Need to see if your shared folder is taking up space on your dropbox 👨‍💻? Find out how to check here.

Forum Discussion

Dorothy D.'s avatar
Dorothy D.
Helpful | Level 5
9 years ago
Solved

Dropbox only updates when the app is open on my iPhone

My iPhone used to automatically sync my photos to my Dropbox. Now, unless the Dropbox app is open on my phone, it won't update in the online or computer dropbox. What's going on?
sync
  • Rich's avatar
    Rich
    9 years ago
    Apple restricts the amount of time that an app can remain active in the background. I think it's something like 10 minutes. In order to get around that, Dropbox uses a change in your location to trigger the app to "wake up" and continue uploading in the background. If you don't allow Dropbox to have access to your location services, this process can't happen.

    When enabling background uploading in Dropbox Settings, it prompts you for access to your location. If you didn't allow this, you'll need to either disable/re-enable it and (I think) it will prompt again, or go into Location Services on your iPhone and enable Dropbox.
Rich's avatar
Rich
Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
9 years ago
Apple restricts the amount of time that an app can remain active in the background. I think it's something like 10 minutes. In order to get around that, Dropbox uses a change in your location to trigger the app to "wake up" and continue uploading in the background. If you don't allow Dropbox to have access to your location services, this process can't happen.

When enabling background uploading in Dropbox Settings, it prompts you for access to your location. If you didn't allow this, you'll need to either disable/re-enable it and (I think) it will prompt again, or go into Location Services on your iPhone and enable Dropbox.
  • Dorothy D.'s avatar
    Dorothy D.
    Helpful | Level 5
    9 years ago

    It was an automatic update until now. I never had to wait. The photos just uploaded immediately, regardless of any time limits, etc.

About Create, upload, and share

Find help to solve issues with creating, uploading, and sharing files and folders in Dropbox. Get support and advice from the Dropbox Community.

The Dropbox Community team is active from Monday to Friday. We try to respond to you as soon as we can, usually within 2 hours.

If you need more help you can view your support options (expected response time for an email or ticket is 24 hours), or contact us on X, Facebook or Instagram.

For more info on available support options for your Dropbox plan, see this article.

If you found the answer to your question in this Community thread, please 'like' the post to say thanks and to let us know it was useful!