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Re: Stuck "importing photos..."

Stuck "importing photos..."

James P.45
New member | Level 2

My dropbox is set to auto import/upload my iphone photos, which it is doing. But it keeps telling me it's "importing photos..." and the menubar symbol is constantly the camera symbol that usually comes up when its importing. It's like its stuck.

 

Any help?

System: Macbook Pro, OSX El Capitan.

90 Replies 90

Michael K.109
New member | Level 1

Hello all,

The person trying to help me from Dropbox wrote to me again and I wrote back. I have alerted her to this thread (with a link) and to the number of people in it, including Daniel J. from today. In the last email from her, she recommend I try the following (see below), which I did, but this did not resolve the issue for me, and I've informed her of that, and she will apparently consult with specialists further, and I'll post any updates.

Best,

MK

//////MESSAGE TO MK FROM DROPBOX//////////

Thanks for that additional information. In order to have the specialists review this further, we need to make sure that the Dropbox application is up to date.

Currently you're connecting to Dropbox using version 3.12.5 of the desktop application. We recently released version 3.12.6 and I'd like to have you update your application.

You can find the latest version (3.12.6) of the Dropbox desktop application here:

https://www.dropbox.com/downloading

Please open the .dmg file and double click the Dropbox icon to install Dropbox.

Once the Dropbox application is updated, please reboot your computer. If you're still seeing similar issues after updating the application just let me know.

I'll investigate further with the specialists on our team. Thanks again for all of your assistance troubleshooting this issue. Let me know if you need anything in the meantime!

Chris K.41
New member | Level 1

I have 3.12.6 on my mac and even rebooted (gasp).  Problem not fixed.  This time it got to the end (said 3 seconds left on import) before stopping, but it never completed.

Daniel J.21
New member | Level 1

I downloaded 3.12.6 today ... rebooted both macbook and iPad ... and soft reset iPad just in case. 

whilst it DOES seem to be copying new photos into dropbox - the icon is still not changing and I'm not getting the completed notification I always used to get. 

annoyingly, I've been doing a lot of organising with photos.app (which is syncing changes to my devices via icloud) and have added some old photos which were previously synced with dropbox which I assume wont sync again ... which is just making things even more confusing.

Chris K.41
New member | Level 1

Update.  Same version, no real changes.  Plug my phone in again and now it successfully transferred and uploaded all my images.  No idea why.

visoft
Explorer | Level 4

I'm seeing the same issue. Looks like the last time my images were uploaded was 11/30/2015! I'm running 3.12.6 on El Capitan (upgraded) and I'm not on a team. Uploads seem to work from my iPad, just not my iPhone 6. Puzzled.

James P.45
New member | Level 2

still have the same issue.

Paul H.
New member | Level 2

Just adding myself to this list of people experiencing the problem.

Am not signed up to Teams so that possible solution doesn't work for me.

I note that DB is syncing regular files normally despite the icon being stuck and the message "Importing Photos..." being displayed as the status.

Also, all my photos are uploaded via the iphone app and so I have no more photos that need uploading - I plugged my phone in to my computer for other reasons, but this incorrect syncing message resulted as a consequence and it doesn't appear to matter how long I leave the phone connected the sync fails to complete.

John G.139
New member | Level 1

 

I got rid of the perpetual OSX El Capitan Dropbox import pictures issue. 

I tried to blast a file to get Dropbox to regenerate it and I got a message that root didn't have permissions to delete the file. WHAT?? Oh yeah, system integrity implemented in El Capitan. Not a problem. Though, there shouldn't be any files protected by system integrity in the .Dropbox folder.. alas.. there is. Grrrrrrr.... Here is how you deal with this:

1. Boot in to recovery mode by holding R at boot. 

2. In terminal enter the command csrutil enable --without debug

3. Rebooted the Mac.

4. Quit Dropbox

5. Unplug Cell Phone from USB.

6. Start Dropbox and let it complete initial index. 

7. Plug in Cell phone and allow it to sync pictures. 

Hope this helps someone. 

Shayne B.1
New member | Level 1

You got me super excited John!!!  But it didn't work 😕

I'm thinking about doing a complete fresh install of 10.11 over the weekend with a complete download from Dropbox and see how that goes.

John G.139
New member | Level 1

Yeah, I am still messing with it. I plugged my phone in a second time.. boom. hung with About 1 second left importing. Blehhh.. It goes right back into it's funk. I noticed that there is a file that says PENDING_ in the .dropbox/instance1 folder. If you delete that file, Dropbox crashes and re-indexes when you restart it. 

DROPBOX folks, You got any input on this issue?

I am determined to resolve this by some means. I'll post what I figure out. 

Need more support?