Dropbox Ignore: A Guide to Excluding Folders from Sync

Dropbox Ignore is a feature that allows you to exclude certain folders from syncing to your Dropbox account.

You can use Dropbox Ignore to exclude folders that you don't need to sync, such as system folders or large media files.

To use Dropbox Ignore, you'll need to create a .dropbox folder in the root directory of your computer.

This folder will contain a list of files and folders that you want to exclude from syncing.

Dropbox Ignore is a feature that allows you to organize files and folders in the Dropbox folder on your computer without storing them on Dropbox.com or on the Dropbox server at all.

You can set a file or folder to be "ignored" by Dropbox using the Terminal application on your computer. To do this, you need to type `xattr -w com.dropbox.ignored 1` followed by the location of the file.

This feature has been in beta for a while, and it's surprising that Dropbox took 12 years to introduce it.

The ignored file remains where it is in your Dropbox folder and is synced to your computer's hard drive, but it's deleted from the Dropbox server and your other devices, can't be accessed on Dropbox.com, and won't sync to your Dropbox account.

Here are some key points to keep in mind when using the Dropbox Ignore feature:

Dropbox has finally introduced an "Ignore" feature in beta, allowing you to keep files and folders in your Dropbox folder without syncing them online.

This feature is available in the Terminal application, where you can set a file or folder to be "ignored" by Dropbox. To do this, you'll need to type a specific command, which involves using the xattr command.

The command is xattr -w com.dropbox.ignored 1, followed by the location of the file next to that. This will remove the file from all other devices and the Dropbox server.

However, some users have pointed out that using a .dropboxignore file would be a more robust solution. This would allow you to exclude files by pattern, rather than individually, and would be more platform-agnostic.

According to the help article, once a file is ignored, it will remain in your Dropbox folder, but will be deleted from the Dropbox server and your other devices. It won't be accessible on dropbox.com and won't sync to your Dropbox account.

If you add a file back without the xattr on another device at the same path, the ignored file on the first device will likely get renamed with a deconflicted name, and the file at that path will be the synced version.