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My Dropbox app stops after several minutes while uploading my photos from my iOS device.

Goodmorning,

I recently started working with Dropbox again and want to upload all my pictures from my iPhone (iCloud) to my Dropbox. It’s about 125,000 photos and it’s not easy, as my app stops after several minutes.

At first it started counting and now counting down as it uploads each photo/movie. But I have to open the app again; sometimes it is completely black and it has to start again and sometimes it resumes. Also the night mode stops after several minutes. I have tried if keeping my iPhone open forever works, but no. Also un-installed the app, closed my iPhone and furthermore rebooted it, re-installed the app. It started counting up again and fortunately (of course) all uploaded photos were available, but it still stops after several minutes.

I am now at 72.000 and it is too time consuming. Any suggestions on what else I can do to keep the app working? Thanks!

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Thanks for posting on our Community today, @Smittje!

Since you’re uploading a large number of photos to your Dropbox mobile app, it’s expected that the process will take some time to complete.

However, if possible, you can test this by connecting to a different network and see if there’s any difference to the speed with which your files are being added to Dropbox.

As for the issue you mention with the Dropbox app stopping every once in a while, do you mean that the uploading comes to a halt and it’s stuck at the same number of files? Or that you're on the Dropbox app and it shuts down all of a sudden?

If you have any screenshots, please paste them here and I’ll also have a look.

Keep me in the loop for any updates.

Hi Nancy,

Thanks for your answers!

As for the speed: I haven't had any problems with it so far. I only use Dropbox on wifi and both at home and at our company it delivers about the same speed. So that's not a problem for me (yet); I did understand that I might experience some delay towards the end, because the big ones are saved until the end.

Your second question, the sudden stopping of the app, is what makes it an extensive project. It didn’t get stuck so far🤞🏼. Because of the speed at which it goes so far when it does work, it would go a lot faster if it could continue in one go. Which should be the case, I assume. Now I have to reopen the app every few minutes and when I'm not on my phone (or at night), nothing happens.

I'll try to make a video of it, and also how it starts up again. But I have to figure out how to upload it here, because I don't want everyone to be able to see my most recent photos. With fotos I can blur it, but then you won’t see the moment it crashes.

Thanks anyway!

Sudden stops = sudden shut downs. Sometimes re-opening results in resuming where it stopped but most of the times it starts counting again, quickly up to where it stopped (sometimes pausing with the massage that library is being carried out and currently scanned) and then it continues.
I can make screenshots of the screen recordings and see if I can blur my pictures? Where can I post these?

Hey @Smittje let me jump in here!

You can post your screenshots here, and when you do that make sure to blur your personal info and content shown there.

I'd also like to see how many files it's currently syncing, and the behavior after the app crashes.

While we're at it, would you mind clarifying your iPhone's OS, along with the Dropbox version that you're using there?

I'm one of the iOS engineers responsible for the Photos tab and Camera Uploads (CU) feature in the Dropbox app.

Something to add to the thread from @Nancy is that CU will have to take a bit longer to work in your case given that it must request from your device's photo library that each photo stored in iCloud first be downloaded, before the Dropbox app can then register and upload it.

How iOS prioritizes these downloads is effectively up to the operating system, and since it's a background download paired with a background upload, iOS will sometimes say "Hey app, you're hogging too many resources and not actively being used, so slow down or shut down for a while."

We do a lot to work around this limitation, but with a library as large as yours it may take quite a while to wrap up.

Hi Megan,

The easiest: iPhone 13 with iOS 18.2 and currently 18.3 (makes no difference). Dropbox version 412.2.

The behaviour after the stopping, I just described above (third post).

How can I attach any pictures to this conversation?

You should be able to click the camera like icon and attach your files here @Smittje.

You might need to do this using a desktop device, if you don't see the option when using your mobile.

OK txs, that makes more sense but will be tomorrow during a break as I don’t have my laptop around here. I have several screenshots from the moment before it stops, during the stop and afterwards until it resumes downloading.
Txs so far and will get back here tomorrow! Good night!

01 right before stop, 67984 to go

02 app stops, screen black for 1 sec

03 homescreen iphone opens

04 pulldown to search for app

05 app opening

06 app opening and searching

07 homescreen app

08 app says camera upload is started

09 app says busy with back-up while counting up

10 app says uploads being done and library scanned

11 app says busy with back up and resumes at 67983

In the above, I have posted the 11 steps prior to -> during -> after the moment the app suddenly stops.

Thanks for reaching back out with more details about this @Smittje!

Taking into consideration the number of files you're uploading, the performance of the Dropbox mobile app can be affected as our engineer shared earlier in the thread. This can happen when the sheer number of files exceeds what the app can handle at once.

If you would like to work around this current situation, you could proceed as follows:

Disable camera uploads, and re-enable it for new files only.
Organize the photos in iCloud using folders.
Manually upload the content of each folder, at your own convenience.

I understand that it isn't ideal to separate the photos into batches, by organizing them in a folder. That said, this way, you can have more control over what is uploaded and when without having a huge impact on the performance of the app.

Now, with the above in mind, I wanted to say that I truly appreciate your understanding and patience. If you need help managing your uploads or have further questions, feel free to let us know.

Hi Megan and Iar,

Thanks again for your reaching out with possible solutions and explanations.

I haven't really added any photos to my camera roll in the last few days, so the first point is not really an issue. I'm going to look into the second and third suggestion, but I'm a little apprehensive about putting everything in folders on my phone. I tried that before and that is so timeconsuming as I have to start all over again... My goal is to have everything / 100% downloaded, so that I can make folders and selections on my laptop and see that I am not missing anything as I have a full backup.

I am now halfway through and I think that I will continue in this way.

The organizing party that recommended Dropbox to me does not recognize this, but has worked with these large amounts too. And we had this question: although I want to upload a large amount of photos, why does DropBox offer night mode, where things can run for several hours at a time? Doesn't that only make sense if you have large quantities?

I definitely see where you're coming from, and it's understandable and more convenient to use camera uploads. It is for me too, if I'm being honest. 😛

I just wanted to share the possibility of using manual uploads in the meantime.

When you mention "night mode" can you let me know more about which setting you're referring to? I'd like to make sure we're aligned here, before I share more info.

Hi Megan,

True and txs!

See below the screenshots of the nightmodus I refer to.

I assume that you have the translation of the Dutch wording in English in your own app? If not, please let me know!

So, you were referring to the 'nightly uploads' when you're backing up your photos and videos to Dropbox via the Dropbox mobile app on your iOS device - did I get this right @Smittje?

If so, this is for cases where you need to leave your phone charging while uploading a large amount of files overnight etc.

Yes, Walter that is correct. I do all that is required (the three boxes) and keep my phone open permanently. And it is exactly what you say: for uploading a large amount of photos. So then I would not expect that the app closes itself after a few minutes.

Hey @Smittje, to jump in here as well, I totally understand where you're coming from.

The number of files in this case seems to be too large for the app to handle, that's why you're having this experience.

You can try the alternatives Megan provided, or to refer you back to our engineer's reply, you can continue using Camera Uploads, but it will take a while longer for your photos to upload.

Let us know if you have any more questions.

Hey Hannah,

Thanks. So that would mean that the lower the number of pictures, the better the app would work. Let’s hope that!

As it is not possible to download all photos to my iPhone, I will let it run until everything is downloaded to DropBox as it seems to be optimized photos; however, it will come in Dropbox to approximately the total same size as in iCloud, so still wondering whether the originals or optimal compressed copies were downloaded. Do you know?

If it is only the compressed versions, then I will start again on my laptop. I already figured out a strategy, which will take a lot of time but wehereby I can eliminate the number of files in iCloud and therefore on the iPhone immediately after uploading it to DropBox.

I am curious for answers to my new questions here, but will leave the sudden stopping-topic for now; thanks all for reaching out!

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