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OneDrive

Excluding Folders From Sync​

info

After wasting a few hours trying to find ways to exclude node_modules from syncing, I failed to find a working solution other than manually excluding the folder from the OneDrive settings. The following methods are the ones I found during my research.

warning

This method doesn't work anymore with the latest versions of npm and yarn because they delete symbolic links.

You can exclude folders from syncing is by creating a junction point between the folder you want to exclude and a folder that's not synchronized. Here's an example for excluding the node_modules folder under src. You need to run the following command in the command prompt with administrator privileges:

mkdir src\node_modules
mkdir dst\node_modules
mklink /J src\node_modules dst\node_modules

Group Policy​

warning

This method doesn't work for personal OneDrive accounts.

You can use Exclude specific kinds of folders from being uploaded policy:

  1. Find OneDrive group policy files from C:\Program Files\Microsoft OneDrive\<latest build number>\adm
  2. Copy OneDrive.admx to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions
  3. Copy OneDrive.adml to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US
  4. Open Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc)
  5. Go to Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > OneDrive
  6. Enable Exclude specific kinds of folders from being uploaded
  7. Add the folder you want to exclude from syncing to the list of policy keywords