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Exclude specific folder names with Smart Sync

I can see there's been a lot of demand for the "ignore files/folders with selective names" feature, but Dropbox is yet to consider an implementation.

Largely, what this does is (1) save on uploading unnecessary folders (such as node_modules) that take unnecessary space; and (2) save on downloading uncessary folders when adding a new device for syncing.

And by the way, Selective Sync doesn't solve this problem - as user responses have shown.

Now, there's the Smart Sync feature that solves problem #2 in some way. However, problem #1 is still there. Or does Smart Sync solve this too?

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Lusil

Hi @feliximafidon, thanks for detailed post on this, much appreciated!

Your feedback helps us improve our product and so I’ve made sure to pass your comments along to the dev team for future consideration.

I can also move this post to Share an idea so as to keep better track of it. In the mean time, if you have any other thoughts to forward, don’t hesitate to get back to us. :nerd:

Lusil

Sorry about missing the question on that one, @feliximafidon!

In general, this depends on your Smart Sync settings or, in other words, whether they are set to default on online-only or local. If you have selected for files to be online-only, then your files and folders that are being downloaded to your new device should be online-only.

I hope this helped. Let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible!

All comments

Lusil

Hi @feliximafidon, thanks for detailed post on this, much appreciated!

Your feedback helps us improve our product and so I’ve made sure to pass your comments along to the dev team for future consideration.

I can also move this post to Share an idea so as to keep better track of it. In the mean time, if you have any other thoughts to forward, don’t hesitate to get back to us. :nerd:

feliximafidon

Thank you @Lusil, for your prompt response.

I'm glad the "ignore files/folders by selective names" feature is being considered by your team, and I hope that we will find it in a soon-to-come update.

However, you did not answer my question. Or should I assume that my assumptions are true that Smart Sync doesn't solve problem #2 as highlighted in my question?

Lusil

Sorry about missing the question on that one, @feliximafidon!

I hope this helped. Let me know if you have any other questions and I’ll make sure to get back to you as soon as possible!

djm2

Yes Selective Syncing does not solve this problem at all. Been using Dropbox since the start and now that I'm doing Node development the lack of this feature has ruined the service for me. With the large number of files and sym links in the node_modules folder, syncing becomes a nuisance. I just noticed this feature request was declined. I will be leaving Dropbox. So terribly dissappointed in you! Shame on you!

Rich

@djm2 wrote:
Yes Selective Syncing does not solve this problem at all. ... With the large number of files and sym links in the node_modules folder, syncing becomes a nuisance.

Note that symlinks are NOT supported in Dropbox and can cause sync issues and loss of data. I don't know what removing a symlinked folder from Dropbox will do. Make a backup first.

Temporarily remove the node_modules folder from your Dropbox. Once Dropbox has finished syncing, create an empty node_modules folder in Dropbox and use Selective Sync to remove it. Once the folder has disappeared, move the original node_modules folder back to Dropbox. Dropbox will start to sync it, realize that one exists in your account already and will mark it with a grey icon, meaning a Selective Sync conflict. You should now have a folder in your local Dropbox folder that will not sync.

I'd suggest testing this with an unimportant folder first, as it's been a while since I last did this and things may have changed.

djm2

That's a pain to do every time I create a project. Over 850 people liked the feature request. Looking for an alternative service... I know sym links aren't supported. That's half the point! I don't want the node_modules folder synced!

doublesharp

This feature was requested at least 7 years ago and no progress has been made by Dropbox other than locking the post with 900+ comments on it asking for this functionality.

I've tried and tried and tried to make Dropbox work for my development environment with minimal success - *just* being able to ignore node_modules would make a huge improvement - so I'm ready to give up as it seems like Dropbox has no plans to implement it. Personally, I'm going to try the move over to Insync with Google Drive which has this functionality, can't be worse than locking up my CPU scanning thousands of files I don't care about :P

Use the Ignore List to Ignore files: https://help.insynchq.com/key-features-and-syncing-explained/general/use-the-ignore-list-to-ignore-files

Good luck!

djm2

Bye Bye Dropbox!! Uggg another Google service. I guess this is how they get us... by giving us the functionality we need.

topaboss

I don't understand how this has not been solved yet.

If you have local, online-only tags with smart sync why not local-only...

It makes dropbox useless for anything that creates temporary or a lot of files because we can't exclude various file types or folders. I mean, seriously, it's less work to sync less files, isn't optimization the goal?

This feature is now requested for 8 years and brought up all the time

topaboss

There seems to be a way now that's in beta, worked on windows 10 although doesn't show up as working until I pause sync and resume.

You have to navigate to folder on dropbox, hold ctrl+shift+(right click) somewhere in folder, [open powershell window here]

Then inside you copy/paste:

Set-Content -Path $Pwd -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1

So basically $Pwd is path to this location in powershell and the rest flags it somehow to ignore

This will (on next sync) put a grey minus sign on the whole folder and seems stop syncing. I've lost so many files to dropbox sync that happy at least something works. Found the solution elsewhere for files (replace $Pwd with path that includes filename at end) but I wanted a reusable script I can do quick.

Hope this helps.

Rich

@topaboss wrote:
There seems to be a way now that's in beta ...

It's all documented here:

https://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/restore-delete/ignored-files