Reassess the possibility to ignore or exclude selected OneDrive folders and files from the sync process.
It would be great to be able to ignore or exclude selected files and folders within the OneDrive folder from syncing. It has been requested a few times before and solves user problems in a variety of areas: from software developers having problems with temporary build files and node_modules folders, through users who want to ignore sync problems (or issues like waiting days for a file to upload on a slow connection) by ignoring files in sync, to users who want to ignore files and folders created by applications, especially photo applications. There are many use cases where this feature would be a solution.
It might also be the case that a feature would reduce the number of support requests and user dissatisfaction, since users would have a way to fix various issues themselves (there is probably more applicable scenarios than described above) by desyncing a file or folder causing problems.
I know this feature has been requested before, and has received the status 'not right now', therefore I have termed this request 'reassess', to determine if the 'not right now' status is still the state of this feature request. I have collected the IDs of the uservoice requests for which this feature would be a solution (listed at the end of the request), summing the votes on these requests, this feature has a total of 549 votes, which would place at about the 35th position, among other requests which have status of 'working on it' or 'thinking about it'.
Thanks for your consideration!
The IDs of the related uservoice issues are: 6988070,10720758,10932591,10778649,10954851,11301837,11344905,11654178,13452462,15748891,17236724,8026992,15017205,17169314,18429295,7290507,11625105,12915153,13541754,16044514,7927728
William Clear
shared this idea
This feature has rolled out for files (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/use-group-policy#exclude-specific-kinds-of-files-from-being-uploaded) and we are looking to expanding it to folders in the future.
339 comments
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Pelle Åstrand
commented
It's pretty strange that the DEVELOPERS at Microsoft does not see the need for this.
I have ~500 files that cannot sync in 'node_modules', '#', '_vti_*' folders that I can do NOTHING about, just stare at the errors.I google once every few months to see if there's a fix, then cry at the monitor for POOR decisions by Microsoft.
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Dr. Evil
commented
Seconded. It is very frustrating having to Stop oneDrive, set it to not sync a folder, and hope it works properly.
Currently, Onedrive insists on trying to sync my pictures library despite the fact that I have set it to not-sync, and will NEITHER let me delete it NOR re-direct the libraries shortcut to the pictures library on my device.
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Anonymous
commented
I support this: without that feature, OneDrive automatically adds a 5.5GB file I did not create myself & that I have no control upon (it is alway re-created when I delete it):
Directory of C:\Users\kowalskif\OneDrive - HP\MySavedSettings\SPECTRE13-SMBPROULTRABOOK_59390D8B_20171031\USMT\USMT
10/31/2017 12:00 PM <DIR> .
10/31/2017 12:00 PM <DIR> ..
10/31/2017 12:16 PM 5,928,479,802 USMT.MIG -
Anonymous
commented
Great idea. Badly needed.
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Bob
commented
Why does Microsoft ignore this "ignore" idea?
The action "you can put your files out of onedrive folder" is not applicable, like I wanna skip index data of sublime or I wanna skip node_modules for my project, they all should be stayed within the folder of sublime or the project folder. There are 7 pages of comments on old idea page requesting this, won't you see? Or is this really hard to implement in some way?
Right now I have to put an empty folder into the cloud, and choose not to sync this folder, then create a local one. It does work but onedrive will complain that there's been some conflict and it marks all the files in the local folder with a red cross, which is really annoying.
Hope this idea will get through, although the votes seem to say that people have got upset and gave up on this one. -
KermEd
commented
You can also add this one now 20412229
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KermEd
commented
For others: Please note there is a FilenameExclusionList entry in ClientPolicy.ini. However, that file will be autogenerated every day or so - too bad they added the functionality, but won't expose it to the users & administrators.
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KermEd
commented
It seems like a cloud sync should only do two thing sync some stuff, and not sync others. Why not add that second half of functionality? I see no value in storing TB's of temp files (in my case, 2.5 million files to be exact).
This already exists and works in the non-Windows clients (ignore_v2.ini). Feature parity means this should have been added a long time ago to Windows.
I realize there are really poorly thought out responses saying the solution is not to put files into the OneDrive folder. That isn't the way many project based programs work on Windows - they keep everything in their project folder (as it is part of the Windows folder design). Seriously though, its almost 2018 and businesses are trying to use this software.
The time has come to let us decide what we feel is junk data, and to allow us to exclude it from uploading.
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Julian Kingman
commented
I realize this is already covered here: https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6988070-use-a-file-to-ignore-exclude-files-or-folder, but had to vote for this idea anyway.
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Anonymous
commented
There is the same problem with libreoffice temporary files which begin with .~lock. when you open a document file. OneDrive syncs automatically these files and after closing the document OneDrive moves them to trash.
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Paul Hawxby
commented
This request keeps coming up and keeps getting closed so we can no longer vote on it, this is ridiculously counter-productive. Even if the feature is unlikely the entire point of this site is to gauge support for feature requests, by all means respond but don't just close it.
In short, add the ability to ignore certain files or folders from sync using something like a .onedrive file. I don't want my node modules syncing with ondrive and bogging sync down.
https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/6988070-use-a-file-to-ignore-exclude-files-or-folder?page=1&per_page=20
https://onedrive.uservoice.com/forums/262982-onedrive/suggestions/10720758-make-it-possible-to-ignore-build-artifacts -
Graeme Robinson
commented
I'm using Nuance PaperPort 14 to manage scanning and to view folders in my OneDrive. PaperPort creates 4 hidden files in each folder to hold thumbnails, desktop layout, etc. OneDrive picks these hidden files up and syncs them, and they then lose their hidden attribute during the sync, and so they clutter up folders on other synced machines. I also don't want them to sync because they are local machine specific and adversely impact PaperPort on the other synced systems. ClientPolicy.ini allows me to exclude file types but not silently - they appear as file sync errors. I can't stop these files being created, I can't configure them to be located elsewhere, I need a silent 'ignore' option for selecrted file types to get around this please.
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Angus
commented
OneDrive has repeatedly ignored the community regarding this extremely simple and required feature for the use of OneDrive in software development and other environments.
Like many other people, I feel this is a product-breaking bug which renders it unusable for development across multiple computers. Every other professional product that is nowhere near the scale of OneDrive has this feature.
Like many other people, we're forced to find alternatives to OneDrive because the developers don't feel it necessary. Like many other people, I have no interest in using OneDrive for some uses, and then a fully functional cloud service for other uses. From a development standpoint, the cost/benefit of implementing a simple git style ignore document is more favorable than any other requested feature.
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Ryan Ries
commented
Yes please! I like to store Visual Studio projects on OneDrive so I can work on them from multiple machines, but VS projects produce lots of temp and intermediary junk that isn't important to be synced, and causes sync errors to boot because of the high churn rate, VS locking the file, etc.
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Anonymous
commented
I mapped my Documents Library to OneDrive which to me is a natural thing to do. Unfortunately there a lot of files and folders that don't need to be synced and can't be moved.
Users should be able to right-click on a folder or a file and select Do Not Sync. The sync state icon should change to something like a 'Do Not' red circle with a diagonal slash.
This is very useful and necessary functionality to make OneDrive more intuitive and reduce sync problems due to over syncing and infinite sync retries
Using Win 10
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Anonymous
commented
Uploading directories with Chrome is a very nice function, but with mac the hidden files like ".DS_Store" are also uploaded and visible within the OneDrive Business Website.
This files should be ignored during the upload.
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Neil Ryan
commented
Tired of synch errors for desktop.ini, something I don't have much control over. Should be able to tell OneDrive to ignore certain files / file types (support standard wildcards) or folders.
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jofaith
commented
good
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Christopher Wilkinson
commented
When downloading a file from Chrome to a OneDrive folder, the temporary .crdownload files start uploading to OneDrive, only to get deleted a few minutes later when a download has finished
