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Using Dropbox Camera Upload and Apple iCloud Photos

Hello,

I have been using Dropbox automatic Camera Upload to backup photos that I take on my iPhone. I would also like to use Apple iCloud Photos to backup and syncronize my photos across multiple Apple devices. Once you take a photo with the iPhone the iCloud Photos functionality uploads the original photo and associated resolution to Apple iCloud. Once that upload of the original is complete, Apple stores a lower resolution version of the photo on the local iPhone in order to save space. I want to have the original (full resolution) version stored in Dropbox and not the lower resolution version.

Can anyone help me understand whether Dropbox will store the original or the lower resolution photo file.

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Regards
Grant

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Lusil

Hey there, Grant.

At first, please note that if you have iCloud Photo Library enabled (which is an Apple setting that stores your photos and videos in iCloud), and have its Optimize iPhone Storage setting enabled, this will save your full-resolution files in iCloud and store optimized versions on your phone.

Since the full-resolution images are stored in iCloud, the camera uploads feature needs to connect to the iCloud servers to upload each full-resolution image to Dropbox. This can be a slow process that depends on the strength of the connection to the iCloud servers.

For this reason, and if the issue persists, we recommend connecting your device to a computer that’s signed in to your Dropbox account, and enabling the desktop camera uploads feature.

I understand that this may be not be an ideal solution, but I hope this information helps. :slight_smile:

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Lusil

Hey there, Grant.

For this reason, and if the issue persists, we recommend connecting your device to a computer that’s signed in to your Dropbox account, and enabling the desktop camera uploads feature.

I understand that this may be not be an ideal solution, but I hope this information helps. :slight_smile:

GMCK

Hi Lusll

Thank you very much for your reply to my question. I am familiar with how iCloud photos works and my question was more one of timing. The sequence of events as I understand it is as follows:

1. You take a picture with the iPhone
2. Apple IOS uploads the picture (in full resolution) to Apple iCloud and keeps a lower resolution version on the iPhone.
3. DropBox 'Camera Upload' uploads the picture (in ? resolution) to DropBox cloud.

What I am trying to determine is the sequence of steps 2 and 3. If 3 happens first then the high resolution version photo will be stored on both DropBox and subsequently on iCloud clouds. If step 2 happens first then the version that DropBox uploads would be the lower resolution version.

I was not aware that you could point Dropbox to backup files in iCloud. How would you do this? Also, I dont think this would work as the file format that iCloud uses to store the photo is a new highly compressed file format called HEIC which could be stored on DropBox but cannot be viewed on Dropbox.

Regards
Grant

Lusil

Apologies for the confusion here, Grant.

Initially, please bear in mind that when you take photos from your iOS, they are saved to your Camera Roll folder, which is where the camera uploads feature uploads the photos from to your Dropbox account.

If you’d like to have the original resolution of your photos saved to your Camera Roll folder, ensure that you have Download and Keep Originals checked from your phone settings. If you’d like to save space but save the original version of your photos in iCloud, check Optimise iPhone Storage. To do this:

Tap on Settings.
Scroll down and locate Photos.
Toggle iCloud photos on.
The options Download and Keep Originals and Optimise iPhone Storage should appear underneath.

Finally, I wanted to mention that Dropbox supports HEIC (.heic) and HEVC-encoded MOV (.mov) files, and can sync these file types. You can also preview these files on dropbox.com, the Dropbox iOS app, and the Dropbox Android app.

However, these new file types may not be compatible with all devices, operating systems, or applications. If you edit these files in a separate application, that application must support previewing and editing these file types. You can find more info about this here.

I hope this helped clarify a bit more!

GMCK

Hi Lusll

OK thanks very much for the additonal information on this.

Based on what you have told me it probably does not make sense to use the DropBox camera uploads feature then as it is dupicative of the iCloud Photos functionality. The DropBox camera uploads feature will be backing up the lower resolution version of the photos which is not ideal.

Is there a way to point DropBox to my iCloud account and have Dropbox back up those files?

Thanks again for all your help.

Regards
Grant

Lusil

Hey again, Grant.

If you don’t want the camera uploads feature enabled, you can disable it in the same way you enabled it.

@GMCK wrote:
Is there a way to point DropBox to my iCloud account and have Dropbox back up those files?

Currently, there isn’t a way, but I’d recommend browsing the internet a bit for such a third party app. :slight_smile:

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