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Photo sync from Samsung Galaxy not instant

The photos taken by Samsung Galaxy are not immediately synced to Dropbox for some reason. It seems it takes several hours to sync them, although the phone is connected to Wifi and also syncing over a cellular network is allowed and there are only 1-2 photos to upload (the problem is not the size). It is very inconvenient... a year ago the same problem were solved when I opened Dropbox app on the phone (then immediatly the files were synced). But now it seems that simply opening the app does not help either...

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Camera Uploads

Mobile

Sync

Android

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Accepted answers

Daphne

Hey there @sulevreisberg,

So as a first step, can you try clearing the cache through the Dropbox app with the steps below:

Tap the menu icon in the top left of the screen.
Select the option Settings.
Select Clear cache.

After doing so please restart the app and see if you still see the same behavior. If the issue persists then please let me know if this happens for all uploads (videos and photos). Also, please clarify if you see the photos being uploaded for this long period or does it take a long time let’s say for the app to “recognize” there are new files to upload?

Let me know how it goes - Thanks!

All comments

Daphne

Hey there @sulevreisberg,

So as a first step, can you try clearing the cache through the Dropbox app with the steps below:

Tap the menu icon in the top left of the screen.
Select the option Settings.
Select Clear cache.

Let me know how it goes - Thanks!

sulevreisberg

Did the things you suggested - no changes. Interestingly it syncs new files from my computer to phone nicely. So it seems it does not recognise the new photos on the phone to sync.

Daphne

Hey again @sulevreisberg,

Could you please send a screenshot (excluding personal info) of the camera uploads setting? You can access this by:

Open the Dropbox app.
Tap the menu button.
Tap Settings.
Under Camera uploads, please take a screenshot of the settings

Also, can you let me know if the photos are never uploading automatically, or do they upload after a long period? When you open the app, do you see any notification of files being uploaded when you have new photos to upload?

Cheers!

sulevreisberg

Here is the picture. What is interesting - yesterday I had "use cellular data" turned on and as far as I've understand, I did not turn it off (it seems now that it is turned off). However, I was in Wifi yesterday, therefore it should make the difference.

During the night, all photos seem to have uploaded/synced. So, I'd say after some period the photos are synced, but it might be a long time. I think it would be valuable if a dropbox would show some message within in Dropbox like "There are photos that are not synced, because ...". I did not see any notices in Android... however, I've blocked all Dropbox messages and that might be the reason.

2019-04-30 09.35.02.jpg

sulevreisberg

Okay, probably the cache issue was still the problem because when I cleared the cache, the battery level was below 30% and that might have prevented the immediate sync after clearing the cache. Today the screenshot was uploaded immediately. So, can you elaborate on this cache issue a bit further? It seems this issue has been a problem for a while.

Daphne

I’m glad to hear that clearing the cache was indeed helpful @sulevreisberg!

So the cache is a temporary storage area which will retain certain data when you are using the app. Essentially, the aim of the cache is to help with keeping your app running smoothly and reduce the amount of data that needs to be processed and downloaded. For example, a list of your files within an accessed folder should be saved in the cache so navigating through your files is quicker the following times (as it needs to download the data the first time so is a little slower to load).

While I can’t say for certain exactly the reason clearing the cache worked for you, as it could have been a number of reasons, it’s possible that the main issue was due to space. If you haven’t cleared the cache for an extended period (restarting your device would do this), then there may be a lot of temporary stored files. It’s always a great first step to take when having issues with the mobile app.

Hope this explains it clearly for you - Thanks!

jcrace

I have an LG V40 ThinQ (not so) smartphone... it stopped syncing a couple weeks ago to my account. The auto syncing option is turned on... I can manually upload a photo which takes forever and then the auto sync resumes from the date it stopped, it syncs a few pictures then stops again. Any suggestions ( I tried the restart phone option too)

Daphne

Hey there @jcrace,

I’ve merged your post here as it seems the issues are very similar. Can you please try the steps mentioned in this post and let me know if they help with the issue you’re experiencing?

Hope this helps - Cheers!

BK15

Hello,
I seem to have the same problem. I have followed all steps you mentioned, however, it doesn't sync all photos but only some photos which are pretty random.

Daphne

Hey there @BK15,

Could you just clarify a few things for me? When you mentioned that some photos are uploaded, are only recent photos uploaded and not older ones or is it more like a random selection of photos here and there? Please send along a screenshot of the Camera Upload settings from within the Dropbox app.

Also, can you confirm for me if the photos on your device that you would like to sync are within your Camera roll, or located in another storage location on your device?

Finally, please let me know the OS and version of your mobile device, as well as the version of the Dropbox app you have installed.

Let me know what you find and we'll go from there - thanks!

BK15

Thanks for your reply.
It seems that mainly the new photos are uploaded but some missing ones. I have the photos from June 2019 up until now but then one photo from Feb 2018 is at the bottom of the list. I would prefer to have all of my photos uploaded (including camera roll and other folders), if possible.

My dropbox app is 158.2.2 and my phone is Samsung Galaxy S8+.

I am not sure how to attach a screenshot here, basically these are included in my app setting:-
Camera uploads - on
Upload video - on
Background uploading - battery greater than 40%
Time frame - all photos
Use cellular data - off

Thanks again.

Daphne

Hey @BK15, thanks for that info!

Could you just try toggling off the camera uploads option and then turning it back on again to see if that will trigger it to upload the remaining photos?

Also, are the recent photos that are missing files that you have edited or applied a filter to at all?

Let me how it goes - thanks!

EVBK

I have the same problem. Want to clean cache but I cannot find the menu button. I have dropbox icon in the left corner but clicking on it I cannot find settings.

Walter

Hi @EVBK; I'm sorry for the late reply.

If you're still having issues with this, could you send me a screenshot so I can have a visual of where you get stuck when trying to clear the cache of our mobile app on your Android device?

Thanks!