Can I keep the creation/ modification dates on my photos when I upload to Dropbox?

[Kar]

I'm uploading photos from my memory card to Dropbox without transferring to my computer first.  I have years of photo cards that I am uploading to be able to better organize.

I can see the files on my card reader in my window folders with the correct dates for each photo , however when I copy these photos to drop box, all files become today's date vs the date the photo file was created/last modified.  Is there any way to manage this?

I'm wondering if drop box may have been a poor choice for what I'm trying to do.  Appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

[Jane · Accepted solution]

Hey @Kar, thanks for checking in on our Forum, I’d happily send you some tips that could be useful & we’ll take it from there!

Based on your description, it seems that you’re uploading your files from your memory card to Dropbox using the Upload option on the web (or you’ve dragged & dropped them on your browser), as this should reset any previous metadata associated with your photos. 

At the moment (& depending on your needs) you may have a look at the following options to work around this behavior: 

• Our Camera Uploads feature may be useful to you, since it uploads your photo using the date of creation. 
• Alternatively, you could use our desktop application, which preserves the modification date on our website as well. That said, you can either move or copy & paste your files inside the Dropbox folder on your desktop & the info connected to your photods should transfer across just fine.  

I hope that this brings a bit more clarity to your inquiry & please do let me know here if you have more questions about any of the above. Happy Monday! 

[samtastik]

Hi!  I have the same problem as Kar.  I have tried uploading old videos from my desktop using the dropbox desktop app and the "Date Modofied" field on ALL of them has been reset to the date of upload and NONE of the metadata was retained as far as I can tell.   It is a real shame since I unfortunately deleted the original files after uploading to dropbox. I would recommend NOT deleting the original files until you have verified that you have retained original dates, if it is even possible.  I'm glad I only uploaded around 20 videos before I realized that information appeared to be lost but it's a real bummer since the whole point of using dropbox was to open up space on my hard drive and now I feel like I still can't delete the files even after they have been uploaded.

[Jane]

Hey there (@samtastik), I just ran a test on my end & I can confirm that the creation dates should be preserved. As I’d like to investigate what could’ve gone wrong in this case having all our tools available, I’ve made sure to reach out to you directly via email gathering all the details you’ve included on this discussion. 

Whenever you find some time, please check your inbox for my message & I’ll make sure to promptly get back in touch with you asap. I’ll be awaiting your next reply!

[liamcaff]

Same happening to me - Uploading photos to Dropbox (directly to web version) is resetting all dates. I have too many files to run Dropbox application on local harddrive.

This seems to be an extremely poor feature of Dropbox

[Jane]

Hey @liamcaff, by the looks of it, I’d say that your inquiry is similar to what the OP has been describing, so I’m wondering whether you’ve had a look at our Camera Uploads feature by any chance; please let me know in your next message if possible. 

From there, can you clarify for me if you’re not using our desktop application at all or you’re merely running out of space locally on your device, so you’d like to avoid syncing these photos there? If the latter applies Liam, I’d suggest having a quick look at our Selective Sync feature, which should help you save up some space locally. 

Please let me know how you get on with my advice or if I’ve misunderstood your question in any way & I’ll do my best to check back with you soon. Thanks! 

[liamcaff]

Hi Jane,

Thanks for the reply. When I click on the Selective Sync link you sent I get the following message: "You do not have sufficient privileges for this resource or its parent to perform this action. Click your browser's Back button to continue. " However I have read about this feature and don't think it solves my issue...

Basically, le'ts say I have 5GB space free on my laptop and I have 100GB of photos, videos, media projects etc that I want to backup to my Dropbox account. I also need to retain the creation date of all of my files. If I understand the Selective Sync option, it seems it allows me to select folders  in my dropbox (cloud storgae) to sync to my local drive. I want to do the opposite. I want to select my 100GB media folder on my local drive and have it sync to Dropbox so that I can delete the folder from my local drive.

I hope that makes sense and there is a solution.

Regards,

Liam

[Jane]

Thanks for checking back with me @liamcaff & please accept my apologies for the non-working link; this one should do the trick this time. 

Now, as you’re interested in preserving the creation/ modification dates, kindly note that these photos should be hashed by the device in the background Liam. My suggestion would rather entail syncing the files in smaller batches, so as to accomplish the task at hand. In other words, instead of syncing 100 GBs of files at once, you could increment it in smaller pieces & remove them by re-adjusting your Selective Sync settings once your files are synced to your account online. 

I hope that this is answer you’re seeking, however please let me know how you get on with my advice & I’d happily check back with you Liam. Thanks again! 

[liamcaff]

That's working perfectly Jane - thanks a million!

[Jane]

🙌 Fantastic, pleased to hear you managed to find what you were looking for @liamcaff; happy Dropboxing ahead! 🤓