Exclude folder from sync

BEWAREEEEE!!!

Doing this will DELETE the folder synced in icloud. If you switch back, all files in sync will be LOST

losing lot of time now, and even icloud restore isn't helpful....

Apple, shame on you. You got lot of professionals trusting you but only looking for ******* latest iphone buyer...

Seems to me its a great marketing tool by Apple if you think about it. How else to sell iCloud storage without even trying. If they make it so you can't control what gets synced then you got to buy the storage, I know that's what I had to do, Your not going to tell me that wasn't on someone's emails at Apple. No problem Apple, I'll just start making directories in my Users/Shared Directory for my VM's and large crap like that. You know Apple it's dumb crap like that that just ticks off the average user base which for some reason after years and years you guys just never get.

Suppose you are doing Java development with Maven, and you have placed your workspace in your Documents folder because you want to keep the source code on iCloud. But you do not want to replicate the "target" subfolder on iCloud since it will contain only files downloaded and built by Maven. Go into your project folder and type the following

# it is okay to delete the target folder since it will be rebuilt by maven

rm -r target

mkdir target.nosync

ln -s `pwd`/target.nosync target

mvn package

Now you will need to go to each Macintosh that you are using for development and repeat this procedure.

With Maven, a better solution could be to change the directory name in you pom.

see https://github.com/apache/maven/blob/trunk/maven-model-builder/src/main/resource s/org/apache/maven/model/pom-4.0.0.xml#L53

You have to change:

<directory>${project.basedir}/target</directory>

into

<directory>${project.basedir}/target.nosync</directory>

Greetings

I want to do the same thing. Apple please implement this.

This is not how iCloud is designed to work, you would be better off using a dedicated backup application to save copies as a backup. If you rely on Dropbox or iCloud (or any service that 'syncs') you may find that deleted files or modifications are purged or overwritten on the server, each service has a time limit on the length for version storage. How the app manages data is also a consideration (a single DB, or many files & folders etc).

If you use apps dedicated for backing up there is less risk & more control for keeping older versions.

Look at Arq for backing up to Dropbox, Google, Microsoft or Amazon S3 storage. Other services like Mozy or BackBlaze can also do similar offsite backups for reasonable fees.

http://haystacksoftware.com/

…or you can keep hoping Apple add this feature before you really to rely on it.

This is a non-answer. Both Google and DropBox allow you to only sync the folders that you want on specific machines. Therefore is possible to do. Apple needs to do the same. There are some files that I only want on specific computers.

For instance, I want to sync my passwords on all computers. But I want to keep my personal files off my work computer.

Apple needs to do some coding to make iCloud as useful as DropBox and Google Drive.

howardfromberkeley wrote:

This is a non-answer. Both Google and DropBox allow you to only sync the folders that you want on specific machines.

iCloud is not a 'sync' it is a separate storage location (a network drive) . It is not the same as the ones you mention, so use one of them.

Or don't put folders you don't want on iCloud on iCloud.

howardfromberkeley wrote:

This is a non-answer. Both Google and DropBox allow you to only sync the folders that you want on specific machines. Therefore is possible to do. Apple needs to do the same. There are some files that I only want on specific computers.

For instance, I want to sync my passwords on all computers. But I want to keep my personal files off my work computer.

Apple needs to do some coding to make iCloud as useful as DropBox and Google Drive.

Apple needs to do what you want? Why does Apple need to do anything?

You can tell Apple the feature request via http://www.apple.com/feedback/(we are just other users trying to give you good advice).

The idea that Apple should compete with Dropbox has been thrown around for many years (Apple even discussed purchasing Dropbox at one point - Dropbox declined). Apple has not attempted to copy all of Dropbox's features with iCloud, they are different.

I strongly suggest that you choose an appropriate tool for the job - iCloud is not for backup (as the OP asked for) and it is also not designed for partial sync or for filtering work & personal files via the internet. You already cite the other tools that do this better than Apple - what is your problem with using a service that already does what you need, but isn't made by Apple?

In order to switch from Dropbox to iCloud Drive, I would also need Apple to implement selective sync.

When I'm developing software, a number of subfolders are updated frequently with transient files (logs, compilation output) etc, and syncing these is problematic because it means lots of unnecessary network IO and CPU activity.

Wow.. I have a virtual machine stored in the documents folder, this is the default location for vmware fusion.

You don't want this to be offloaded, nor backed to the cloud.

This is not a very well thought off feature, switched it off for now!

You are right. iCloud seems to be a poor cousin of Dropbox or Google Drive for now.

The "all or nothing" sync is interfering with work which usually consists of multiple cloud stores. The iCloud sync does not work reliably either all the time like Dropbox does. The iCloud sync stopped by itself for 3 days and seems to have restarted now.

Apple needs to become better at cloud products.

I've found a solution, and it's even official... Before we come to it though, I have to say that I can't believe there is no simple GUI to achieve this.

There MUST be a easy way for the regular user to disable/exclude folders or files from the sync, period!

Why?

Well, because as a costumer I'm paying for GB in the cloud (At least I am), and I would like to be able to choose what and how I sync my files and use my GB.

The solutions:

A) Add .nosync to a folder or file name
B) A folder called "tmp" or ending with ".tmp" won't be synced

Hope it helps!

Thanks a lot! Renaming the folder to folder.nosync worked!