Dropbox using (2) different Naming Conventions and Date Formats

[delraybeachplasticsurgery]

Hello,

Recently Dropbox has been uploading photos with different file names and date formats. Example: some files will be named "2022-04-07 17.07.01"  and others will be named "Photo Apr 07 4 29 40". All photos were taken on the same device (iPhone). Also, all photos are uploading to multiple computers in an office, is this a syncing issue or something else? I have already gone into settings and set Date Format preferences to "YYYY-MM-DD".

Thank you 🙂 

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Hi @delraybeachplasticsurgery, thanks for bringing this to our attention.

If you're using the camera upload feature, all images will have the '2022-04-07 17.07.01' format, whereas images uploaded via the manual upload feature, or by dragging and dropping, will have the original filename on them, which could be similar to the 'Photo Apr 07 4 29 40' you saw.

If you need any further assistance, please let me know!

[oceanside22]

Excuse me, but you’re saying that pictures uploaded from the camera are named in a way and pictures uploaded manually from the app are named in a different way.

But we already noticed that. Can you kindly comment on the Why??

what is the logic in that? The pictures end up all out of order! It’s a mess!

is there any benefit or reason for the naming format being different? Is there an option in settings to chose wich format we want??

[oceanside22]

Please a litle help. 
I can’t find the setting to change the file name formatting. Currently my dropbox app uses something like “Photo August 17 2023 3 45 PM” but this format causes a sorting issue, as August will be listed before January. 

I would like the automatic format to be 2023 08 17. Is there a way to set this??

Can you share how do you sort your files?

[Calvin2DBX]

Hi @oceanside22,

Thanks for reaching out!

Glad to clarify about the automated name changes.

Files you add, manually, will keep whatever names they had originally. There is no automation, unlike when Camera Uploads is used, so they don't change, unless you add a custom name rule to the destination folder yourself.

You can specify a format for automating name changes in any folder you like, with the steps from here: https://help.dropbox.com/organize/naming-conventions

Hope that helps!

[oceanside22]

Thank you for responding. I tried this, but it only worked for uploads via dropbox.com,

when I upload via the ipad app, names are still “photo august 17 2023… “ any ideas what could be wrong?

also when I try to apply the “set naming convention” to a folder that contains folders, that option is not there, do I have to do it for each individual folder?

thanks

[Jay]

Hi @oceanside22, could you clarify again, are you using the automatic camera upload feature, or manually uploading images via the iPad?

Each folder has their own naming conventions, which aren't inherited from the parent folder. 

[oceanside22]

Manually uploading with the ipad app, names them different than uploading via dropbox.com

is there not universal setting for ALL uploads?? Seems logic. Why would we want different naming for different devices?? 

[Jay]

Each device has their own method of saving images, even different iOS or Android devices have different naming formats for images. 

When uploading manually, the original filename from the device is kept. If you're using the camera upload feature, regardless of your device, then Dropbox would rename the file to YYYY-MM-DD HH.MM.SS (and the extension would be different based on the original file).

[oceanside22]

“When uploading manually, the original filename from the device is kept”- This is not true, when I upload manually the file name is changed to “Photo August 17 2023” Manually is my preferred method of uploading pictures. (iphone and ipad)

“Each device has their own method of saving images, even different iOS or Android devices have different naming formats for images.”  This defeats the idea that Dropbox is a seamless solution across devices. The photos will be all messed up. You can argue that different devices have different formats, but we are uploading using the same dropbox app, wich should be able to handle all formats and “remember” the file name format my account wants.

“If you're using the camera upload feature, regardless of your device, then Dropbox would rename the file to YYYY-MM-DD HH.MM.SS.”  This is the format that I and many others want for every photo uploaded. Why should this be so difficult to implement. I already tried the “Naming convention” thing. Firts of all, it didn’t work, the convention is there, but still when uploading, the naming format remained the same as before. Second, we need to set up this formulas for each individual folder! Such a waste of time, assuming it would work, so far it hasn’t. 

The simple question is, Why can’t Dropbox, who is already renaming all my files in any folder to “August 17 2023”, rename them to “2023-08-17” instead. Why is this so difficult to set up??