How to unsync folders?

[KathleenWT]

Hello!

I love Dropbox and have purchased extra space to make sure I can store all my files.

However, I have a new problem. I'm a fledgling translator, and after syncing some of my translations to Dropbox, I discovered that most translation clients refuse to allow a freelance translator to store company files in the cloud. I need to be able to unsync my translation folders so that, from now on, nothing new will get synced.

In addition to the legal confidentiality agreements which forbid the use of all cloud services, the software I use to translate (Trados Studio 2022) becomes extremely buggy when using files that sync.

Please tell me how to unsync specific folders so that they only update on my local drive. It's rather urgent.

Thank you in advance for your help! -- Kathleen

[KathleenWT]

I just had a thought. If I were to rename the folders on my computer, would that be a simple way to stop them from syncing?

[Rich]

---

@KathleenWT wrote:

Please tell me how to unsync specific folders so that they only update on my local drive.

---

You can just move the folders outside of your Dropbox folder so they doesn't sync. If you must store the folders in Dropbox, you can tell Dropbox to ignore them but you'll need to use PowerShell or Terminal to do it.

• https://help.dropbox.com/sync/ignored-files

[KathleenWT]

I tried the PowerShell method, and it didn't work. The folder and its files still show green checkmarks, instead of gray with a minus sign.

Now what? Any other ideas?

Thanks very much!

[KathleenWT · Accepted solution]

I just came up with another workaround, and I think this one will work. I'm very lucky because I have a D:\ drive that I haven't yet used for anything. Maybe I could put my translation files there and come up with a local form of backup, and then I could continue to use Dropbox for everything else. 

Any thoughts? This should work, right?