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lbrechler's avatar
lbrechler
New member | Level 2
11 months ago
Status:
Closed - Inactive

Scheduled camera uploads

I would like to schedule my Camera Uploads so that I have a chance to remove/organize things before they're uploaded.

Ideally I could have options to set either the time or frequency - i.e. 2am every day, or "any item older than 6 hours."

Two examples (on android) today: 

  1. Sometimes I take 2 or 3 photos in order to choose the best one and delete the others. But even if I delete them quickly, dropbox is too efficient(!) and they've already upload there, where i have to clean them up again.
  2. If I take a screenshot and then edit it to add, say pen coverage, it uploads to dropbox as 2 files, even if I save over the original locally.  Often I'm annotating an image to text to someone, but don't need it backed up in dropbox at all, so I'd delete it before uoload.

5 Comments

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  • Jay's avatar
    Jay
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    3 months ago
    Status changed:
    In Beta
    to
    Closed - Inactive

    Thank you for sharing your idea.

    We have looked into this, but it is not something we are actively working on at this time. 

    Thank you for your suggestion, and if you have another idea to share, please do! 

  • lbrechler's avatar
    lbrechler
    New member | Level 2
    6 months ago

    Yep, as you mention, the feature you linked to does not apply to mobile, and I'd argue that the Camera Uploads feature as it exists today doesn't really provide a backup of what's actually on my phone.  In my examples,

    1. I'd delete 2 of the 3 photos so only 1 exists on my phone, but all 3 exist in dropbox.
    2. I'd have only one (annotated) image on my phone - or none after I sent the text and deleted it - but 2 files in dropbox.

    So this doesn't feel like a "backup" of what's there on my phone within minutes of taking the images.

    Also, Camera Uploads now offers month-based subfolders that don't exist on my phone, so it IS trying to do some organization for me (which I do use, and which I'd really like, if I didn't also have to delete all the extra images)

  • CanadaDropper's avatar
    CanadaDropper
    New member | Level 1
    10 months ago

    I second this! It is so annoying that EVERY photo get uploaded, even if it is deleted within minutes. Now what I want at all from camera uploads 

  • Walter's avatar
    Walter
    Icon for Dropbox Community Moderator rankDropbox Community Moderator
    11 months ago
    Status changed:
    New
    to
    In Beta

    The team is working on this idea!

    Thanks for sharing your suggestion with us and to everyone for supporting it. We’ll update you when we know more!

  • Roga41's avatar
    Roga41
    Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
    11 months ago

    Hi lbrechler

    Thank you for making use of our Dropbox Mobile camera uploads backup. In regards to this feature you are utilizing, the main task this backup feature does is to create copies of the photos and/or videos you take from your phone on the Dropbox cloud that is saved immediately on a default folder named : Camera Uploads. Even if you make changes from your phone, like you mentioned deleting the photos, but it is not deleted in the cloud so you have to delete them again . The reason why this feature does not delete the files stored on the cloud is because the backup files are supposed to be only used for disaster and accident in case your phone gets lost or stolen, or gets messed up . In this way you are rest assured that all your files on the cloud are still intact regardless of what is going on in your phone. What we usually suggest is that if you need to  organize them , you will just need to create another folder specifically dedicated for these finalized list of photos. And then you can delete all the files in the cloud. With the scheduled back up that you hope it is available or offered, it is but this only applies for the Desktop/laptop . 

    Schedule regular backups for your computer or device

    The updated Dropbox Backup provides the option to set up Automatic backups. You can schedule backups to take place on 15-minute (recommended), daily, weekly, or custom intervals.  ( https://help.dropbox.com/organize/dropbox-backup-overview

    I hope I was able to help you with this information about our back up feature for mobile devices and computer devices. :)