Duplicated iOS camera uploads

[wilcolley]

Seriously DropBox can you please allocate some resources to solving this issue. Either give users the ability to merge duplicates photos or bulk delete them. You’re such a clever bunch put this on your roadmap 🙏

[Jay]

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

Do you have any filters on images when taking photos on your device?

Are the images exactly the same, or are there any differences in the images?

This will help me to assist further!

[wilcolley]

Hi @jay, no they are all the same. I know iOS creare two separate .heic images and they show as one image on iOS but when I sync to DropBpx they become duplicated! And help appreciate.

[Hannah]

Hey @wilcolley, sorry to jump in here, but if you check the size of both the original image and the duplicate, are they exactly the same?

[wilcolley]

Hi @hannah on looking one is 2.8mb and the other is 4.5mb.

[Hannah]

Thanks for checking, @wilcolley!

The different file sizes mean that the original photo was modified by some kind of 3rd party app, most likely by adding metadata to your image. 

This changed the size of the image causing the Dropbox app to detect this file as a new image and upload it.

Unfortunately, we cannot retroactively remove these duplicate files.

Your best bet now is to determine which app is modifying your files and stop this process from running to prevent duplicate uploads in the future.

[santiagostips]

I have a problem with my dropbox photos upload. My iPhone 14 syncs my iPhone photos on the dropbox app, but it seems to be uploading every single photo 5 times duplicated (despite each image only showing once in my camera roll). Any idea what on earth is going on?

[Hannah]

Hi there, @santiagostips and thanks for reaching out to us.

Are you perhaps using any third party apps to edit and save your photos?

If you check the metadata for an example duplicate image, does it look exactly the same (same size etc.) as the original?

[santiagostips]

Hi there. No, I'm not using any editing. Even a screenshot I took 5 minutes ago now has 6 duplicate uploads...

[Megan]

Hi @santiagostips, do all the duplicates have the same size? 

What about the files' metadata, as Hannah asked? That'll help us have an insight, as to whether or not the files are completely identical.