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Ignored Item Conflict

Needing help understanding what (Ignored Item Conflict) means. When resyncing DB has created duplicate folders on my HD with (Ignored Item Conflict) after some the folder names. This is creating a huge problem as I'm trying to remove folders fom my HD to FREE UP space and have certain folders offline on DP...not on my HD. Now DB has actually duplicated the files and I have even less HD storgae available.

Some of these "duplicate" (Ignored Item Conflict) folders have older dates than the originals and some of them have newer dates. So I can't easily tell what to keep and what to delete.

DP Support has not been any help in helping me understand this mess I now have on my HD. I'm looking for a "dumbed" down explanation that won't send me in the circles that DP Support has me going in 🙂

Thanks!

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Comments

Walter

Hi @macbero - happy Monday!

I'm not really sure what's going on here, but I'll be glad to have a look for you.

Can you send me a screenshot of how this looks like on your end so I can have a visual too?

While at it, can you also send me the exact status of the desktop app as shown within your computer's system tray/menu bar? Is it 'up to date' or still syncing?

Last but not least, what does your events page report in regards to the mentioned conflicts?

Let me know what you find and we'll take it from there.

macbero

Hi Walter!

Thanks so much for your reply and for your help in getting this all resolved.

I've attached screen captures of the DP with the original and Ignored Item Conflict folders highlighted. I have searched here on DP for the exact term "Ignored Item Conflict" and come up empty. So that's why I've reach out here to the community :-)

On my System/Tray Menu Bar I've been leary to ENABLE SMART SYNC for fear of the additional damage I may do to my file and folders. There was a time when you could SYNC individual folders on DP but now when I go to do this DP says that any files NOT selected in the sync window will NOT show up any longer on my new imac HD. Yikes! I definitely do not want my non-shared HD DP files disappearing or being deleted from my HD when I do a sync/update. Obvioulsy I'm very confused. DP Support has been trying to help me with my SYNC questions but I'm only more confused by their replies.

Lastly... I have looked at the EVENTS page but I share a very large folder with an associate and there are soooo many events since we are both uploading numerous files daily. Is there a way to do a CONFLICT SEARCH on the EVENTS page?

Looking forward to your reply :-) DB Screen Capture.png DB SysTray Menu.png

Walter

Thanks for the additional details here @macbero!

Could these be symlinks to actual files/folders?

I'm not sure if this is the case here, but I will like you to try something for me to see if we can find the culprit. Here are the steps I'll need you to take:

Open your Terminal app located at /Applications/Utilities/Terminal.
Copy and paste the command line below and press Enter on your keyboard.

find ~/Dropbox -type l -exec ls -lah {} \;

This should give you a list of symlinks in your Dropbox folder and where they point to. if I'm correct in my assumption. The list the command provides shows you the full file path to every symlink in your account.

If that's the case indeed, I'd recommend that you remove these symlinks from your Dropbox account by following the file paths that are provided when you run the command, and remove the files in your Dropbox folder by dragging them elsewhere on your computer (if you don't want them deleted).

After you've removed all of the symlinks you can identify from the Terminal command, please quit Terminal, open it again, and run the command again to ensure that no symlinks remain in your Dropbox folder.

Keep me posted on your findings!

macbero

Hi Walter - I really do appreciate your help, but this suggestion feels like it's way beyond my "pay grade" (LOL) Your instructions are easy to follow but...

The folders with the (Ignored Item Conflict) appeared after I re-synced to my dropbox. I'm not clear why they would be links. They're actual folders filled with files that are duplicates of correspsonding named folders that I had on DB/Cloud (?). The folders on my HD/DB location had the SAME names as those on DP/Cloud. So why, when I re-synced did a NEW duplicate folder get created with the (Ignored Item Conflict) after it?

If all the folders and files names were identical, why did DB make this duplicate (Ignored Item Conflict) folder? Isn't it smart enough to even recognize that the folders on DB/cloud (?) are the same as the ones on my DB/HD location?

What would I do with the infomation that I'd learn from a list of symlinks in my Dropbox folder? Would,they help me figure out which folder I can delete so that I can get back some much needed HD space?

When I check my DB through a web browser, none of these (Ignored Item Conflict) folders are even there! So if I delete the wrong one from my HD/DB location, then I will loose all my files! That won't be bad unless I wind up deleting the wrong folder.

I also don't want this to keep happening if I enable SMART SYNC.

What is worrisome is that even when I search DB Help I can't find any information about (Ignored Item Conflict) folders. All my searches come up empty. Nada. No hits at all. I would think that there would be at least a refernce to this issue.

I've been using DB since it's releae date in 2008 and I've never run into this.

nicolasld

I'm also a longtime dropbox user and I've also just found for the first time an "ignored item conflict" in two folders that appear to have partially copied contents from the non-conflict folder. Have you heard any explanation what this conflict is?

macbero

I wish I would have received an explanantion. So far all the help and suggestions I've received from DP, via their Twitter support, has me going in circles. They can't even tell me what "ignored item conflict" means.

This was their LATEST reply...

Hi again. To ensure that you have all the latest versions of your files, you will need to check them all manually. This means looking through all your files, and keeping the versions that you want. Now, once you’ve ensured that you have all the latest versions of your files, you can delete the old, to avoid any further confusion. At this point, when you are sure that you have all your current files, and they all show up in your account online, we would suggest starting fresh by removing all Dropbox items from your computer, and uninstalling our app. This will allow you to install our app anew, and make your Selective or Smart Sync settings during the installation process. When you’ve sorted through your file, and are ready to proceed with a brand new install, let us know, and we’ll help you through it!

Can you even image having to do this with well over 5000 files! My 1TB HD is a BIG mess and I'm almost out of room on it. My plans is to copy over all these files (boith the original folds as well as the "Ignored item conflict" folders to an external HD and give up on DB. I've also seriously looked into using pCloud so I can give up on DB. It's crazy that they can't provide any solution or explanation.

I've attcahed a screen shot of one of their other recos too. May this will help you. And if you get any other help or answer that makes sense to you, please let me know. Thanks!

btischler

I have this same problem. Has it been resolved?

btischler

Walter

I have this same Ignored Item Conflict. I have used DB since the beginnig and this is the first time I have seen this?

Is there an easy way to fix this?

macbero

No, sorry to say that unfortuately it has not been resolved yet. I'm still waiting for them to explain to me why it happened or what it means to have folders created with (Ignored Item Conflict). :-(

Deborah M.13

In the same boat. looking for an alternative to dropbox. What a mess. I use dropbox to save time not to use more time. These conflict messages have appeared with folders I haven't touched in some time. Frustrating to say the least.

Fai

3x30GB folders 'ignored item conflict' folders appeared this morning. Tempted to just renamed them and move them off the HD but keep them on DP under the new names.

Walter

Hi all; I hope this finds you well!

I'm sorry for the delay in responding to you; I just wanted to give you some additional context on this as I checked back internally with the team.

This is what I found:

Ignored item conflicts are most likely generated when you add a folder to the web with the same pathway as something that is locally ignored. When a file/folder with the same name is synced down to a computer at the same pathway as an ignored file/folder with the same name, the ignore conflict is generated.

As you probably know, the Ignored Item Conflicts you are seeing are files created from files becoming conflicted preventing users from any form of data loss. Essentially they are a fail-safe like the majority of our conflicted files.

For the ignored item conflicts, check the files/folders and see if they are empty. If they are, delete them. If there is data inside any of the files, rename them or compare them with the originals to see which file has the most up to date work. Then just delete the extra files that aren't needed.

I hope this information helps!

jar-_-

I am gonna say what everyone else is thinking.....that is a poor solution support offered.

I have 1000's of folders, do you think I really have time to rename the folders and analyze the contents.

Kengra

I've got the same issue hopefully it gets resolved soon

ESA NZ

I have the same issue on one of the computers syncing to my account for the first time ever.

Deborah M.13

Ditto - lots of folders and the explanation offered does not add up - no one else is working on these folders and as noted above this has occurred with folders I haven't touched in some time.

plumbdogmillionaire

Hey guys,

I had this issue too where I had folders saying item conflict and think I've just resolved it.

Turns out I essentially had at some point copied folders so there was more than one of the exact same thing in my Dropbox which it didn't seem to like.

I got rid of the copies and now it looks like everything is syncing online nicely.

Hope this helps.

Camilla