Certain photos won’t show up in the upload photos menu when using the (+) button.

[mbowling]

Using the iPhone app on a new iPhone 8. I’ll select a group of photos taken/downloaded in a day. Let’s say it’s 50 photos that day. It’ll upload the photos.
Then once I go to delete them on my phone I’ll highlight the Group of photos that were uploaded and my camera roll count will tell me it’s actually 65 photos. So 15 photos were never uploaded.
Come to find out, the photos never show up in the upload file menu in the Dropbox app. They’re on my camera roll and are the same file type as the other photos but they don’t show up in the upload photos selection menu. It’s like they’re hidden.
The only way I can upload the missing files is to go into my camera roll and select the files one by one and save them individually to Dropbox.
Anyone else have this issue??
It happens to a random 15-20% of the photos.

[Jane]

Hey mbowling, happy June & thanks for reaching out on the Dropbox Forum! 

Let me ask you some questions that will help me narrow down the possible causes, so as to reproduce with the behavior you & see the results I’m getting on my end. For starters, as I’m assuming that you’re running the latest version of the Dropbox application on your phone (98.2), can you also ensure you’ve installed all OS updates? Are you uploading your files manually, using the (+) button, or have you enabled the Camera Uploads feature? 

Also, as a point of reference, you may also keep in mind that your can monitor your content from your “Events” page here (eg. file additions/ deletions/ edits in shared folders in case you're uploading to a shared folder). From there, you can see whether your files were “Added” (& you can also sort according to “Date”). What do you see there? Also, can you re-create by any chance? 

Please keep me updated on the outcome here & I’ll make sure to check back with you as soon as possible. Thanks again & happy Friday! 

[mbowling]

I just updated to the latest iOS and I checked to see if the Dropbox app is the latest version and I can confirm that it is.
So I have 160 new photos in my camera roll today. When I go into the Dropbox app and hit upload photos “select all” it says there’s only 121 photos from today.
I’m not 100% sure why some of the photos show up and some don’t.
Not all of the photos I’m uploading were taken with my camera. Some were downloaded. If I find one that isn’t showing up in the upload photos menu in the drop box app I can usually re-download the same photo file and the duplicate file will show up.
Downloaded photo files are downloaded from either Safari or Tumblr. If that helps.

If you need more info let me know.

[Jane]

I appreciate all these additional details & getting back in touch with me here mbowling, let me follow-up more closely below! 

In truth, I’m curious as to whether your downloaded Photos reside on your Camera Roll once exported to your device. More specifically, if you choose to upload your pictures to Dropbox using the (+) button, you’ll have to choose where you’d like to upload from, which can be changed by tapping on the down arrow :downwards_button: on your top ribbon on your iPhone (as below). 

Once you choose to upload your pictures, you’ll get a notification on how many files are queued to upload. What do you see there? Do you see 160 photos or 120? If you could send me a screenshot of what you're seeing, that would be very much appreciated, too. 

Thanks in advance & I’ll be awaiting your next message! 

[mbowling]

So while taking screenshots I discovered something interesting.
In my Camera Roll, if I’m under the “Photos” category which organizes the photos by date. Not all of my photos I downloaded today are included. If I go under the “Album” category then “All Photos” it will show all of the photos I downloaded today.
Drop box seems to only show the photos shown in the Album category organized by date. It may be that if the photo dosn’t have a creation date associated with it, it won’t show up in the camera rolls “Photos” section and therefore it also does not show up in the Dropbox photo “Upload” selection menu.

[Jane]

Hmmm, that’s a very interesting finding indeed! What could point you towards the root cause would be to compare the number of files you’re getting for each album, when you’re prompted to Select an Album to upload from. [Note: On my end, my Screenshots folder contained the same amount of files on both instances.]

As an alternative, have you tried “Saving to Dropbox” through your Photos app? Are you getting this option? 

[mbowling]

Yes, the number of photos in the album “All Photos” is significantly less than photos shown in the “Photos” category organized by date. As an example I created 20 new photos today, 14 show up in the “Today” section of the Photos tab. If I go to the Album “All Photos” all 20 show up.
Dropbox needs to generate it’s photo uploads from the “All Photos” section under Albums. Not the “Photos” section.

Yes, I can upload the missing photos from the camera roll to Dropbox. Though if I do it that way it’s a pain because I have to upload each photo individually. But I first have to figure out which photos are missing, frustrating..

[Jane]

Thanks for posting this constructive feedback & expressing your interest on this functionality here mbowling; I’ve made sure to pass your comments up the ladder to our mobile team for future consideration. If I were in your shoes, I’d also try uploading my photos using the (+) button, though choosing the the “Recently added” section, which will in all likelihood serve the purpose. 

I hope this is helpful to you & I’m wishing you a fruitful week ahead!