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Automatic Photo Uploads From IPhone?

I recently upgraded my Dropbox to have the capacity to store all the photos that have been living on my iPhone. I connected to DropBox and have had 2 issues:

1) Though my phone (which I got in 2017) has photos going all the way back to 2010, it only uploads photos going back to 2017. I think (but am not yet certain) that it's only syncing the photos that were taken on this phone.

2) Every time I plug in the phone it uploads more photos - but all from the same 2017-2019 period. Each time I leave the phone plugged in until it quits uploading. So I'm not sure if the photos are i) re-uploading, ii) uploading in a different format (JPG vs. HEIC), iii) not uploading (i.e., the messages are false - which I think is unlikely), or iv) that some photos have been missed in the past upload.

Let me know if you have any guidance... I tooled around the past questions but my Dropbox app (which I just downloaded onto my phone) is different than the one described in some of the older responses.

Thanks in advance,

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Camera Uploads

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Accepted answers

Aurelioaustria

I got it to work - the underlying issue is that I think the original sync was interrupted but the phone didn't register that it'd been interrupted and thus thought all the photos had uploaded. In a nutshell - I solved the problem by toggling upload on/off on both my computer and my iPhone. That reset everything and the upload went fine. If you need my email chain with support (that provides more detail), I can send it your way.

All comments

Lusil

Hi there @Aurelioaustria,

Initially, please note that when you turn the camera uploads feature on, photos in your mobile phone’s Camera Roll and Screenshot folder will automatically upload to your Camera Uploads folder in your Dropbox account.

If you’d like to add photos that are in other folders in your device’s storage, you’ll have to manually upload them to your Dropbox account. You can find more info on how to do this in this article.

Nonetheless, in order to further investigate the behavior you’re experiencing, we’ll have to move this discussion to email. As such, I’ve located your open request from my end and have replied to you. Please check your inbox for my latest message and we’ll take it from there.

Thanks in advance!

Walter

Hey there @Aurelioaustria - were you able to resolve your concern in the end?

If so, what did the trick for you after all?

Aurelioaustria

Walter

No, that won't be necessary @Aurelioaustria - just thanks for letting us know what did the trick for you after all!

I'm happy to hear you managed to resolve your concern by toggling the Camera Uploads switch to off and on again.

Should you ever come up with a Dropbox question or an issue, don't hesitate to let us know; we're always a post away

Have a lovely day!

MeraaiKraai

Hi there,

Same issue -could you send me the email that helped solve your issue?

Dropbox says there are over 3000 photos that have to upload. When I toggled on/off it just set to zero and now slowly counting up again, currently on 57 photos that have to be uploaded. I just cant get it all done and then it stops spontaneously.

Thanks

Meraai

[personal information removed for security purposes]

Walter

Hey there @MeraaiKraai - sorry to hear you're having issues with uploading your files from your mobile device.

Just to make sure we're on the same page, can you clarify if you're using our camera uploads feature or if you're manually uploading those files via the (+) button from within our mobile app?

Can you also confirm that you're using the most recent version of the app (currently on v. 148.2)? You can find a link to update it if needed here:

https://www.dropbox.com/mobile?trigger=on

Should the matter at hand persist, please try to clear the cache on your app and then sign out and back into your Dropbox account.

On iOS:
To clear your cache, please follow the steps listed below:
1. Navigate to the “Personal” tab
2. Tap the gear icon in the upper-left corner of the screen
3. Select “Clear Cache”

On Android:
1. Tap the menu icon in the upper-left corner of the screen
2. Select "Settings"
3. Select “Clear Cache”

Once this is done then please ensure you log out of the Dropbox application, then restart your device and log back in again.

On a last note, I removed your email address for your post for security purposes. If you'd like account specific assistance, you can go ahead and log a ticket with our team and they'll do their best to assist you: https://www.dropbox.com/support

In any case, please let me know what you find and we'll take it from there.

MeraaiKraai

Hey Walter,

Thanks for the response and advice. I'm following your suggestions. There is some improvement on the speed, I now have my phone plugged into my PC and it keeps the App open and things seem to be happening. However, it isn't very fast. I thought perhaps by connecting my phone to the PC and downloading the Dropbox app to the PC there would be a quicker way to transfer files immediately, but seems not. So, i have the upload camera toggle on the App on my iPhone going and it is just cycling through and doing what it's doing. But it's uploading over wifi to the iPhone dropbox app, not via the PC connection. Not sure if there was somehow a better way to do this than one by one over wifi?

Walter

Thanks for the quick response @MeraaiKraai -most appreeciated!

If you're indeed using the desktop app to upload your photos from your iPhone, you should change your bandwidth settings according to your needs. You can do this following the steps outlined in the Help Center article below:

https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/faster-sync

Also, can you send a screenshot of your iCloud Photo settings which you can find by opening the “Settings” app on your iPhone or iPad, then tapping “iCloud,” and then “Photos.”? (Note: These are settings for your device, not the Dropbox app.)

In addition, can you also send a screenshot of the Dropbox permissions settings? You can find this by opening the “Settings” app on your iPhone or iPad, and then tapping “Dropbox.” (Note: These are settings for your device, not the Dropbox app.)

Last but not least, could you forward me the desktop app's exact status so I can have a better look into this?