Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨💻? Find out how to check here.
Forum Discussion
In dropbox.com/Camera Uploads, file names with colons are not synched to Windows
At Dropbox.com in my Camera Uploads folder I have over 900 jpg files which contain a colon (i.e. : ) in their file names. For example 20161202-15:51 - 15.51.19.jpg
It seems these files will not sy...
Jay
Dropbox Community Moderator
Dropbox Community ModeratorHi XLRotor, thanks for messaging the Community!
This is a limitation on Windows systems, as they don't support certain symbols in file or folder names.
You'll need to change these files to remove the colon symbol to another supported character.
If you have any further queries, feel free to message back.
When I saw that some files synched to Windows, where others did not, I figured colons must be the reason.
Why did jpg files get named in a way not compatible with Windows? I certainly didn't do it. A bigger problem is how do I rename 900+ files.
What controls dropbox's file naming process? The iphone Dropbox app does not seem to offer any control over this. I can see from my list of 1200+ file names that the naming convention changed at various points in time. Starting sometime around August 2022 jpg file names began using a period in place of colons.
- Jay
Did you use the camera upload feature, or did you upload images manually to the Dropbox site around the time of the change?
Regarding renaming the files, you'll need to find a program or service to rename them in bulk from your Mac device.
I don't know how to upload photos manually. I don't have a Mac. I have an iPhone 12 and Windows laptop. Photos I take on my phone upload automatically to Dropbox when the iphone Dropbox app is open. Dropbox evidently names and/or renames them when uploading. I have no idea how an iPhone names photo files. The only file name I see is what ends up in Dropbox.
I may have found a way to rename the files.
The following is done while logged in at dropbox.com
1. Create a subfolder under Camera Uploads named temp
2. In subfolder temp, create a naming convention from the "Organize" drop down.
3. copy the files that need renaming from Camera Uploads to temp.
I tested with a single file, and it worked. However, after my successful test with a single file, Dropbox seemed to forget the naming convention I had created for the temp folder. Very strange. However #2, I copied another file and it did get renamed just like the first file. Very strange #2.
I am amazed that a Google search or a Dropbox forum search found nothing helpful when I looked for colon-related problems with file names in Camera Uploads. I can't believe I'm the only person to fight this problem.
