Camera uploads picture quality is not original

Hey wertupo - thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Is it possible that you're referring to the previews of the files as you see them in the Dropbox mobile app or the website and not the actual files?

Can you try downloading and/or exporting one of the problematic files and let me know if you notice the same?

Thanks!

Hey Walter, thanks for your response.

I am aware that the previews would be of lesser quality from previous posts that I have read. However this is not the case. I am referring to the actual files being uploaded. When viewing the photos on the web, desktop app or the phone app, the files all show that they are of a smaller file size and visibly hazy, lesser quality. 

In the link are two files - 1 of which was automatically uploaded by dropbox, and 1 is the original photo uploaded manually. [shared link removed to protect your daily limit of data sharing]

I noticed this issue a couple of weeks ago and found that it has been happening for at least a month. As stated above, this only happens to some photos not all.

Hi from me as well, wertupo. To clarify, does your image (the one that was uploaded to Dropbox via camera uploads) appear the same even after downloading/exporting it to your device? 

This will help us isolate the issue a bit more.

Hi Nancy, yes. When downloading the image that was uploaded, the quality is also hazy...  As previously stated, the file sizes are different. The original photo file size in this case is double that of the photo uploaded to dropbox.

Unfortnately I am not seeing other users with same issue 🙃

Hi wertupo, are you using the default Camera app on your phone, or a third party app? Do you have any filters applied to your images?

If you upload an image manually view the Dropbox mobile app, does the image also appear hazy?

Are you also using the Storage Saver option in Google Photos, which removes the original quality images from your device?

Hey Jay, yes its the default camera app. No filters, no fancy settings, just normal auto point and shoot stuff.

If I upload manually, it appears in its original quality.

I do not use google photos to back up my photos. I find it very intrusive, hence why I use Dropbox <3, but this quality issue is driving me nuts

Could you try disabling the camera uploads feature, reboot the device, and re-enable it again?

In the camera app, are you using any options such as 'High Efficiency Image', or is it converting them from PNG to another format somehow?

Tried just now but same result. Yesterday I had also tried uninstalling the app.

Camera saves the photos as .jpg, and dropbox also uploads same format.

In addition, just now I tried to disable camera upload, took a couple of pictures, and then enabled camera upload again. The photos were then uploaded with the original quality.

Is it possible that Dropbox is 'rushing' to snap the photo up to upload before the phone has had the time to process it? Hence the bad quality?

I'm not sure what could be causing this, but can you clarify if you're still noticing this behavior, even after the troubleshooting steps you attempted wertupo?

Same behaviour yes. Noting again that it occurs on some not all photo uploads.