Do you know how to preserve location data when uploading photos and videos via a File Request?

[oneoftheelks]

The Goal:

• Collect photos and videos from a group of people who may or may not have Dropbox accounts.
• Important: We want to preserve the file quality, date, time and location data (Otherwise we would just share via WhatsApp!)

Where I am at:

• I have set up a Dropbox File Request link.
• I have opened the link via a private browsing tab in Safari on my iPhone and uploaded some photos and videos.
• I have noticed that the photos and videos no longer have their location data once on Dropbox.
• Otherwise the file quality, date and time are all being preserved.
• So just stuck on the missing location data.

Troubleshooting so far:

• I have tried uploading the same photos and videos via the Dropbox app (instead of via the browser using the File Request link) and the location data is showing in Dropbox
• I have checked to make sure that the photos and videos have location data in my iPhone photo library
• I have asked my flatmate to upload a photo and a video from his iPhone via the request link and the location is removed from those files too
• I have downloaded the photos and videos from the Dropbox File Request folder on to my mac, imported them in to Apple Photos and checked to see whether the location data shows there. Still no location data unfortunately!

Suspicions so far:

• The act of uploading photos and videos from an iPhone via a Dropbox File Request causes the location data to be removed from the files.

Can you help? I would be so grateful!

[Walter]

Hey there @oneoftheelks, thanks for posting on our Community and sorry to hear you're having issues with this.

Can you just clarify if you're all of you are/will be using iOS devices to upload to this file request of yours?

Also, have you ensured that those files all have location data embedded before uploading them?

Apart from that, when testing the uploads were you signed into a Dropbox account or not? 

Keep us posted!

[oneoftheelks]

Hey Walter, thank you for the quick reply.

The photos and videos will be uploaded from a mix of iPhones and Android phones.

I have checked that all of the test files have location data embedded before uploading.

When testing the uploads I did it via Private Browsing in Safari and was not signed in to simulate someone without a Dropbox account using the link.

Let me know if you need anything else.

[Megan]

Hi @oneoftheelks, how are you today? 

I checked with our Team about this, and it seems that by default photos uploaded from Safari have location removed by the device at upload time. 

When you are selecting the photos, there’s an "Options'' button (in the bottom left) where you can choose what information is preserved and what is removed (including Location).

I hope this helps!

[oneoftheelks]

Hi @Megan,

Thank you for your help. I have tried to find the options button when uploading from Safari on my iPhone and I haven't been able to find it. Are you referring to Safari on Mac? If you are referring to Safari on the iPhone, would you be able to share a screenshot showing the options button?

Best regards,

Kipp

[Jay]

Hi @oneoftheelks, as this is related to how Safari operates, and we're not sure if the mobile version has the same feature, we'd recommend you check the Apple support pages for further assistance on this matter.