# Gitignore file not created in experiment folder

**URL:** <https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/gitignore-file-not-created-in-experiment-folder/7085>\
**Category:** Online experiments\
**Created:** [March 19, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/gitignore-file-not-created-in-experiment-folder/7085 "2019-03-19T01:54:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Ivy\_Cao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/ivy_cao/32/4200_2.png) [@Ivy\_Cao](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/Ivy_Cao)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/gitignore-file-not-created-in-experiment-folder/7085/1 "2019-03-19T01:54:04Z")

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When I try to synchronize the experiment to Pavlovia, Psychopy creates a gitignore file on my desktop instead of in the experiment folder, and the sync fails. How should I fix this problem?

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**Author:** ![jon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/jon/32/22_2.png) [@jon](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/jon)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 9:59am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/gitignore-file-not-created-in-experiment-folder/7085/2 "2019-03-19T09:59:19Z")

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That’s weird. The experiment file (psyexp is definitely saved properly inside a folder though?). I don’t know how that could happen. What platform are you on?

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**Author:** ![Ivy\_Cao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/ivy_cao/32/4200_2.png) [@Ivy\_Cao](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/Ivy_Cao)\
**Post date:** [March 19, 2019, 8:23pm UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/gitignore-file-not-created-in-experiment-folder/7085/3 "2019-03-19T20:23:09Z")

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psyexp is definitely saved properly inside the folder. I think it’s because when creating a new project on Pavlovia, the default local folder is my desktop. But when I change the local folder to the experiment folder, the “committing changes” window doesn’t pop up, and the sync window says “synchronizing” forever…  
It’s also weird that this doesn’t happen with another experiment that I’ve built. However, when I make changes to that experiment and sync it, there’s no update of the change on Pavlovia. Only when I uninstall then reinstall Psychopy does it update. But even then the rating scales(slider) doesn’t show up on Pavlovia.

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**Author:** ![jon](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex002/user_avatar/discourse.psychopy.org/jon/32/22_2.png) [@jon](https://discourse.psychopy.org/u/jon)\
**Post date:** [March 22, 2019, 10:10am UTC](https://discourse.psychopy.org/t/gitignore-file-not-created-in-experiment-folder/7085/4 "2019-03-22T10:10:56Z")

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I wonder if the issue is that you’ve previously created a project for an experiment **on the desktop itself**. Project folders can’t be nested I’m afraid, so if you create a project on the Desktop, then create a folder on the desktop and try to sync that, it will use the outer project that you’d originally created. Does that make sense?

We will need to find ways to detect and alert people to this issue better but in the latest releases (3.0.5+) there is a button that allows you to view the project for the current open file (if there is one) and that will allow you to see the “local root” of the current experiment, which in your case might well be the Desktop folder if my guess is right.
