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Tom_M
10 years agoHelpful | Level 6
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
- Marco F.19New member | Level 1
+100 Why isn't this a thing yet? Does dropbox even read this?
- Muhammad J.6New member | Level 1
+1 for this feature. We desperately need this.
- eddie j.New member | Level 1
This has been around for almost a year. They are not serious about it. I suggest you look at alternatives. I am currently investigating OwnCloud and it looks quite good. DigitalOcean have a prebuilt VM to be up in 1 minute and doesn't cost much at all.
Its a shame that DropBox have dropped the ball on this.
- Brad B.23New member | Level 2
I've tried MEGA but their software is not as good quality. With that said, this is definitely causing me to look for other syncing providers, and I am a paying Dropbox customer.
Poor form on their part to not even respond to an issue that is more than a year old, and has a ton of requests.
- Guido Walter P.New member | Level 2
Hi guys,
I found a workaround to have Dropbox ignore the content of a folder; credits go to Raymond of the Unofficial Dropbox Wiki:These steps will help you exclude a folder from syncing:
- Lets say you have a folder that you want to exclude called NON_CLOUD.
- We first create an empty folder that is renamed to NON_CLOUD and place it into Dropbox.
- Then, we use selective sync to unsync that folder: https://help.dropbox.com/syncing-uploads/selective-sync-overview
- Next, move your actual NON_CLOUD folder into the previous location of the empty NON_CLOUD folder.
- That folder will have a grey circle with a “minus” sign and will not be synced to Dropbox.
It is not ideal but it does work for me.
Cheers,
Guido - Brad B.23New member | Level 2
Nice, but I don't think this will work with auto-generating folders like node_modules, right?
- Guido Walter P.New member | Level 2
I am not a Node.js developer, but I think this trick will work for any folder with a given name.
For example, if I create an empty folder named node_modules, unsync it with selective sync, and then recreate it, its content will be ignored by Dropbox.
It is like having a .dropboxignore setting with a pattern exactly matching the folder name and nothing else. - Johnny W.2Helpful | Level 7
Selective sync isn't an ideal solution for this, but I might try your solution, Guido.
All we need is just a simple regular expression hidden away for advanced users would be a god send. Waiting for 2000+ tiny files to upload from the `node_modules` folder is infuriating.
I'm also a paying user.
Can someone get in touch with DB directly, I wonder?
- Johnny W.2Helpful | Level 7
To all those who want this feature: Don't forget to UPVOTE the ORIGINAL POST on the first page!
- mym___New member | Level 1
+100500
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