cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Announcements
What’s new: end-to-end encryption, Replay and Dash updates. Find out more about these updates, new features and more here.

Dropbox ideas

Got an idea for Dropbox? We want to hear it. Our team will review the top voted ideas, so share them here!

Got an idea for Dropbox? We want to hear it. Our team will review the top voted ideas, so share them here!

cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Add .dropboxignore directory to exclude folders without using selective sync

Add .dropboxignore directory to exclude folders without using selective sync

Tom_M
Helpful | Level 6

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

Latest Update
Emma
Community Manager

Hi folks, 

 

Thanks for your feedback on this.
While ignored files delivers for some of the use cases here, I appreciate it does not for all. 
We'll be taking another review of this thread to isolate use cases for a .dropboxignore file feature in particular.

I've updated the status and we'll take this to the product team.
As a side note, it would be helpful for us if you could outline the gap between what ignored files offers, and what a .dropboxignore file feature would add to your workflows.

 

Thank you.

Status changed to: Investigating
974 Comments
jonathan-rezend
New member | Level 2

I am a paying customer, but will stop being one soon.

The node_modules and other developer stuff directories makes the backup way too big.

THe problem is that it consumes your resources and when you need to import it to another machine, it gets way too slow because of the amount of files.

 

lol36
Explorer | Level 3

I know many user suggested this idea before, but clearly they haven't got real answers, so I reissue this:

 

Why won't Dropbox implements the .dropboxignore/.dbignore feature?

 

It would be really convenient to have some sort of ".gitigrore"-like feature. This is really not so big deal to implement (just some regex tricks), and so many users have been asking for this. 

 

No, we (the group of users asking for this feature) don't want to get the "Use the selective sync feature", because it works only on folders, and when a new one created it needs to be checked from the menu manually, It's just a pain in the ***. We want a real .dropboxignore feature, not a workaround!

 

Mark
Super User II

If it isnt 'a not so big deal' to implement why not do it yourself via the API?

kevinsheedy
New member | Level 2

+1
Also planning to leave dropbox over this.
Dropbox client is constantly indexing and syncing all these totally ignorable files.

boogie35
New member | Level 2

+1
It is actually hard to believe that this option is not part of the package

gibbsy
Helpful | Level 5

+1 seems like a no brainerI really need this feature!


jatz
New member | Level 2

+1

Amazing that dropbox have not implemented this after 3+ years!

PhotonWarrior
Explorer | Level 4

At least just come in and say we aren't interested in supporting this. Don't just leave the community in the dark. This is really bad public relations, because as soon as another company DOES OFFER THIS! We are dropping you like an old box.

PhotonWarrior
Explorer | Level 4

Ahaha PCLOUD!

 

In the Sync tab of your pCloud Drive you have a subtab called Advanced Settings. It contains a field where the patterns to be ignored are listed. You can add or remove patterns from this list. Those so called patterns may be file and folder names, file extensions, etc. Those will be ignored when performing synchronization between your computer and the pCloud platform. To save the changes you make to those patterns, click the Apply button at the bottom.

 

So long dropbox!

 

definelicht
New member | Level 2

Why does this still not exist?

Vote for this idea

Like this idea? Vote for it and we will give it the attention it deserves!

1,366 votes received