diff --git a/.clang-format-ignore b/.clang-format-ignore
index f86588fa0..33d78802c 100644
--- a/.clang-format-ignore
+++ b/.clang-format-ignore
@@ -1,8 +1,4 @@
 # This file is used to ignore files and directories from clang-format
-
-# Ignore all files in the External directory
-External/*
-
 Source/Common/cpp-optparse/*
 
 # Files with human-indented tables for readability - don't mess with these
diff --git a/External/.clang-format b/External/.clang-format
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e3845288a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/External/.clang-format
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+DisableFormat: true