Dropbox not importing photos over wired connection between iPhone and MacBook

Hi ccaravello, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

Just for clarification, when you wife's phone was connected, did you ever see a prompt to upload images? 

This will help me to assist further!

Jay,

Thanks for the quick reply. When I connect her phone, the dialogue appears "Keep your memories safe" and allows me to "Choose a Dropbox to save to." I checked the "Include videos..." then hit "Start Import." The phone gives me that Trust prompt to allow it access. On my MacBook, I click the Dropbox icon (from the top menu bar) and, at the bottom of the flyout menu, it says "Importing photos". Now, as I am testing this to give you accurate information, I plugged my wife's phone in and it immediately started syncing!  I ran this cycle for an hour the other night, without success. Though my problem seems fixed for now, please reach out with further inquiries that can help resolve it for others.

Thank you!

Chris

I'm glad to hear that it seems to be working for now.

Just to clarify, when it said 'choose a Dropbox to save to', do you have a Dropbox Business team linked to a personal account, so you had the choice to upload to either account?

Jay,

It's that time of year again, and I have a brand new iPhone 15Pro. Same issue. Yes, I do have a Personal and a Business Account. Each time I connect my phone (now USB-C/Thunderbolt cable on both ends) to my MacBook Pro, The Dropbox Dialog pops up, asking me to choose which Dropbox to upload photos to. I choose Personal and continue. The dialog goes away, and if I click the Dropbox icon up in my system tray (top right of my screen), the status at the bottom of the Dropbox pulldown says "Importing photos...". What I do not see is the little camera import icon on the Dropbox Icon itself. I have restarted both my computer and my phone. Each year, after about an hour of restarting my devices, logging in and out of Dropbox on both devices, eventually it resolves, but it is really frustrating, and there is no clear indication of what exactly makes it finally work.

Thanks for your help and apologies for just seeing your message from February!

Hey ccaravello, sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Just to clarify here, you're referring to the icon included in this Help Center article for Camera uploads in progress - right?

Could you let us know the OS version of your computer and the version of the desktop app installed there as well?

Have you tried turning off the camera uploads feature and then back on or adjust your bandwidth settings through the desktop app's preferences?

Any additional information or screenshots are more than welcome! 

Yes, that is the correct Camera Uploads icon (Dropbox box with tiny camera at the bottom right). I was finally able to get it working this time, only after:

• Logging out and back in to Dropbox app (MacOS)
• Restarting my MacBook Pro
• Restarting my iPhone
• Signing out and back in to my Dropbox app (iOS)

The information you requested is:

• My current MacOS: Ventura 13.5.2
• Dropbox app (MacOS): 184.4.6543

My Camera Uploads Feature is always turned off. When this issue arose in the past, I tested toggling it on and off, but it never fixed the issue. It only started the slow process of wireless uploading. Also, it is not required for wire-transfer of Camera Uploads. I prefer to leave it disabled as I have several services already syncing. I prefer to allow Dropbox Camera Upload over wired connection only.

For this year, my issue is resolved, but I hope this helps others. I will await my iPhone 16 and see if it gets any easier, but truly appreciate the quick support!

No worries ccaravello - I'm just glad to hear it's sorted now and thanks for keeping us in the loop too!

As for the desktop app, you can update to the most recent version from this page directly.

Let us know if anything else comes up!