Perfoce .p4ignore isnt ignoring Save3 folder

Hello I have just added and set up a .p4ignore for my UE5 project by following HelixCore guide(https://help.perforce.com/helix-core/quickstart-unreal/current/Content/quickstart/game-set-up-create-ignore-file.html). Im testing if the Save folder is getting ignored, but its still getting added to the change list when I do reconsile offline work on the whole project.

This is whats inside the .p4ignor file

# User-specific folders or temporary files that should not be versioned.
Saved/
Intermediate/
DerivedDataCache/
FileOpenOrder/
obj/
# Certain file types that should not be versioned.
*.pdb
*-Debug.*
# Visual Studio user settings files that should be ignored.
.vs/

This is the result I get in the Command Window for checking if a folder is getting ignored

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.19045.5011]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

c:\Projects\Unreal\WhipLash 5.3>p4 ignores -i -v Saved
c:\Projects\Unreal\WhipLash 5.3\Saved ignored by c:\Projects\Unreal\WhipLash 
5.3\.p4ignore:67:Saved/*

c:\Projects\Unreal\WhipLash 5.3>

Im also including the result of p4 reconcile Saved/...

c:\Projects\Unreal\WhipLash 5.3>p4 reconcile Saved/...
//stream/PlayerController/Saved/AutoScreenshot.png#39 - opened for edit
//stream/PlayerController/Saved/Config/CrashReportClient/UECC-Windows-919D94EF4F7338AE9E6D99915C03C756/CrashReportClient.ini#1 - opened for delete
//stream/PlayerController/Saved/Config/CrashReportClient/UECC-Windows-9A5108A643D6A95CDA1FF888F286194D/CrashReportClient.ini#1 - opened for delete
//stream/PlayerController/Saved/Config/WindowsEditor/EditorPerProjectUserSettings.ini#63 - opened for edit   
//stream/PlayerController/Saved/Config/WindowsEditor/Engine.ini#37 - opened for edit
//stream/PlayerController/Saved/Logs/WhipLash-backup-2024.10.30-22.35.05.log#1 - opened for delete
//stream/PlayerController/Saved/Logs/WhipLash-backup-2024.11.03-20.05.43.log#1 - opened for delete
//stream/PlayerController/Saved/Logs/WhipLash.log#63 - opened for edit
//stream/PlayerController/Saved/Logs/WhipLash_2-backup-2024.10.31-12.24.13.log#1 - opened for delete
//stream/PlayerController/Saved/Logs/WhipLash_2-backup-2024.10.31-12.29.07.log#1 - opened for delete

Solution

From the output of your reconcile command, it looks like the issue is just that you already submitted these files to the depot before your .p4ignore file was set up. (Because files are being marked for edit and delete and not just add). Once a file is being tracked by Helix Core, it will continue to be tracked, even if added to an ignore file, which is why its important to set that up before the initial submission of the project.

There are two steps you can take to fix this and they should be ignored again.

Obliterate the files from Helix Core. Open up P4Admin, and in the Depots tab, navigate to where your UE project is stored and find the Saved folder. Right click on the Saved folder and choose Obliterate Files... This will completely remove all history of those files from the server, which is what you want in this case.
Back in your workspace folder, open the folder in Explorer and right click on the Saved/ folder and edit its Properties. Uncheck the Read Only box at the bottom and hit OK. This will reset all those files to be writable, which is what Unreal expects.

You should also check on the other folders that should be ignored and do the same thing, since it seems possible that others would end up in there.

Because your p4 ignores -i -v Saved command looks good, I don't think there are any problems with the ignore file itself, just that these files got submitted before it was in place.

Hope that helps!