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iPhone camera roll won't sync, Dropbox is demanding access to ALL photos all of a sudden?

My iPhone was sync'ing the camera roll to Dropbox for several years - no issues. All of a sudden I noticed that it doesn't sync them anymore. The error message says it needs permissions to access all the photos. What happened - where is the setting to sync the camera roll but not all my other photos?

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Michael L.80

Thank you, that worked, but why do I need to now allow full access to my photo library just to upload camera roll photos? It worked for years correctly, without full acccess - only access to roll. Why did it stop working - what changed that I now have to allow access to the whole library? I know I checked the Roll option after, but still, I had to give this app access to all photos in the OS, which I don't like.

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Jay

Hi @Michael L.80, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Could you try disabling and re-enabling the camera upload feature to see what options you get?

Keep me posted!

Michael L.80

ok I did that - disabled access, re-enabled. For some reason this web page won't let me upload the screenshot. The options I see: None, Limited Access, Full access. How do I indicate just camera roll?

Jay

Could you attach a screenshot showing this message you're seeing on your device?

Michael L.80

Hi Jay, here is what I see. It says "Limited photo permissions enabled" and won't upload camera roll. The options in access are here: Screenshot 2024-04-30 at 8.14.11 PM.png

RyanFromDropbox

Hi Michael 👋 Thanks for flagging this issue with the team. Let me see if I can help troubleshoot here.

Within your Drobpox app, there's a section for your Camera Upload Settings. You can find it by tapping the account ("Personal") tab in the bottom-right corner -- and then tapping "Camera Uploads" (attaching some screenshots for reference).

On this screen, there's an "Upload from" setting that will allow you to change your desired album to "Camera Roll".

If you'd like to only sync new photos added to your camera roll moving forward, you can use the "Back up..." setting for Camera Uploads -- and set that to "New photos only". If you set this to "All Photos," then older photos on your Camera Roll (that haven't already been added to Dropbox) will also be backed up.

In order for Dropbox to access these new photos as you take them, you will need to set your iOS Photo Library access (from your screenshot) to "All Photos". This will allow any new photos added to your Camera Roll to flow into Dropbox seamlessly. Dropbox will only add photos based on the Camera Uploads settings you configure, so giving access to the full library won't meant that Dropbox will sync all of those photos, unless you configure it that way in Camera Uploads settings.

Let me know if you have any questions, or if this doesn't seem to address the problem!

Cheers,

Ryan

Michael L.80

Ryan, thank you! I wasn't aware of this menu. But now I see a problem, please see attached screenshots. It is apparently set for Camera Roll, but it shows my roll as empty - that's crazy, it's certainly not empty and has a lot of photos. What am I doing wrong?

RyanFromDropbox

Hi Michael,

Thanks for sharing these screenshots. I think I see the issue. In your original screenshot of your iOS Settings, you selected "Limited Access," which means Dropbox can only access specific, selected photos from your library.

However, it looks like you haven't selected any photos, since the text below that option reads "Selected photos and add access".

If you'd like Dropbox's Camera Uploads to be able to automatically backup the photos on your Camera Roll, you'll need to change your iOS Settings to "Full Access".

Then, in the Camera Uploads Settings inside Dropbox, you should see the Camera Roll album populate -- and you can toggle that on to backup photos from your Camera Roll.

Let me know if that works and/or if you have any other questions!

Michael L.80

RyanFromDropbox

Hi Michael -- Glad that worked!

Over the last few years, Apple (iOS) has made a series of changes to how applications are able to access the photos on your phone. Generally, it means that applications have to now ask for access to photos that they were previously able to access by default.

If you've recently updated your phone's OS version or switched phones recently, it's likely that the newer (more restrictive) permissions revoked Dropbox's access to your library.

Within Apple's iOS permissions, accessing new photos on your Camera Roll (as you take them) for the Camera Uploads feature does need "full access" to work smoothly -- otherwise, you'd need to update your "Limited access" and select new photos every time you take them, to ensure that Dropbox is allowed to access/upload it.

Hopefully this information is helpful! Let me know if you have any other questions.

Cheers,

Ryan