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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
973 Comments
bookplay
Helpful | Level 5

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!

AdsonCicilioti
New member | Level 2

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.

Jarrod M.
New member | Level 2

Yes please. Given that you there is no "ignore files/folders" option this would be the next best thing to use existing functionality and not have to go through the tedious menu to unsync folders like these.

iamwwc
Explorer | Level 4

I'm a NodeJs developer, I always sync my project with Dropbox.

But Nodejs have a folder called node_modules. It have so many files.

I don't want sync that folder

I have Googled. There are many same feature requests about this problem.

https://www.google.com/search?q=dropbox+don%27t+sync+node_modules

Also, there are many posts in dropbox forum.

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox/Ignore-folder-without-selective-sync/idi-p/5926

I have send email to Dropbox support. They always doing "considering it and thanks for your feature request"

I'm tired.

We just want a function like ".gitignore" called ".dropboxignore", support regx.

Git with Github(Bitbucket) handle images or another file type not well.

Did dropbox web developers don't use dropbox to sync their codes?

Could Dropbox will solve our requests?

Daphne
Dropbox Staff
Hi there @iamwwc
 
We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts about features you would like to be available from Dropbox. I have passed your comments along to our dev team for consideration.
 
If you have any other ideas please don’t hesitate to let us know! To ensure that all requests and comments about this are tracked, I have moved your post over to the thread you mentioned. This will also help us to keep an eye on this feature request from our side too (the more the merrier)!
 
Thank you!
MarcoStamazza
Helpful | Level 5

I use Rstudio quite a lot and I work on several different projects. I keep being interrupted by an "failed to save file" error message. The Rstudio crew says this is due to  the file being locked by Dropbox synching.

Beside the stopping synsching hack, the current solution is to manually exclude from synching each directory called .Rproj.user, which is tedious. What I would love to have is either to be able to exclude automatically these directories from synching or, at least, to have an option on the (Windows) context menu for excluding them with just a click.

I know that this problem is shared by many other Rstudio + Dropbox users. I imagine the same solution for file types would be appreciated by even more users.

jbtg
New member | Level 2
This is a really annoying problem. I have projects in different places and have to choose selective sync for each one. Don't have that kind of time in my life. At the very least, allow us to batch exclude any directory with the name *\.Rproj.user
Alexander_V
Helpful | Level 5

Thousands of your users asked one feature:

Let us, your users, configure which file types dropbox should ignore via config file similar to .gitignore

You've told us hundreds of times that "you will take that idea to the developers' consideration"

Its been 5 years since the first request of that feature.

Please provide an official response from your development team and product management team:

  • Why it is not yet considered to be implemented?
  • Enumerate all the downsides of that feature for your business/tech.

The purpose of this topic is to sync your vision of your product (Dropbox) with your actual audience(users).

Thanks, A.

iamwwc
Explorer | Level 4

tired

Evernote lack markdown support for a long time, many users have left. 

Dropbox, what are you doing everyday?

Its been 5 years since the first request of that feature.

Kamik423
Explorer | Level 4

:musical_note: do something I'm giving up on you

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1,362 votes received Status: Investigating