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.

[Daphne]

Hey @sagarisms, thanks for sharing your thoughts here!

I just wanted to jump in and mention that perhaps Smart Sync would be the feature you're looking for.

It allows you to see your full file structure in your local Dropbox folder, without taking space on your hard drive.

I hope this helps!

[sagarisms]

Hi @Daphne, thank you. I will check it out.

Having said that, it's odd that I don't know about this feature even though I am a Dropbox loyalist.

It might help if new features/changes/updates are socialised through optional/consensual on-boarding. 

🙏🏽

[Daphne]

Thanks for getting back to us here @sagarisms!

This is a feature available with our paid subscriptions, and has been for quite a while now.

I appreciate your feedback though and I've made a note of this.

If you have any other questions or need assistance with anything else, I'd suggest starting a new discussion here.

Have a great day - cheers!

[borkdude]

@Daphne 

I tried the following on Mac:

xattr -w com.dropbox.ignored 1 target

But nothing changed in Finder:

[Daphne]

Hey @borkdude!

This isn't available to all users just yet since it's still in beta, as mentioned here.

You can follow this thread to make sure you stay up to date with news on this.

Cheers!

[adamL]

Following.

[Wolfgang B.11]

+1

[fcoclavero]

+1

[oouomaster]

+1

[digiwombat]

@Daphne Any word on when this is coming out of beta? Or is at least rolling out wide with an optional/experimental checkbox or something?