Block/prevent specific folders from being sync'ed

Roadmap Item 178292 — What It Says Now

The Microsoft 365 roadmap entry 178292 is still listed as “In development” with an expected release originally June 2025. It has not been updated to “Rolling out” or “Launched” on the official Microsoft roadmap.

• The roadmap entry description claims admins will be able to “exclude folders” via policy.
• But the official status remains “In development” as of the latest listing. DeltaPulse

We are now in December 2025, but the Microsoft 365 Roadmap item 178292 (Block specific folders from syncing) is still not clearly released to customers, and the public status remains ambiguous. There’s no official updated announcement or support documentation yet showing that this feature has been broadly released, , so far i search and know.

Workarounds that might help or at least alleviate the problem.

Keep node_modules OUT of the OneDrive sync root

Why this works

• OneDrive only syncs what is inside the synced folder
• node_modules is regenerable and should never be synced anyway
• This avoids performance issues and sync conflicts

How

Educate devs to place repos here:

Make file

C:\Repos\

instead of:

make file

C:\Users\username\OneDrive\

Pros

• Simple
• Fully supported
• Zero policy hacks

Cons

• Requires user discipline / documentation

This is what Microsoft themselves recommend informally.

Exclude by file extension (partial workaround)

You can block many files inside node_modules, but not the folder itself.

GPO / Intune policy

Exclude specific kinds of files from being uploaded

Example:

*.log;*.map;*.tsbuildinfo

Why it’s limited

• node_modules contains thousands of different file types
• Folder itself still syncs
• Poor performance remains

Usually not worth it for dev folders.

What a enterprises can do right now

Policy + education combo:

Official dev guideline

“Do not store development workspaces inside OneDrive”

Folder structure example

OneDrive\

  Documents\

  Desktop\

Repos\

  ProjectA\

  ProjectB\

Optional:

Pre-create C:\Repos via script

Developer onboarding checklist.

The roadmap feature you referenced (ID 178292) is the only real solution:

Admin-defined folder exclusions (like node_modules) enforced by policy

Until that ships → there is no simple admin switch.

Recommendation (honest answer)

If you need something today that is:

• stable
• supported
• low maintenance

Keep dev folders outside OneDrive.

My answers are voluntary and without guarantee!

Hope this will help you.

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