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Andreas W.12's avatar
Andreas W.12
New member | Level 1
10 years ago
Solved

Mobile: Exporting: "Save to Camera Roll"-option not available

Hi!

I use dropbox to sync up my files from my computer to my mobile devices (iphone and iPad). When I tried this morning to save my files to my phone, I discovered that the "Export"-button was missing and had been replaced by a share button (profile with a plus sign next to it). So my question is: How do I download my files (images in this case) to my camera roll on my phone?

27 Replies

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  • venik212's avatar
    venik212
    Explorer | Level 3
    9 years ago

    I have the same issue with my Samsung Note 4 (Android 6.0.1) from T Mobile.  There is no EXPORT option or SAVE TO DEVICE-- only MOVE option, which only allows moving to annothher Dropbox folder.  Being unable to perform such a trivial operation is a major embarassment for Android and Dropbox.  It makes Dropbox on Android almost useless for me.

  • dojima's avatar
    dojima
    Helpful | Level 5
    9 years ago

    When I export a photo from Dropbox to my device, it's not immediately viewable in any app.  It seems Dropbox doesn't automatically update the mediastore database when exporting files.  Any ideas?

     

    Thanks.

  • acachia's avatar
    acachia
    New member | Level 2
    9 years ago

    THANK YOU SO MUCH for mentioning the DCIM folder.

     

    Even easier than this method to circumvent having to connect your phone:

     

    1. Save all your photos to your computer's Dropbox folder.

    2. Open Dropbox mobile app on your phone.

    3. Select your photos, then "Save to Device" and navigate to your phone's DCIM folder, saving them there. 

    4. Now all the photos will appear naturally in Android's Gallery.

     

    Piece of cake. This is particularly useful if you're trying to upload photos to Instagram, as now they will show up in the app.

     

    This has saved me SO much headache in trying to upload multiple photos I've edited in Lightroom to Instagram without using third-party apps that violate their TOS.

  • anonymous's avatar
    anonymous
    9 years ago

    This is what work for me.

     

    Open the Dropbox app.

    Find the photo you need. Click on the arrow to the right.

    Chose "Export".

    Chose alternative: Upload to Photos.

     

    Open the app Photos.

    Chose: Save to the device.

     

    Now the photo is available for all other apps on the device.

  • anonymous's avatar
    anonymous
    9 years ago

    I should add the there is an alternative "Save to device" at the top of "Export" menue. For some reason this alternative is grayed out for me (it is not available). But if it is active on you device, than you don't need to use "Photo" app at all.

  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    9 years ago

    Hey all, 

     

    Seems that there are many users who would like to use this functionality more! 

     

    To export your files to your Camera roll, you could just follow these steps (just summarizing Rich's reply above): 


    - Open the Dropbox app and open the photo or video that you would like to export
    - Tap the ellipsis (..) on the top-right and select “Export”
    - Tap “Save Image” (or “Save Video”) to save this file locally to your Camera roll

      

    You can also have a look at the Offlining feature here. :iphone:

     

    Happy Dropboxing ahead, please let me know if you have more questions and I'd be glad to follow-up here! 

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