diff --git a/.github/dependabot.yml b/.github/dependabot.yml
index 22e9b44eee7..9371d0aa7d5 100644
--- a/.github/dependabot.yml
+++ b/.github/dependabot.yml
@@ -7,5 +7,7 @@ updates:
     # Allow up to 2 open pull requests at a time
     open-pull-requests-limit: 2
     ignore:
+      # tensorboard requires protobuf < 4
+      - dependency-name: "protobuf"
       # segmentation-models-pytorch requires older timm, can't update
       - dependency-name: "timm"