How to prevent files from syncing

Updated Sep 15, 2026

How to create ignore rules

Ignore rules live in a plain text file called rules.dropboxignore. You can create this file in two ways:

To create ignore rules for the Dropbox desktop app:

Click the Dropbox icon in your taskbar (Windows) or menu bar (Mac).
Click the round account menu. Depending on your account, this may appear as your profile photo, your initials, or a person icon.
Click Preferences.
Go to the Sync tab.
Under Set Ignore Rules, click Create Rules.
Dropbox creates a rules.dropboxignore file in your Dropbox root folder. The file includes examples to help you get started.

Can't find Preferences on the Dropbox desktop app?

When you open the Dropbox desktop app, click the round account menu to access Preferences. Depending on your account, this may appear as your profile photo, your initials, or a person icon.

To manually stop certain files and folders from syncing to Dropbox using ignore rules:

Open a text editor like Notepad or TextEdit.
Create a new file named rules.dropboxignore.
Move it to the root of your Dropbox folder.
Add your custom ignore rules using the syntax shown below.

Tip: You can edit the file at any time. Dropbox applies changes as soon as you save the file.

Supported features

Tip: Use # at the start of a line to add comments explaining your rules. Comments can help explain the purpose of your rules.

Feature	Description	Examples
File-based configuration	Create a rules.dropboxignore file in the root of your Dropbox folder to define ignore rules.	The file can be created automatically by following these steps.
Folder-specific ignores	You can ignore an entire folder and everything inside it by ending the pattern with /.	build/ ignores the “build” folder and all contents.
Absolute path matching	Ignore rules can target specific absolute paths within the Dropbox folder.	/Photos/vacation.jpg ignores specifically that file.
Single-character wildcard	? matches any single character except /.	?.txt matches “a.txt”, but not “foo.txt”.
Pattern-based ignoring (globbing)	Supports basic wildcard matching for filenames and extensions.	*.log ignores all “.log” files in your Dropbox account.
Recursive wildcards	/ matches any folder path / matches everything inside a folder /**/ matches zero or more folder levels	/foo matches any file or folder named “foo” under any folder. abc/ ignores everything inside the “abc” folder, but not the folder itself. a/**/b matches folders like “a/b”, “a/x/b”, or “a/y/z/b”.
Case sensitivity	Ignore rules aren't case sensitive.	image.jpg ignores the file names IMAGE.jpg and image.jpg.
Forward-only behavior	Ignore rules apply only to files and folders created after the rule was added.	Existing files remain synced.
Per-device local control	The rules.dropboxignore file itself doesn’t sync between devices. Each computer needs to have its own rule set.
Negations	Patterns beginning with ! re-include files that would otherwise be ignored. Notes: Simple negation patterns like !.log don’t match recursively. They only match files in the root directory, unlike .log, which will match any folder. Recursive wildcards aren’t supported in negation patterns unless they appear at the end of the pattern. !build/ is supported. !/test is not supported.	!build.apk re-includes a specific file that was ignored. !foo/ re-includes a specific folder that was ignored.

Unsupported features

Feature	Description
Shared folders	Shared folders work like normal folders. Ignore rules don’t apply to shared folders that already exist, but do apply to any new content added to them, if the content matches an active rule.
Retroactive application of rules	Ignore rules affect only files and folders that are added after the rule is created. They don’t apply to content that was already in your Dropbox account before the rule existed.
Deletion of already-synced files	Adding an ignore rule doesn’t delete or remove existing files that match the pattern and are already synced to dropbox.com.
Team account support	Ignore rules aren't available for Dropbox team accounts.
Syncing of rule file across devices	The rules.dropboxignore file doesn’t sync across devices.
Multiple ignore files per folder	Only one ignore file per folder is evaluated.
Nested rule inheritance	.gitignore-style cascading (subfolder taking over rules from parent folder).

What to expect

Ignored files won’t sync to dropbox.com or other devices. They stay local on your computer.
Files already synced won’t be removed from dropbox.com. You can delete them manually if needed.
Files added remotely from another device that match your rules won’t sync to your computer.
The rules.dropboxignore file stays local and won’t sync across your devices.
Ignore rules only apply to new files going forward.
Newly created folders that match a rule are fully ignored. If a new folder matches an existing ignore rule, then the folder and it’s content won’t sync to dropbox.com.
If a folder already existed before the rule was created, its content will continue to sync normally.
New files get ignored if they are added to an ignored folder.

Renaming ignored files

If you ignore all .txt files and have a .txt file that was already synced, renaming it locally on your device will change its name from file.txt to renamed.txt. This will result in renamed.txt being ignored and file.txt being deleted on dropbox.com.

If you ignore all .txt files and have a file called file.txt that was already synced, renaming it on dropbox.com will change its name from file.txt to renamed.txt.

Differences between rules in Dropbox and Git

There are differences between Git’s and Dropbox’s ignore rules.

The rule gitignore controls what Git tracks, while rules.dropboxignore controls what Dropbox syncs.

Ignore rules in Dropbox

The rules.dropboxignore file is local-only and doesn’t sync between devices. You’ll need to create it on each computer if you want the same rules everywhere.
Adding an ignore rule won’t delete files that are already on dropbox.com.
- You can remove these files manually from your computer’s Dropbox folder or the Dropbox desktop app.
If you’d like the ignore rules to apply to previously added files, delete those files and add them back.
Dropbox doesn’t support ignore files located outside of the Dropbox root folder.

How to remove previously synced files

Files already synced won’t be removed from dropbox.com. You can remove them manually if needed. To do so:

Dropbox desktop app

Click ☑ (Dropbox icon) in your taskbar (Windows) or menu bar (Mac).
Click ☑ (folder) and open the folder that contains the synced files.
Drag the existing file or folder outside of Dropbox and on to your Desktop.
Drag the file from your Desktop back into the folder inside the folder in Dropbox.

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