Add .dropboxignore directory to exclude folders without using selective sync

[Tom_M]

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

[Emma]

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.

[Daphne]

Hey there @sachinbee,

Just to note, I’ve merged your post to this thread here so as to keep track of your comments more efficiently. I’ll be passing along this info to our dev team for review and thank you for taking the time to let us know your thoughts here on the Community.

Have a great day - Thanks!

[nicc777]

@Daphne - is there any reason why Dropbox has been ignoring this seemingly simple request for so long? Going through the comments now, I see a lot of frustration as a result of the lack of feedback. As some have started to note - your competitors are starting to steel your thunder, so please consider taking your community a little more seriously. 

[Daphne]

Hey @nicc777,

We’re constantly and persistently working on new developments for Dropbox so I’m unable to share any timeline of what’s currently being worked on.

That being said, our dev team has been made aware of this feature request and we ensure that all comments are passed along and directed correctly by gathering the relevant comments in the same place. We always appreciate when you let us know your thoughts and what you want to see!

Thanks!

[dawnn]

I'm also going to add my request for this feature too! I made my account just for this.  I use RStudio and git, and there's all sorts of conflict issues with lock files in .Rproj.user and .git.  I've had to move my development out of Dropbox, but we just switched to DB as our main backup system, so now I'm confronted with this issue again for me and for our whole lab.  

e.g. https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/200629398-RStudio-Git-and-Dropbox-problems-sync...
incomplete resolution here https://support.rstudio.com/hc/en-us/articles/200534477Using

more discussion on the previous work around https://community.rstudio.com/t/mostly-resolved-dropbox-box-sync-google-drive-etc/6098/2

Please, please add this capability!

[Tobias_Nielsen]

I have long been using git and there it is custom to apply a .gitignore file to indicate to git which files it should ignore. I sometimes also have files in dropbox that i would appreciate to be ignored in a similar way as they often are of a temporary nature. The files i would like to ignore are often generated via a random name, but with a specific suffix that i can regex match. This is usually not possible to handle via the normal cycle that as i remember is as follows:

1. delete file
2. generate folder with same name
3. ignore the folder with dropbox sync
4. go back and delete the folder again.
5. recreate old file.

To a git user, it would not feel alien to have a .dropboxignore file that is automatically scanned by dropbox when it decides which files are to be synced.

[Daphne]

Hey there @Tobias_Nielsen,

Just to note, I’ve merged your post here as it pertains to the same topic. We don’t currently have a feature like this to instruct the desktop app to ignore certain files when syncing, so I’ll be passing along your comments to our dev team for review in future improvements to Dropbox.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us today! 

[rustyx2]

I have a folder called "Large", which I would like to have excluded from sync by default. I want a setting in Dropbox UI with which I can permanently exclude a folder.

That is, when I sync a new Dropbox installation, I should not have to go to sync settings and exclude it every time. If I decide later that I want it, I will have to go to sync settings and explicitly include it.

[djm2]

First impressions of pCloud are that it blows Dropbox away. Folders and files can be ignored by pattern. Syncing is actually fast. They let you encrypt your files instead of scanning them to share with their partners. And you can buy 2TB of lifetime storage for $350.

[nicc777]

I have to agree with @djm2 - just tried pCloud with the regex pattern and it works perfectly. For testing I used a version of the .gitignore pattern for Python found on GitHub. Appended the pattern to the pCloud existing patterns, then in the pCloud folder created a Python virtual environment and started a small project. The patterns were honored perfectly by pCloud - the virtual environment folder together with many of the Python temporary files and folders were all ignored. It's perfect for my needs.

Now, for whichever dropbox admins or devs read this, I am due for my renewal in a little over two months. Sofar, unless you really match or exceed pCloud's offering, I will not be renewing my subscription. 

[Ogilthorp]

I'm having similar experiences with pCloud working well.  Simply putting in node_modules into the ignored expressions is saving me (and my CPU) from a ton of headaches.