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Searching image exif data in app on Dropbox Professional plan

Searching image exif data in app on Dropbox Professional plan

Dougie N.
Explorer | Level 4
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I save all my photos to Dropbox. They have lots of exif information; location, tags, keywords, captions etc, written from various programs, nowdays it's Digikam. I try and give the photos meaningful filenames as this is rapidly searchable across platforms, but most of the good information is stored internally in the files themselves.

I was interested to see that the Plus plan introduced searchable files, but not jpegs. But from my understanding the Professional plan does allow text searches inside image files. This is so useful to me I've upgraded from Plus to Professional.

However I'm not sure I've understood correctly. The Help page says:

"You can search images in your Dropbox account based on the content in them. For example, you can search for “clothing” to see all images of clothing (and images related to clothing) in your Dropbox account—even if “clothing” isn’t in the file name."

I would understand this to mean I could search any of the exif data from within the IOS app but my initial experiments in the app and on the website have not been successful.

For example, the image: https://www.dropbox.com/s/npdks5bmaq7k4pv/Sun%2017%20Nov%202019%2016-42-10%20GMT.jpg?dl=0

contains the Caption 'Lumiere 2019 - Cathedral" in the Caption Abstract and Comment fields (output from exiftool):

Caption-Abstract : Lumiere 2019 - Cathedral
Comment : Lumiere 2019 - Cathedral

but I've had no success searching on these text strings.

Does the internal image search not work in the way I'm assuming?

I've been charged pro-rata for the Professional plan until end December but I'm thinking of downgrading back to Plus so I don't get the full-year charge for 2020 as I'm not convinced Professional actually does what I'd hoped.

Dougie

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hey @Dougie N., thanks for checking in with us on the Community.

You are right, image search is very similar to text content search in the way it works and doesn't use exif data. 

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to give me a nudge. Thanks!


Lusil
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


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4 Replies 4

Dougie N.
Explorer | Level 4
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An observation; after a few more experiments it seems to work in the same way as Google Photos searches image content. e.g. If I search (using the Dropbox website) for 'bicycle' - it shows all photos containing a bicycle. It doesn't look at the exif data at all I don't think. And it's not available on the iPhone app.

It's interesting and quite fun in a novelty way but not what I've looking for.

Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

Hey @Dougie N., thanks for checking in with us on the Community.

You are right, image search is very similar to text content search in the way it works and doesn't use exif data. 

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to give me a nudge. Thanks!


Lusil
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so, please give it a Like below.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Still stuck? Ask me a question!
:pushpin: Tips & Tricks Find new ways to stay in flow or share your tips on how you work smarter with Dropbox.

Dougie N.
Explorer | Level 4
Go to solution

Thanks for the clarification Lusil. I've changed back to the Plus plan now.

 

Lusil
Dropbox Staff
Go to solution

No worries, @Dougie N. :slight_smile:

Let me know if you have any other questions and, in the meantime, have a lovely day ahead! 


Lusil
Community Moderator @ Dropbox
dropbox.com/support


Heart Did this post help you? If so, please give it a Like below.
:arrows_counterclockwise: Still stuck? Ask me a question!
:pushpin: Tips & Tricks Find new ways to stay in flow or share your tips on how you work smarter with Dropbox.

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    Lusil Dropbox Staff
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    Dougie N. Explorer | Level 4
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