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.

[Ed]

Hello all,

Just want to update this again to inform that there're currently no plans to implement such feature. There are several workarounds to solve this (for example moving the folder out of your Dropbox folder or using Selective Sync).

Thanks everyone for the passion and constant feedback.

[Adrien L.]

Wow.
Well, I'll stop using dropbox then. 

[Steve S.86]

"There are several workarounds to solve this" "Condescending" and "untrue" are two of the more polite adjectives that could be used to describe this comment from the castle in the clouds. So, back to trying other solutions....

[Jason R. C.]

So disappointing. Workarounds include not using Dropbox or using another cloud service. What a disgrace that a feature so widely and fervently requested would be declined with such an obviously ignorant reply.

It would be one thing if there were a technical hurdle preventing implementing this request. But simply declining the request without even acknowledging the use cases that fail to be met is a real kick in the face.

Dropbox will probably do just fine without expert users, but I for one will bemoan Dropbox and refer colleagues and friends to other services.

[Tom_M]

@Ed Thanks for the reply. Took a little longer than I might have hoped to come to that conclusion. 3.5 years to be exact.

I concur with all other folk that the workarounds are not a practical solution. Workarounds are generally temporary and can be tolerated until there is a real fix. We now know the real fix is not coming. 

I can't deny that Dropbox has me well and truly snared due to the fact that I have so many shared folders with other people, but if I can convince all of them to go elsewhere then I'm sorted.

Thanks to the many thousands of people who supported this proposal. We tried our best.

Tom

[Racsoth]

Well, all I can say is that I'm greatly disappointed. I'm a really happy Dropbox Plus user, but this particular feature has become a necessity for me. I was hoping something changed before my DB Plus year ends next month, but this wasn't the change I was expecting.

Now, the thing is: does another service with this feature (ideally, ".gitignore" style) actually exist?

[imcodingideas]

Well, Dropbox did make a choice, and so have I. I'm in the progress of moving just enough of stuff off of Dropbox to cancel my paid subscription.  Not, that anyone would care.

[Rodd]

So... Which are the best options for a Dropbox alternative who really cares for its advanced users? Does anyone have a good list?

[shivallva81]

In my case, I have lot of videos, pdfs, zips, but I want to sync only the images on to other machines. So, I look for mimetype or wildcard based sync option.

[bader1]

In git you can igonre certain files & folders from being synced ...

Can we have this feature please ?