Sorting in the 'Photos' page

[makingscrogan]

I have noticed that the 'Photos' view function in the Dropbox browser and IOS app automatically sorts by using metadata. I suspect it uses "creation date" to group the photos into months or years for viewing.

I have a lot of old photos, where metadata is not available or just wrong. However, the filenames are correct. The format for each photo is like this "2014-04-20 15.30.05"

Is there any way make the 'Photos' area sort by file name?

Or to edit how the Photos area presents itself? It  seems very limited. You cannot add filters or anything.

[Jay]

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

Currently, it isn't possible to change the default sorting method of the Photos tab. 

Do these photos have the correct modification date when opening the file, or a more recent one?

This will help me to assist further!

[makingscrogan]

Hello. Thanks very much for your response.

The photos have a “too recent” modification date and creation date.

The best example is an old physical photo that has been scanned. The metadata will not match the actual photo date.

I guess to summarize - Dropbox can seemingly can only sort by “creation date” when viewing all photos in an ‘album format’.

[Jay · Accepted solution]

This sounds normal, since the Photos tab only uses the modification date of the file (which is usually the same as the creation date if it hasn't been edited since).

What you could try is to search for an app, service or script that can edit files by changing the modification date to the current filename (assuming it's correct). A brief search found several options. 

The files would need to be local on your machine to do so, but after editing the modification date and allowing it to sync to Dropbox, it might change their sorting order on the Photos tab.