I'm using Dropbox Sync to write down small files to sync things in my iOS app. Because records and datastores are too limited in my case, I can't use Datastore. Unfortunately, these internal files are generating a lot of notifications on my desktop. It annoys the user. The solution is to disable sync of this folder on desktop computers, but it requires an additional step for the user (after having annoyed it). All of this is degrading user experience. By nature, what happens inside an app folder is less likely to be of interest for an human user. It would be great if we were able to set our app folders as "notifications free" if relevant. One can also imagine per subfolder filtering. For now, my apps are mobile only, but if I want to make a desktop version and use Dropbox to sync stuffs, disabling app's folder sync will be impossible and users would have to live with dozens of garbage notifications. It would be so awful that it would prevent me to use Dropbox at all to sync with a desktop version (even if user would like to use Dropbox).

Hi Steve M., I must admit this is one of the most frustrating threads I ever participated in. Please read the very original request from Thomas and if possible also the comments I posted throughout the last calendar year: This is all about the APPS folder - a folder you, DropBox, creates, on behalf of your final users, not them personally. What sense does it make to notify users about changes in the folder they never created? Isn't this absolutely obvious case? Independent on any API version, independent on API client requests or parameters sent... Simply NEVER notify about changes in the APPS folder and its subfolders! I guess this feature must be implemented in your Dropbox software - in your Windows and Mac clients as it is those clients who display those annoying notifications. There is hardly any other work-around. I am very sorry for using bold font and one or two exclamation marks but for the last 427 days of this ticket lifetime I do not sense any sincere interest from any 'Dropboxer' to address this issue. Maybe my view is too simplified but it is about one if statement in the related client code...

Thomas, the reason for the global mute request is for the sake of the user. While thoughtful devs like you will now code your app that way, most others haven't. So it'd be nice to be able to just mute that whole folder (and others selectively in the future) so that we don't have to wait for devs to include such functionality in their apps. That request is still important to users of Dropbox, but it just got mixed in with your original question because no one else had a topic for it at the time in the user forum.

Thanks for the feature request! I'm sending it along now.

Hello @Mads P., @Érico C. expressed that exactly, there is however one thing I'd like to emphasise: When he talks about 'specific folder' it might sound the user can select which folders he wants to get notified about. That is a thinkable scenario too but the very first step should be that by default all notification are disabled for EVERYTHING that is under the APPS folder. APPS folder is not anything the user has actively created it is crated for him to serve for any of the applications he installed. For that reason the user does not expect any notifications (very probably he does not even know there is any apps subfolder at all). And for that reason user gets naturally annoyed by these unexpected notifications. To say it shortly: The name of this thread is just perfect: "Disable desktop notifications for app's folder". Best regards, Jan

Hi @Joe C., thank you very much for putting you energy into this and also a clear separation of the 2 possible solutions. I am not on V2 yet and unfortunately have no capacity to move to it within the foreseeable short time. I totally agree with your last sentence saying that it is not the most efficient solution to wait for all the developers to discover this problem, update to v2 and add the mute parameter. Plus consider the scenario of 3rd party libraries released as NuGet packages. If their owners do not do the proper update then poor the final dev users who took the dependency... That is the other reason I plead for the more robust solution - the one that makes all the APPS folder notifications silent. I explained number of time why I think it totally makes sense and you seem to agree to it. Gregory claims it is not an easy change, I have a hard time believing so to be quite honest as I have used notification in number of products I have worked on. Is there any chance I can open this topic on a non-API related forum, so I get the chance to observe the progress? I would be very thankful if you point me to such a place. Thank you very much in advance, Jan

Disable desktop notifications for app's folder

Joe C.56
Helpful | Level 7
10 years ago
As a user and a potential developer, this also annoys me. It seems like a simple use case. I use an app called ember and it's constantly writing files to my dropbox folder. That's awesome, but that also pushes actual files I'm working with out of my list in the menubar, and constantly shows me popups about files being added and deleted. So I guess I'd like to fourth this in the hopes of getting some traction on this.

It would also be generally helpful to hide notifications when I'm working on projects with other people who are rendering frame sequences so I don't see a notification for every little group of frames that come in.

I'm glad to see that you're working on it. I hope it's not just available in the API but also as a preference for the basic users as well—that way I don't have to wait for a developer to add mute functionality.
Arlington A.
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
Definitely upvoting this one....My wife and I use the "You Need a Budget" app and share the data file via dropbox. If one of us is working in it, the others dropbox goes CRAZY because of the incremental saves the application does, so for the next couple hours I get a pop up saying the same file is updated over and over and over again....

Selective notifications would be GREAT...
David D.92
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
Same story with Moneydance for Android. It uses DropBox for sync.

That will sound like a programmer's suggestion (because it is): Something like creating a file in the sub-folder we want to personalize (.dropbox, or something similar) with some options like "no-notification" might also be interesting. Of course, having the GUI client generating it for us when we are users, but being able to create it automatically for our apps using DB as a sync solution.

Just my 2 cents! :)
Othelo S.
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
Is there anyway this issue can get more attention? The OP is soon-to-be 1 year old and there's no sign of this apparently not so complex feature being implemented. I share a folder with dozens of other people that constantly save new and updated .docs, and the nonstop notifications drive me crazy. I DON'T want to disable the syncing to my PC. That would make having the desktop software installed no less than useless to me. Pretty please, folks, make it happen!
Steve M.
Dropbox Staff
10 years ago
O.S., this forum is for developers using the Dropbox API to build their own apps. It sounds like you're looking for an end-user feature, so a different forum would be a better avenue for support.

As for the developer request above, Greg noted above that this was added to API v2 as the "mute" parameter on /files/upload and similar endpoints, though as I recall there are some limitations.
Othelo S.
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
Thanks, Steve. I was searching Google for a solution and this was the only topic I found.
Greg-DB
Dropbox Staff
9 years ago
Thanks for the additional feedback Jan. We do read everything and sincerely appreciate the insight and the time taken to write it. Unfortunately, I don't have any news to offer on this request though.
Thomas
New member | Level 1
9 years ago
And what about the "mute" parameter of the files/upload method. Steve M. seems to recall some limitations. What are they?
Greg-DB
Dropbox Staff
9 years ago
We don't have any more specific documentation, but I expect Steve was referring to older versions of the desktop client possibly not supporting the behavior, and perhaps some special logic beyond the parameter itself that determines whether or not to mute the notification. (E.g., it might make sense to show a notification regardless, even if mute was set, if there was a conflict.) I'll send this along as feedback to get this better documented though.
Thomas
New member | Level 1
9 years ago
So basically, it works as intended? As long as the user uses an up to date client and there is nothing he should be aware of, no notification is shown?