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.

[lumiera]

I use music production software (Ableton) that constantly creates a number of temporary and/or generated files in my projects' folders. While I want the project folders themselves to be synced to my Dropbox, it is wasteful of bandwidth and space for these files to be synced and I would like to simply be able to tell Dropbox to ignore these directories (even better would be by a path pattern that includes the file name and supports wildcards).

[zsiegel]

I also have been wanting this feature for years. I have avoided Dropbox and used a custom sync/backup solution that is very hacky until recently. Now I have to use Dropbox for my work, and am remembering this problem from years ago. Please, please support this request, Dropbox!

[ajaymdesai]

+1

[Lars P.3]

GoodSync seems to work perfectly with filters easy to set up to exclude certain folders. It is also reasonably priced. It can synchronize to the cloud, using Dropbox, Azure, Mega, Backblaze, Box, OneDrive, Amazon S3 and many more. 

edit: After having played around with GoodSync, I dropped it again. It worked, but it used up to and our analysing the drive. I tried using Dropbox and OneDrive as the cloud solution. It might work just fine with their own cloud.

[hardcodet]

Another of those days where a script deleted and recreated my "ignored" node_modules folder, which then triggers a cascade of syncs across all devices, causing them to go havoc and requiring me to invest about an hour to clean that s*** up. I'm literally cursing at myself for not having given Dropbox the boot when it came to renewing in spring because I thought there was progress. I'm moving myself and my team outta here. Seriously guys, it's been years now for something so fundamental. Just give peple a .ignore file.

[David L.31]

Yup, me too. I've heard good things from colleagues about syncthing.net—seems like a good option, and has `.stignore` options with globbing, much like `.gitignore`.

[hardcodet]

Ah yes, and in case any Dropbox people are reading here:

You can't even ignore a folder while syncing is paused. So I can't even run my code with paused syncing and then ignore, but have to either

- create empty root folders and sync those first before ignoring and then populating them. And don't forget to sync-pause all other devices in order to avoid conflicts with their own ignored "node_modules" folder.

- if they are automatically deleted and scripted, I have to
  - pause all other devices
  - run my code
  - wait for Dropbox to sync the 40K files to the cloud
  - then mark the folder as ignored
  - wait for the files to be deleted from the cloud
  - re-enabling syncing for all other devices
  - smile peacefully about that great solution 😉

[maku77]

+1

[sp1thas]

Hi all,

I've recently implemented the dropboxignore which is a simple shell script that ignores files using file patterns. .dropboxignore  files can be generated based on existing .gitignore files and the matched files will be ignored from dropbox. The shell scipt provides various functionalities in order to ignore files or revert ignored files through a simple CLI. Hope to find it usefull. Any feedback is welcome.

NOTE: dropboxignore is currently available only for Linux and MacOS.

[Lars P.3]

Goodsync seemed to work, but it is incredibly slow if you have many files and use either Dropbox or OneDrive as a cloud drive. It might be fast with their own cloud solution.

pCloud seems to be fast and it is very easy to exclude folders. Under Sync -> Advanced, just add the folder name, eg node_modules, and it will skip the folder. 

Another product that has implemented a .syncignore file is KOOFR. it seems to be working quite well and is just what Dropbox should have implemented https://koofr.eu/blog/posts/advanced-ways-to-exclude-files-from-sync

Koofr has some REALLY good lifetime deals at the moment, https://stacksocial.com/sales/koofr-cloud-storage-plans-lifetime-subscription-1tb?aid=a-9elzb748