How to exclude the App_Data folder from being published in an ASP.NET Core 5

Question

I am trying to publish an ASP.NET Core 5 project using FTP. However, I do not want to publish the App_Data folder.

Using Visual Studio 2017, I opened the .csproj file and added the following

<ItemGroup>
    <Content Remove="App_Data" />
</ItemGroup>

<ItemGroup>
      <Content Update="App_Data">
          <CopyToPublishDirectory>Never</CopyToPublishDirectory>
      </Content>
</ItemGroup>

<ItemGroup>
    <None Remove="App_Data" />
</ItemGroup>

I also added

<ExcludeFoldersFromDeployment>App_Data</ExcludeFoldersFromDeployment>

to the .pubxml file.

That did not work.

How can I exclude the App_Data entirely from being published?

_Why_ do you want to do this? ASP.net needs the App_Data directory to store application data for the web process. Is your intention to break the application? — JHBonarius, Feb 27 '22 at 09:13
@JHBonarius I don't want the local files found in App_Data from my local machine to override the files in production when I deploy via FTP — Jay, Feb 27 '22 at 19:20
[Does this answer useful to you ?](https://stackoverflow.com/a/53527057/7687666) — Jason Pan, Feb 28 '22 at 14:05

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 01 '22 at 09:42

0

I think the easiest way is to exclude the folder in Visual Studio, like the image below.

After testing, the App_Data folder will not be included when publishing again.

answered Mar 01 '22 at 09:42

Jason Pan

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How to exclude the App_Data folder from being published in an ASP.NET Core 5

1 Answers1