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I don't see the option to ignore a folder within my right click's context menu. Any ideas?

According to https://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/restore-delete/ignored-files there should be a "Don’t sync to dropbox.com" option. I don't see it. I'm not a business user. I'm using Windows 10 with Dropbox v101.4.434. What am I doing wrong?

This is what I see:

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Walter

Hi @Antriel; welcome to our Community and thanks for using Dropbox!

For starters, let me clarify that this option is available when viewing your files through our new desktop app and not through your File Explorer (or Finder for Macs).

That said, this feature is gradually rolling out to all of our users so you might want to use the alternative method to set a file/folder to be ignored:

Windows

Open the PowerShell application on your computer.
Type the code below, replacing the file/folder path placeholder with the file/folder path you’d like to ignore.

Set-Content -Path 'C:\Users\yourname\Dropbox\ (Personal)/YourFileName.pdf' -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1

3. Press enter on your keyboard.

The icon beside your file or folder will change to a gray minus sign indicating that it has been ignored.

Let me know how it goes!

All comments

Walter

Hi @Antriel; welcome to our Community and thanks for using Dropbox!

For starters, let me clarify that this option is available when viewing your files through our new desktop app and not through your File Explorer (or Finder for Macs).

That said, this feature is gradually rolling out to all of our users so you might want to use the alternative method to set a file/folder to be ignored:

Windows

Open the PowerShell application on your computer.
Type the code below, replacing the file/folder path placeholder with the file/folder path you’d like to ignore.

Set-Content -Path 'C:\Users\yourname\Dropbox\ (Personal)/YourFileName.pdf' -Stream com.dropbox.ignored -Value 1

3. Press enter on your keyboard.

The icon beside your file or folder will change to a gray minus sign indicating that it has been ignored.

Let me know how it goes!

Antriel

Hi Walter, I was using the desktop app, so I guess I have to wait until it becomes available to me too. The manual approach worked though, thanks.

Walter

Hey @Antriel; thanks for keeping me in the loop; I'm glad to hear it worked for you and thanks for your interest in this feature.

Have a wonderful weekend ahead and if you ever come up with a Dropbox question, just give us a nudge here.

Cheers!

Small Systems

Hello, I am also having this proble. The ingore feature is listed on your website here: https://help.dropbox.com/files-folders/restore-delete/ignored-files

If it is not available to all users you should state that on the page. I have been going back and forth with support to try and get this fixed for me, but with no sucess so far. Can someone please clarify, should all users be seeing this feature within the app?

Thank you

Daphne

Hey there @Small Systems, thanks for joining the topic!

To do this through the right click menu, you'll need to open the desktop app interface as it's this is not possible through the Finder/File Explorer at the moment.

Could you clarify for me if you're taking this action through the app itself? If so, please send along a screenshot of the options that you see there.

Let me know if this helps!

Small Systems

Hi, yes i'm doing this through the app, this is the menu that I get:

Screenshot 2020-09-01 at 16.06.30.png

paxos

Same here. Its gone for me, and it was there before.

This is definitly a bug.

Jay

Thanks for the info, @Small Systems, @paxos. I'd recommend contacting the support team directly for further assistance on this matter, as they'll be able to investigate in more detail.

Small Systems

I did, and they couldn't help at all...

See my ticket #11204247

Jay

Since it looks like the ticket is with a specialist team, only they would be able to assist further on this matter. I've prioritized the ticket to expedite matters on your behalf.

Small Systems

Hello Jay,

Seriously, what's going on with this. Dropbox is a paid service and a feature you advertise simply does not work. The last reply on my open ticket for this was 26 days ago...

Thank you,

Jay

As this is with a specialist team I wouldn't be able to assist any further, unfortunately. I'd recommend replying to the ticket directly for an update.

Damato

We just want the proposed sollution for the .dropboxignore file.

It does not have to be fancy, but since .gitignore is a standard for repositories, for sync it would breathe life into a problem thatdespirately needs as sollution, and has needed one for many years. Just ignore any path specified in the file, relative to the file. Don't tough it, don't even index it, it is going to change so allow me to tell you to ignore it.

I had to sit through a sync of 5000+ files last night because the command line "sollution" did not work, and I ended up with a conflicted "node_modules" folder. Great way to waste everyone's time.

Never has a company ignored it's clients to this extent, even Drew Houston has received tweets regarding this.

Small Systems

So the latest from my support ticket is:

"It looks like at present the feature is not available and currently working on a fix for this to be released out."

So, the right-click to ignore feature (mentioned on the help page) is not a feature...

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

Oh well

Small Systems

FYI anyone here because of node_modules. Before installing your packages, manually create a node_modules folder and use the command line to ignore it. Once it has been ignored (grey icon with line) you can then install your node packages and DropBox will not index or sync them. It's a bit of a hassle but it works.

Damato

I am getting so fed up with this situation, we have complained until we are blue in the face. If not for the huge commitment of moving everything over to Dropbox years ago, and the hassle of implementing an alternative.

I have no idea how this can just be disregarded, or put on the back burner without internal repercussions. It's probably one of the most requested features I have stumbled across, which may be confirmation bias.

Just goes to show that if the developer used it at home, they would have fixed it years ago already.

defaria

Great to know that support is dropping the ball... sigh

Meantime this doesn't work at all for me. First off, I'm on Linux and no person on Linux has ever used a path such as "/Users/yourname/Dropbox\ $Personal$/YourFileName.pdf". User's home directories do not go under /Users. That's Mac thing.

Second, after doing:

$ attr -s com.dropbox.ignored -V 1 /home/andrew/Dropbox/web

the directory "web" is not ignored. It still appears on the Dropbox websites and apps that sync to Dropbox.

Finally, this **bleep** forum site hoses my Brave browser! If I hover over things like the ordered list dropdown or the 3 dot menu in the formatting menubar Brave and the X server go nuts, Brave stops responding and I have to kill the browser. Not good. Apparently, the JavaScript involved in that menuing bar is messed up.

Meantime, please tell me how to ignore Dropbox files and folders on Linux. Do not point me to some desktop app - there is no desktop app for Linux. The "desktop app" merely installs the Dropbox daemon to sync things and added some minimum functionality to Nautilus (Linux's version of say Windows File Manager). There is no separate app and there is no "Ignore this file/folder" in the right click menu of Nautilus.

$ attr -s com.dropbox.ignored -V 1 /Users/yourname/Dropbox\ $Personal$/YourFileName.pdf

hollymacdonald

Is this still the solution?

We have a team account and there's a software we use that we can't work on a network drive, so would like to have an "ignore" option so that staff can use that folder on their hard drive without worrying that it will synchronize the folder. Or is there another way to do this?

Megan

Hey @hollymacdonald, welcome to our Community!

Yes, this feature is still available and you can use it to ignore certain folders so they aren’t stored on the Dropbox server.

I hope this clarifies!