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How can I only upload the photos from my phone and not my computer to Dropbox?

Hello All,

I've noticed that (for awhile now) after I enabled the "Turn on camera uploads" on my iphone, whenever I had the iOS Dropbox App open, it not only uploaded all the photos in the iphone camera roll (which is what it is suppose to do), but I realized it also uploaded photos in my Mac, to be more specific, it is in my Desktop folder (a dropbox symlink)

To put things in perspective, the symlink is already synced to Dropbox, and all things in there, photos and other files, are already uploaded.

How can I disable this "extra upload" feature and have my iOS only focused on upload the photos in my iPhone only.

Thanks

Screenshot 2024-10-03 at 11.14.30.png

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Comments

Mark

Sorry I'm confused, where is the symlink on the iPhone or is it on the Mac? Note that Dropbox doesn't support or follow symlinks.

However, Dropbox does now upload photos from the photo albums on the mobile device. So its possible it is pulling them from that. You can change it in the 'Back Up...' menu

flyhen

Hi, sorry for the late reply, i was travelling.

1. the symlink probably has nothing to do with mobile devices as it is a symlink between my laptop and dropbox itself.

2. don't mean to complicate things, but when i open the dropbox app in my iphone, it will look for any new photos to upload/back in my camera roll, but not only that, it will also do the same for my laptop (photos in the symlink folders).

All I want is the iphone to be backed up, not the new photos in my laptop.

Rich

@flyhen wrote:
... when i open the dropbox app in my iphone, it will look for any new photos to upload/back in my camera roll, but not only that, it will also do the same for my laptop

Dropbox doesn't do that. The mobile app can only upload photos and videos that are in the albums on your iPhone. It can't upload photos or videos from your Mac.

One thought, though, and I'm not a Mac user so correct me if I'm wrong, please. Does iCloud sync albums across devices? If so, could it be that iCloud is syncing the photos on your Mac to an album on your iPhone, and Dropbox is uploading the content of that album?

@Mark, you're a Mac guy. Does that sound right?

flyhen

This has nothing to do with icloud sync, 1. I don't have enough space for that 2. I didn't enable anything, so that's never the case.

I just checked now, when I open the dropbox app on iphone, it was looking for new photos to backup, and interestingly, this time, it was about to backup my new photos in the "Download" folder in Mac (also a symlink folder with dropbox ).

The plot thickens.

Jay

Hi @flyhen, it sounds like you've enabled the Dropbox Backup feature on the Mac, is that correct? This is why files from those folders are appearing in Dropbox.

Which folders did you select on your phone for the camera upload feature, since it should be possible to select more than just the camera roll?

flyhen

I checked, but I did not enable the backup feature on the desktop app.

Screenshot 2024-10-08 at 17.29.04.png

Jay

Since it says 'Manage backups', it means that something is enabled there, could you click that to see if Dropbox Backup is enabled for that device?

If you tap 'All photos' on the iPhone, what options do you get?

flyhen

I checked, all my macbooks that are connected, have the backup disabled.

As far as my iphone goes, this is what it is...

Jay

Could you also check this page, just in case there was some kind of backup on your device at some point?

There shouldn't be a symlink to your Desktop or Downloads folder, unless it was created by the Dropbox desktop application, or by yourself or another app.

flyhen

I created those symlinks myself years ago, the idea was that I will have access to the same files from different macs, and it worked, so from then on, I will have the same files/synced via symlink in my Desktop, Download folders, amongst other folders, and I really love it!

here's a screen shot after clicking the link you suggested, and I even went into the "manage backups" just to give you an idea.

thanks for all your help and being so patient!

Screenshot 2024-10-09 at 14.04.33.png

Jay

Well, Dropbox doesn't really support symlinks in this manner, and it should be disabled in fact, though it does depend on how they're created.

Regarding the issue you're experiencing, it could be related to the symlinks somehow, though we wouldn't be able to see what is causing this.