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.

[nickyhajal]

Here is how MEGAsync handles this, which is literally perfect.

Maybe those that use pCloud and other services can share those screenshots to help Dropbox figure how to implement this feature that other services have supported for quite awhile.

[Здравко]

There is a lot of headaches related to currently available feature about either the meaning of the term or how it's implemented and working. What is the meaning of "Ignored"? 🤔 Let take a look here:

Once ignored, the file or folder remains where it is in your Dropbox folder on your computer’s hard drive, but it’s deleted from the Dropbox server and your other devices, can’t be accessed on dropbox.com, and won’t sync to your Dropbox account.

Strange, is the action "delete"-something matching with "ignored"-something? 🤔 I don't think so.

Other consideration: Is "ignore" mean that any change should be ignored completely? Is this mean Dropbox application doesn't observe any change? Also, a change in the cloud might be ignored, if matched local entry gets ignored. 🤔 Is this work so? Rhetorical questions, of course!

About the implementation: How could be ignored a entry (file or directory) which will be available in future or periodically could be removed and reappear again? Attributes only appear on existing files and get gone together with the corresponding file (i.e. no way). In many cases in one directory' tree could be available files, target of sync, and other, usually temporary caches, which have to be ignored. Such case could be extremely difficult to manage. Such situations could appear mostly in development projects, but also a temporary files get "fired" using a text processing applications and other everyday tools. It's very tedious and can engage a huge traffic for meaningless sync (sometimes destructive)!

The solution: Should not be so difficult a filter for files and/or folders to be implemented in the application settings. 😉 Good place could be "Sync" tab in "Dropbox Preferences". Here could be a table, for example, where different types of filtering criteria would be filled. Good criteria could be simple path (either absolute or relative to the Dropbox root), simple file/folder name template (using special symbol, like star-*, for example) or just particular extension, powerfull option could be regular expression, ... and others. Users will fill all needed criteria, as much as needed for every criteria type available. Just noted options are good enough for start. This list could extends over time, according customers needs/queries.

Current try for solution could be left for back compatibility, but is unusable in many cases! That's why - Please, Reconsider it.

[Damato]

We have been advocating for this for years.

The proposed solution is the .dropboxignore file. It does not have to be fancy, but since .gitignore is a standard for repositories, for sync it would breathe life into a problem that despirately needs as solution, and has needed one for many years. Just ignore any path specified in the file, relative to the file. Don't tough it, don't even index it, it is going to change so allow me to tell you to ignore it.

I had to sit through a sync of 5000+ files last night because the command line "solution" did not work, and I ended up with a conflicted "node_modules" folder. Great way to waste everyone's time.

References to simlilar requests/comments to show we are not exaggerating:

• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-ideas/Ignore-folder-without-selective-sync/idi-p/5926/
• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-ideas/Reconsidering-quot-Ignored-quot-feature/idi-p/453560
• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/How-to-manually-stop-sync-of-a-folder-but-stil...
• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-installs-integrations/Feedback-on-the-new-desktop-app-quot-i...
• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/I-don-t-see-the-option-to-ignore-a-folder-with...
• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-Business-ideas/Exclude-temp-files-from-sync-by-pattern-exten...

[Damato]

We just want the proposed solution for the .dropboxignore file.

It does not have to be fancy, but since .gitignore is a standard for repositories, for sync it would breathe life into a problem that definitely needs as solution, and has needed one for many years. Just ignore any path specified in the file, relative to the file. Don't tough it, don't even index it, it is going to change so allow me to tell you to ignore it.

I had to sit through a sync of 5000+ files last night because the command line "solution" did not work, and I ended up with a conflicted "node_modules" folder. Great way to waste everyone's time. 

References to simlilar requests/comments to show we are not exaggerating:

• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-ideas/Ignore-folder-without-selective-sync/idi-p/5926/
• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-ideas/Reconsidering-quot-Ignored-quot-feature/idi-p/453560
• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/How-to-manually-stop-sync-of-a-folder-but-stil...
• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-installs-integrations/Feedback-on-the-new-desktop-app-quot-i...
• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-files-folders/I-don-t-see-the-option-to-ignore-a-folder-with...
• https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/Dropbox-Business-ideas/Exclude-temp-files-from-sync-by-pattern-exten...

[alamaral]

YES!!!     PLEASE DO IT LIKE .gitignore does and STOP with the lousy hacks that don't work!

The inability to ignore files by pattern is making Dropbox absolutely unusable for me.  I too have moved all my development trees off of Dropbox and I now sync my trees across multiple machines using gitlab, which works great, but is another manual step that I shouldn't have to do, and is the reason why I use Dropbox in the first place...

Between the lack of a proper ignore feature, the Case Conflicts (stupid case insensitivity, please come into the 21st century!) and Selective Sync Conflicts, using Dropbox for Linux/Unix/Mac development is just outright PAINFUL and worse than useless.

[karliwalti]

How can one prevent dropbox from sync specific filetypes (across all folders) like temporary files from processes running in folders that are synched by dropbox (i.e. *.aux or *.log files from a latex build)?

The new selective synch feature can ignore individual files (https://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/restore-delete/ignored-files), but I do not see how to ignore file groups...

[antokhio]

Hi, would like to suggest a feture request.

I think that it wold be helpfull for developers, adding some sort of .dropignore or to make dropbox use .gitignore files.

I Have few repositorys in dropbox, that are using npm modules, and cache for a game projects.

I don't want to make dropbox take every file change in this folders, this would make more scence to have that per machine... 

However i can't find way to build up that routine automaticaly... Maybe there is also a feture that already does that? 

[Daphne]

Hi there @antokhio, thanks for posting here!

Would this feature do the trick for you? It's not exactly what you suggested, but it would give the same end result.

Let me know if this helps!

[corylulu]

@Daphne Why are you still recommending this when we keep telling you why it's useless? For how many YEARS are you going to totally ignore the CLEAR issues that we have REPEATEDLY listed it's problems? This is a SOLVED problem, JUST IMPLEMENT .dropboxignore. Not some hacky solution that takes a ton of work AND doesn't actually work how we need it to AND still eats our CPU indexing the files. Stop just stringing us along saying "your listening" every few months and not doing anything because you clearly aren't if you're still pitching this attribute solution.

[digiwombat]

Seconded. And I'm not trying to sound mean with the following paragraphs, but I want to state things plainly.

At this point I basically spend a day every month checking out Dropbox alternatives because the idea that the solution they've put out is a solution at all is a joke and there seems to be no movement on one of the single most requested features from professionals in a business oriented product.

This problem has been solved so many times by so many other services and pieces of software that it's insane that we're here asking for a real version instead of it just being done. I get that some developer though folder attributes (invisible to the user and impossible to verify and edit easily) were novel or elegant or something, but it straight doesn't work. That "feature" does not supply the required, requested functionality. It is non viable. It's awful UX, and on top of being cumbersome it doesn't persist.

Please just talk to the developers, tell them their solution does not please anyone and to just implement a proven solution with a track record that spans many years and multiple different products (including other cloud storage products like Backblaze, Mega, and plenty of others)