In my case, I am working on a project from C / C++ / Fortran and Matlab source code.  After some changes, numerous .o (linux) or .obj (Windows) files are created, and synced with Dropbox.  Although this is not usually a problem for me, I am generally concerned about use of bandwidth and Dropbox resources for it.  (It seems wasteful.)  I thus would prefer to be able to exclude these file types.

Note: I find Dropbox more convenient than say SVN and the like, since it is simpler, with less server installation and maintenance issues, etc.