cancel
Showing results for 
Show  only  | Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Announcements
Want to learn some quick and useful tips to make your day easier? Check out how Calvin uses Replay to get feedback from other teams at Dropbox here.

Apps and Installations

Have a question about a Dropbox app or installation? Reach out to the Dropbox Community and get solutions, help, and advice from members.

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

Re: Ignore folder (without selective sync)

Feedback on the new desktop app "ignore files" feature.

jvasileff
Helpful | Level 6

@Daphne that's great news! I look forward to trying it out.

But it would also be nice to have a configuration file, like ".dropboxignore", to list paths or patterns to exclude. The reason is that extended attributes are tied to the actual file or folder, and will be gone if the file or folder is deleted and recreated.

The common use case for this is a software build folder that gets deleted and recreated on clean builds. Under xattr system, the "new" build folder would sync to Dropbox even if the "old" build folder had the necessary com.dropbox.ignored xattr.

100 Replies 100

l3uddz
New member | Level 2

yep as others have said. an ignorefile based solution is needed, or atleast patterns.

Quuzuu
Helpful | Level 5

All I want to ask is, did you guys all make the new "ignore " trick work? Why can't I make it work? I'm on Dropbox v91.4.548 on Win10, and I did "Set-Content -Path C:\path\to\my\folder -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1" on powershell, and nothing happens.

 

Update: restart dropbox fixed it, now it's working

Crepidus
New member | Level 2

Reflections on a simple usecase:

Three+ clients: A, B, C sharing same dropbox.  Client C applies "ignore" to a specific subfolder "/cakalacky" to prevent his local changes from syncing.  Other clients A & B continue to sync the subfolder "/cakalacky" normally.

This is how "ignore" should work, on a client by client basis.

However, when implemented as instructed in this Beta, updates/additions in the subfolder "/cackalacky" from Clients A or B, cause Client C to experince perpetual sync/download "processing/notification" for the ignored folder.

Conclusion, "ignore" is not really the client solution we are looking for, rather, it seems to be an all-or-nothing solution requiring all clients to implement the same ignore command on the same folders as it stands as of 2/28/2020. In other words, there is no way to have some clients sharing a specific sub-folder while another client wishes to ignore the same. 

Alexander16
Helpful | Level 6

Can I suggest that we also have the ability to ignore new folder requests or events.  The problem with wildcards is that you may not be able to anticipate the creation of all folder names that may have large files that would swamp your local drive.

iamwwc
Explorer | Level 4

It's a killer feature better than OneDrive. I would switch to use Dropbox if this feature has been implemented.

 

I think we should use .dropboxignore. There are many folders will be generated(or regenerated) after compiling, we can't xattr it if don't exist

corylulu
Helpful | Level 6

@Daphne This is not a workable solution because on Windows, the `Set-Content -Stream` command is only available on files on the same drive as the operating system. So anyone that uses a secondary drive for Dropbox won't be able to use this feature... 

 

Why not just enable a .dropboxignore? Or just a right click option?

XionicFire
Collaborator | Level 9

In response to peoples comments, i have my dropbox on D:\ and the ignore command works perfectly.

 

Sorry i posted this here but if i try to post it in the tips and tricks section dropbox keeps flagging this as spam

 

XionicFire
Collaborator | Level 9

Guys i have coded a workaround to fix this problem, linking it here so any changes are recorded in one central post.

 

[Registry File] Functionality: Add Ignore File/Folder to Right Click Context Menu (Windows) v1.1.0

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-tips-tricks/Registry-File-Functionality-Add-Ignore-File-Fold...

 

XionicFire
Collaborator | Level 9

Guys i have coded a workaround to fix this problem, linking it here so any changes are recorded in one central post.

 

[Registry File] Functionality: Add Ignore File/Folder to Right Click Context Menu (Windows) v1.1.0

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-tips-tricks/Registry-File-Functionality-Add-Ignore-File-Fold...

digiwombat
Helpful | Level 6

@XionicFire Thanks for the link, though it does still use the terrible folder attribute method they are currently testing, which doesn't work for deleted/remade files which are common for tons of things like Unity project folders, temp build folders for tons of workflows, removing and re-adding a node_modules folder and so on.

 

It certainly makes re-upping those things easier for not-often-deleted folders though.

Need more support?