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How can I force the mobile app to upload photos?

seftonbarn

When I first used Dropbox a few years ago, as soon as I took a photo on my androad phone the photo would be uploaded to my dropbox and synced to my PC. Nowadays I can take a picture on my android in the home (with connected wifi) and when I hover over the dropbox icon on the PC it states "Dropbox Up to date" it can be hours before the system decided to upload/Sync. Is there a way I can force it to upload/sync now please?

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Accepted answers

Jay

The steps to upload images manually can be found here.

Let me know if this is successful!

All comments

Jay

Hi there, could you confirm the exact settings you have for the camera uploads? There’s options for it to upload when not low on battery, and so on.

A screenshot showing these settings would help! Thanks in advance.

seftonbarn

@Jay wrote:
Hi there, could you confirm the exact settings you have for the camera uploads? There’s options for it to upload when not low on battery, and so on.

A screenshot showing these settings would help! Thanks in advance.

Thanks Jay. It is set to upload when camera battery level is at 30%, mine is at 75% and when on wifi. Mine is on wifi. Can't really take a snapshot and upload, that is the whole point of this posting!!

Jay

Thanks, just a few more queries here:

Do you have another app that backs up or edits your photos? If so, what’s the name of this app?
Are you able to manually upload images from the Dropbox mobile app to your account?
Does the Photos tab show any photos or videos attempting to upload?

seftonbarn

@Jay wrote:
Thanks, just a few more queries here:
Do you have another app that backs up or edits your photos? If so, what’s the name of this app?
Are you able to manually upload images from the Dropbox mobile app to your account?
Does the Photos tab show any photos or videos attempting to upload?

I have MS onedrive that Syncs my documents but it does not sync photos or videos; I rely on Dropbox for this.

I don't know how to manually upload from the mobile app.

I can't see any evidence in the photos tab of photos or videos uploading.

Jay

The steps to upload images manually can be found here.

Let me know if this is successful!

seftonbarn

@Jay wrote:
The steps to upload images manually can be found here.

Let me know if this is successful!

Thanks Jay

I can't explain this but all I did was open the app on the phone (not change any settings) and then all of a sudden it started uploading to the PC. Restarted phone. Tested again and it appears to be uploading automatically again. Strange.

Jay

Thanks for the info, let me know if this occurs again!

Jim B.45

The issue is that Dropbox arbitrarily doesn't do camera uploads for hours, days, possibly ever. The best response from Dropbox is to fix their software so it does. The next best response is to inform customers that they can trigger an upload by opening the Dropbox app on the phone and tap the Photos tab. The lousy support response is to ask a bunch of ****** questions and then tell them how to manually upload photos.

seamusvibe

"opening the Dropbox app on the phone and tap the Photos tab"

This isn't working for me. rebooted the phone and still nothing. I'm able to manually upload stuff, but I want to be able to force the automatic upload. Because if I manually uploaded them, whenever the ****** app decides to do the auto upload it will create a second copy of the file.

Why can't I just force it to trigger the manual upload? I really only use Dropbox for camera backup, but if it can't do this anymore I guess it might be time to look elsewhere.

Jay

Hi @seamusvibe, have you tried disabling and re-enabling the camera upload feature to see if this helps?

seftonbarn

Thanks Jay. Yes. But I have to turn off uploads and turn back on uploads every time I want to upload.

Jay

As you mentioned you're on an Android device, could you try ensuring that the Dropbox app isn't in any battery saver features which would prevent the app from running in the background.

sqknots

The lack of actual support on this issue is ridiculous.
This isn't an uncommon or difficult to understand issue.
The phone app seems to only sync photos randomly even when camera uploads is on, the battery is full, wifi or even wired connection is present, there are no potentially conflicting apps, etc.

This does not require screenshots or random questions to comprehend or even reproduce.
Manual uploads or repeatedly turning camera uploads off & on again are not acceptable solutions.

This is an issue most immediately solved by simply adding a manual/force sync or refresh button on the app.

The larger issue almost certainly has to do with how Dropbox prevents itself from being a drain on battery & processing power of the phone. If it were to continually monitor for changes to the synced files & directories, it would necessarily impact data usage and potentially impact performance of the device and other apps. Thus it's set to only do so at some random interval or based on an assortment of other factors.

However, the objective of automatic backup is to prevent loss or avoid having to manually transfer items between devices. As such, adequately serving those functions will frequently require more rapid sync or, at minimum, the ability to turn on continual sync for a predetermined period of time. Similar functionality has long existed in the desktop version of the app.

As such, and like many other reported problems, actually solving the issue, avoiding further user frustration and complaints should be relatively easy. But that requires the issue getting past "Support" treating it like it's an unknown issue and otherwise mishandling support requests en masse.