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

[jvasileff]

@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.

[Lars P.3]

GoodSync seems to work perfectly with filters easy to set up to exclude certain folders. It is also reasonably priced. It can synchronize to the cloud, using Dropbox, Azure, Mega, Backblaze, Box, OneDrive, Amazon S3 and many more. 

[maku77]

Great app!

[Damato]

GoodSync is great, and does all these things. But it is not a sollution in this context.

The issue being we are ignored as a community by DropBox. We have been pleading for years and only having terrible hack's made available to us, to do simple things that other products do well without an issue. The community is terrible, voting for stupid functions, when basic things that has been neglected from the start get's the run-around. 

We are locked into this eco-system, with a 2TB anchor. So we need te eco-system to be maluble.

As paid users, we are the ones that feed it. If it does not respond, then it should either stop getting fed, or get beaten with a stick. 

At this point it is laughing at it's users.

[Damato]

This feature request is odfficially 6 years old, and accepted.
https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-ideas/Ignore-folder-without-selective-sync/idi-p/5926/highli...

On Twitter, this was again sent to Drew Houston:
https://twitter.com/drewhouston/status/1327010727467442176

Support chimed in again, pushing the CMD/Shell as a solution again:
https://twitter.com/DropboxSupport/status/1331171080749404160

Sadly the CMD/Shell commands leave you with nothing but a hate for the product. Example me wasting 1.7GB of data syncing to Narnia: 
https://twitter.com/Tommeloon/status/1288141408864526337

Why my dear DropBox, why not listen to your users?

[Damato]

No, no they don't.

It is safe to say that the community is actively ignored. As a dev in a corporate enviroment, no amount of red tape can delay any development this long. The business clearly has no intrest in fixing this issue.

At this junction I will fix it for them, for free. But alas. No.

But they are working on the next hair brained tie-in to the echo-system to increase their value offering... instead of fixing the stuff we actually need done.

The stupid powershell command to exclude a folder barely works:

> Set-Content -Path 'your_local_path' -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1

It still goes into an absolute frenzy to index everything for some dark and dasterdly reason. Yet seems to hede the setting, and skip syncing. 

[jonasjancarik]

Set-Content -Path 'C:\Users\...\Dropbox\...\node_modules' -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1

This really doesn't work for folders in PowerShell 7.1.4:

Set-Content: Unable to clear content of 'C:\Users\...\Dropbox\...\node_modules' because it is a directory. Clear-Content is only supported on files.

___

Update: It seems to be working in PowerShell 7.2.0-preview.9

[dishmael]

I came here hoping to see the .dropboxignore solution had been implemented but it seems Dropbox has placed a .ignore on the problem…

😞

[XionicFire]

Well at least it seems like the .ignore setting on the .ignore problem is working perfectly, now if they could only apply such skilled coding onto adding it into the software we'd be on track

And ditto on the adding stupid ideas, "ohh please add a super complex and useless office integration over basic functionality please!"

Btw I got tired of this and got Sync, they basically cloned dropbox as far as features, it's a lot cheaper and does support ignore.... The only reason we're still with dropbox is sync doesn't support 100mbps uploads yet but the second they do.....

We're currently using it on our less heavy users and tied it to our dropbox so anyone working on sync can see the files and viceversa and so far so good give it a shot

For small teams it's def a better solution

I'm sad to say this but im sorry dropbox, your /ignore of the problem has left us with no other choice

[XionicFire]

2 years ago there was nothing like dropbox, now there's all these LITERAL clones (the copied all settings even almost the UI) that it seems like they are coming out of the woodwork

In 1 or 2 more years they will steal most of dropbox customers and now they will really be in a bind

Dear dropbox

We, the IT managers are the ones with the responsibility to our companies, it is by our word that our companies pick which service provider to drop their thousands of dollars a month, and it is our heads that roll when our users complain that dropbox is too slow or files won't sync

So please.... stop pandering to our users stupid needs and start addressing your IT managers needs.

We understand our needs aren't flashy, pretty or make for a great price increasing product offering feature, but they enable us to do our job and in turn make our bosses pay you.

If you keep ignoring us that's fine but there will come a point where if I don't fix all the anoyances my users have, my boss will ask me to pick one option, my head or Dropbox and I know which one I'll be picking, all the easier choice if there's now other similar featured options in the market for about 1/2 what we pay now.

You can keep ignoring these problems thats fine but don't get surprised of we start leaving, we like you, a lot, were saying these things because we care, we can only hope you care back.

[Yehuda D.]

@XionicFire 👏👏👏