Exclude files and folders from uploading and downloading

Exclude files and folders from upload, download, and synchronization to prevent accidental updates during file transfers. Excluding media, caches, and temporary files that you do not need also reduces unnecessary transfers and resource use.

You may need to exclude files and folders in the following cases:

You work with source code created and uploaded outside IntelliJ IDEA. Download the files you need and open them as a project. Exclude source files that should not be updated and remote media, caches, or temporary files that you do not need.
You have already downloaded files from the server and opened them as a project in IntelliJ IDEA. Exclude files or folders to prevent later uploads or downloads from overwriting the copies you want to keep.
Your local application contains source code and other files that the server does not need. Exclude those files from upload, and exclude any source files that should not be overwritten during transfers.

Use Excluded Paths in a deployment configuration to exclude specific files or folders. Use Exclude items by name in the deployment options to exclude matching file and folder names across configurations.

There are two ways to exclude folders from upload/download:

Explicitly, by marking the corresponding paths as excluded in the Remote Host tool window or in the Excluded Paths tab of the Deployment dialog.
1. The names of all the not-excluded folders and files are displayed on a green background. The names of excluded items are displayed without a background.
2. In the Remote Host tool window, you can exclude both entire folders and specific files.
By name, that is, by specifying patterns that determine the names of files and folders to be excluded in the Exclude Items by Name field of the Options dialog.

Enable the FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Connectivity plugin

This functionality relies on the FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Connectivity plugin, which is bundled and enabled in IntelliJ IDEA by default. If the relevant features are not available, make sure that you did not disable the plugin.

Press Ctrl+Alt+S to open settings and then select Plugins.
Find the FTP/SFTP/WebDAV Connectivity plugin and click Enable.

Exclude a folder on server from upload/download after project creation

Add a folder to the list of excluded paths

Open the Deployment dialog by doing one of the following:
- Choose Tools | Deployment | Configuration from the main menu.
- In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , select Deployment under Build, Execution, Deployment.
In the Deployment
dialog, click the Excluded Paths tab. The tab shows the list of the previously excluded local and remote folders.
Click the Add button and select Deployment path.
Double-click the empty line that is added to the list.
At the end of the added line, click the Browse button .
In the Choose remote excluded path dialog, navigate to the folder that you want to exclude.
You can also type the path manually, but note that only absolute paths are accepted.
When you click OK, you return to the Excluded Paths tab, where the selected remote folder is added to the list.

Add a folder to the list of excluded paths in the Remote Host tool window

In the main menu, go to Tools | Deployment | Browse Remote Host or View | Tool Windows | Remote Host.
In the Remote Host tool window that opens, select the relevant server configuration from the list.
Select the folder to exclude and choose Exclude Path from the context menu of the selection.

Exclude a local folder from upload/download

Open the Deployment dialog by doing one of the following:
- Choose Tools | Deployment | Configuration from the main menu.
- In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , select Deployment under Build, Execution, Deployment.
In the Deployment
dialog, click the Excluded Paths tab. The tab shows the list of the previously excluded local and remote folders.
Click the Add button and select Local path.
At the end of the added line, click the Browse button and navigate to the folder that you want to exclude.
You can also type the path manually, but note that only absolute paths are accepted.

Exclude files and folders from upload/download by name

Open the Options dialog by doing one of the following:
- Go to Tools | Deployment | Options.
- In the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S) , go to Build, Execution, Deployment | Deployment | Options.
In the Options dialog that opens, specify the patterns that define the names of these files and folders in the Exclude items by name field.
Use semicolons ; as delimiters, asterisks * to match zero or more characters, and question marks ? to match a single character.
For example, if you have a folder stylesheets with three files style.css, style1.css, and style2.scss, then style* excludes the entire folder, style?.css excludes style1.css, and style?.* excludes style1.css and style2.scss.
Learn more from Regular-Expressions.info.
The exclusion is applied recursively. This means that if a matching folder has subfolders, the contents of these subfolders are not deployed either.

Remove the exclusion mark

Select a file or folder to upload/download and choose Remove Path from Excluded from the context menu.
Returning a folder to upload/download affects all its subfolders and files.

28 September 2026