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Tom_M's avatar
Tom_M
Helpful | Level 6
10 years ago
Status:
Investigating

Add .dropboxignore directory to exclude folders without using selective sync

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

Desktop
Sync
  • M S.27's avatar
    M S.27
    New member | Level 1
    9 years ago

    The most-upvoted community thread has become a list of alternative services to Dropbox because the dev team does not care.  I'm sure they see it and think "200 idiots can't find the Selective Sync feature, how sad"

    Your Selective Sync folder checkbox tree is not as convenient or flexible as having an ignore file.

    Hereis some pseudo code for the feature:


    for( filename in files )
      if( ignoreFileGlobPattern.matches( filename )
        // do not sync the file!
      else
        // sync the file!

    // wow! that was tough! Time for a vacation!

    I won't consider upgrading, and will actively deter anyone from using Dropbox unless this is added.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Jan P.12's avatar
    Jan P.12
    New member | Level 1
    9 years ago

    You know what's quite ironic? Wherever this post is stored - it's quite obvious in Dropbox' ignore folder.
    Personally I have given up on this and probably so should you.

  • Xav.Danp's avatar
    Xav.Danp
    New member | Level 2
    9 years ago

    Obviously Dropbox will continue to ignore their customers.

    This thread is almost 2 years old,but there's still no clear-cut answer.
    So Dropbox, please, give us a straight answer: are you planning or not to implement a way to ignore a list of files based on extension, pattern matching or whatever ?

    If you don't know how to do it, you may have a look on Owncloud client (https://doc.owncloud.org/desktop/2.1/navigating.html).
    Since you are using Qt too you may just copy/paste their "Ignored Files Editor".
    If it's too much of work, consider to open source your client. We will be happy to do it (for free. "Free" as in "You don't have to pay")

    If you are not going to do it, tell us and close this thread.

    Cheers. 

  • Christian K.24's avatar
    Christian K.24
    New member | Level 1
    10 years ago

    Hi,

    I am using Dropbox 3.2.6 for Windows. Dropbox offers the possibility to exclude certain folders from synchronization. I suggest that there is added a functionality to exclude certain files from synchronization.

    Dropbox excludes already certain system files such as desktop.ini. These are Windows system files... other software might add to the list of files that should not be synchronized. For instance, Thunderbird creates a file parent.lock in order to avoid that a second version of Thunderbird is started in parallel. This file is locked and may not be touched: it leads to a synchronization failure. It would be great if I could edit the list of files not to by synchronized and add files such as parent.lock

    Best
    Chris

    • Mike K.30's avatar
      Mike K.30
      New member | Level 1
      10 years ago

      Sigh. Okay, Christian, I figured out how to do this (but it isn't intuitive and it really still ought to be added to DB.

      Here are the steps to take to make DB selective sync a file (it's a bit of a kludge but let's hope DB never removes it):

      To exclude FILES, not folders, from Dropbox, there is a trick you can do:

      Move the file somewhere else

      Create a folder with the same name in place of the file

      Go to Dropbox selective sync options and ignore the folder, this will also delete it

      Move the file back in place

      I got this from a superuser forum and it makes sense -- and in some way I understand why DB works like this. But it would be SO much easier if DB just had an option when you right clicked a file in your folder (either in the desktop app or the browser app) where you could choose not to have that particular file synced without having to go through this process.

    • Erik P.7's avatar
      Erik P.7
      New member | Level 1
      10 years ago

      +1 for this feature. Would be nice if we can exclude files by using filters.

      I have some Word documents on my dropbox. When I edit the file, Word creates a temporary file which is also sync'd and not deleted when I close the file again.

    • Mike K.30's avatar
      Mike K.30
      New member | Level 1
      10 years ago

      If you're talking about using the workaround I mentioned, no, you don't leave that folder in place.  As I noted, you just temporarily create such a folder and then exclude it.  Dropbox automatically deletes that folder.

      It's a PITA, though, so Dropbox really needs to include this capability.