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The Photos page is changing...
I've just seen the banner that says "The Photos page is changing on 30 June 2017 but your pictures will stay safe in your Dropbox account. Learn more". The gist is that they are removing the final re...
Hi everyone,
Thanks again for your continued feedback on our upcoming changes.
I wanted to let you know that we've heard your concerns about how difficult it is to preserve your album structures in Dropbox. Our engineers have created a simple album export tool to help make this process easier. It's available starting today at the following URL:
www.dropbox.com/photos/album_download
The tool will allow you to download your albums to your desktop as .zip files. Please note that you'll be downloading a new copy of your photos, not moving them, so the photos will still exist in your Dropbox in the original location you saved them.We hope this tool will help alleviate some of the frustration that some of you have reported in this thread. If you have any problems using the tool, feel free to contact us via www.dropbox.com/support.
Regards,
Richard
Rich
Super User II
Super User III have merged the two threads and will merge any new ones that are created as well. Creating duplicate threads will not accomplish anything here. Every comment being posted to this thread is being reviewed by Dropbox. THIS is the thread that they are watching. Starting a second (or third, forth, etc.) conversation in a new thread will only mean that Dropbox does not see all of your comments.
It is very common in cases like this for Dropbox to not respond often but they DO read every post made to a thread that they are watching, and they are watching this one (confirmed by my contacts within Dropbox). Continuing the conversation on this thread is your best option for making sure that Dropbox understands how you feel.
Also, this thread is marked as Solved so that the Dropboxer's reply would be brought to the top of the thread for all to see, because everyone knows that most people don't bother reading the entire thread of a multi-page discussion.
Please keep the discussion going (I agree with all of you here!), but please keep it isolated to this thread. Any additional threads will be merged into this one with no further notice.
Thank you.
Rich, I am still waiting for your reply to this post from a couple of days ago:
Rich, a couple of questions you may be able to answer:
1. What is "speed scroller functionality?" What does it do? How does one currently use it? There are two types of "scrolling" on timeline. The first is that ability to move backwards and forwards through your photos once you open any one of them. The alternative would require you to open and close each photo. The second is right scroll-bar that, once clicked and dragged, shows dates, enabling you to quickly locate photos taken at a certain time. That is tremendously useful. So which does Dropbox consider "speed scroller functionality?" Also, what is the reason for eliminating these basic photo tolls? Is it a limitation of the a new Dropbox UE that is being rolled out, or are legal considerations at play?
2. If I understand the Dropbox doublespeak, all photos will essentially be kept in what is now the "Camera Uploads" file of the non-Timeline Dropbox. I don't use albums much, but as I understand albums it is essentially a series of virtual foldes with photo links. This enables a user not to have to keep or make multiple copies of the same photo in different folders, and of course saves space. This tech is ancient prior art -- not patentable. As I understand the change, you will now have to create multiple copies of the same photo and create new folders (instead of albums) to put them in. As you can tell from the comments, that's not going over well with Dropbox users who use albums. So, if my understanding is right, a few questions:
(i) Is this about the limitations of the new UE, or is Dropbox just trying to get users to max out their limits faster?
(ii) does this change precurse Dropbox rolling out and charging an additional fee to preserve (or perhaps enhance) the photo functions currently available?
(iii) in the future, if I want to tag and share selected photos with selected persons (which I can now do by a link, but without creating a link, will that functionality continue to exist.
(iv) Will a user still be able to post selected photos to FB and other social media. (5) and finally, why all the marketing double-speak? I can't believe Dropbox is incapable of using simple and clear prose and direct messaging. It is clearly (and justifiably) apprehensive about how this is going to go over with users, but I usually advise my software clients to be upfront if a newer version is going to eliminate essential or desirable functionality.
I appreciate your time and responses.
Rich, a couple of questions you may be able to answer:
1. What is "speed scroller functionality?" What does it do? How does one currently use it? There are two types of "scrolling" on timeline. The first is that ability to move backwards and forwards through your photos once you open any one of them. The alternative would require you to open and close each photo. The second is right scroll-bar that, once clicked and dragged, shows dates, enabling you to quickly locate photos taken at a certain time. That is tremendously useful. So which does Dropbox consider "speed scroller functionality?" Also, what is the reason for eliminating these basic photo tolls? Is it a limitation of the a new Dropbox UE that is being rolled out, or are legal considerations at play?
2. If I understand the Dropbox doublespeak, all photos will essentially be kept in what is now the "Camera Uploads" file of the non-Timeline Dropbox. I don't use albums much, but as I understand albums it is essentially a series of virtual foldes with photo links. This enables a user not to have to keep or make multiple copies of the same photo in different folders, and of course saves space. This tech is ancient prior art -- not patentable. As I understand the change, you will now have to create multiple copies of the same photo and create new folders (instead of albums) to put them in. As you can tell from the comments, that's not going over well with Dropbox users who use albums. So, if my understanding is right, a few questions:
(i) Is this about the limitations of the new UE, or is Dropbox just trying to get users to max out their limits faster?
(ii) does this change precurse Dropbox rolling out and charging an additional fee to preserve (or perhaps enhance) the photo functions currently available?
(iii) in the future, if I want to tag and share selected photos with selected persons (which I can now do by a link, but without creating a link, will that functionality continue to exist.
(iv) Will a user still be able to post selected photos to FB and other social media. (5) and finally, why all the marketing double-speak? I can't believe Dropbox is incapable of using simple and clear prose and direct messaging. It is clearly (and justifiably) apprehensive about how this is going to go over with users, but I usually advise my software clients to be upfront if a newer version is going to eliminate essential or desirable functionality.
I appreciate your time and responses.
- Rich
Charles L.5 wrote:
Rich, I am still waiting for your reply to this post from a couple of days ago:Those are questions for Dropbox to answer, not me.
- Oh, sorry. I mistook your user status ("Super User") for a Dropbox affiliation. I guess Dropbox isn't monitoring this site. Still, as a "Super User," do you have any idea what "speed scroller functionality" is?
Charles L.5 wrote:
Rich, I am still waiting for your reply to this post from a couple of days ago:As far as I can tell Rich is just a user (although a "Super User") like you. So he probably doesn't know the answers to all of your questions. Dropbox employees are tagged as "Dropboxer"
- Thanks. I'm a little slow on the uptake for the forum, but figured that out, and reposted my questions to the guy with the Dropboxer tag.
- Rich
Mike H.57 wrote:
As far as I can tell Rich is just a user (although a "Super User") like you. So he probably doesn't know the answers to all of your questions. Dropbox employees are tagged as "Dropboxer"
Yes, exactly.
Simone C.9 wrote:
I do not really understand the "Super User" title
Super Users are basically the moderators of the forum. We volunteer our time here, answering questions and providing help to other users like ourselves, directing people to open tickets where necessary, and generally try to keep things moving along in a civil manner. We are not employeed by Dropbox. We sometimes get early updates from the Dropboxers so that we'll be prepared to answer questions, but in many cases we're in the same position that you are; waiting for answers.
Simone C.9 wrote:
but it appears it has been marked by another "Super User" as solved, and that "Super User" Rich has merged all threads into one, including the new one I started as "Chapter 2, not solved"
It was marked as solved, but not by either of us. It was Dropbox that did so, simply to put the Dropboxer's reply to the top of the thread, as mentioned here and here. There is no other intent here than to make the post visible to anyone that opens the thread.
I did merge multiple related topics into this one so that the discussion wouldn't become fragmented. A single thread is easier to follow and maintain. Multiple threads end up having the same people posting in each one, posting the same information multiple times, cross-posting to say "I posted there over there too", etc. It serves no useful purpose.
Simone C.9 wrote:
explain to us all how a non Dropbox employee, albeit a "Super User" like yourself is able to take control of these threads, mark them as "Solved" and "Accepted" when they are not?
As stated above, Mark and I do not mark threads such as this as solved. That's up to Dropbox or the original poster of a thread. We can, however, merged and move topics, remove spammers, etc. Basically, simple moderation tasks to keep the forums flowing smoothly.
Hopefully that answers you questions about the Super Users.
Thanks Rich and Mark for that clarification. As you have a close relationship with DROPBOX and have direct contact with them, something we as normal users do not have, can you tell us or give us an idea as to when or if we are likely to receive replies to the multitude of questions raised by various users on this topic and what the likelhood is of either the photo albums being retained, or , if not, a practical solution ie Dropbox do the hard work and save everyone here weeks of work and move our current albums into folders for us?
Your experienced advice/opinion would be much appreciated.
- RichYou're welcome, Simone.
This is one of those cases where we're in the same position as you. We're waiting for more information from Dropbox on this one. We know that they're watching the thread and are taking into account all of your comments, but that's it. We don't know when they'll make another reply. It would be very helpful if there were a way to test the new interface in advance so users have time to find another solution if it doesn't work for them. I'm not sure how to pull that off, but I work for a company with high traffic sites. We always get to test new functionaliy in a before it goes live.
Great idea. I've beta-tested for Windows before and would be happy to participate in a beta-testing community for Dropbox. Soliciting members of this forum would be a natural fit for the folks at Dropbox.
I would be surprised if Dropbox hasn't been doing user studies on this before they decided on such a drastic change. If they didn't, they really should. I would be willing to beta test this as well as long as nothing changes permanently with my data.
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