iCloud Photos and Dropbox Camera Uploads

[Buadhai]

I started using iCloud Photos (again) several months ago. I've been using Dropbox Camera Uploads for many years.

Last week I decided to import several thousand old photos into iCloud Photos. The import went very quickly. (Last time I tried this it took several weeks and crashed the Photos app multiple times.)

The one problem I have is that Dropbox Camera Uploads is now trying to upload those thousands of old photos to the Camera Uploads directory on my Mac. I can't find any way to tell Dropbox not to upload old photos. Am I missing something?

In the meantime I'm planning to use launchd to run the following command periodically:

find ~/Dropbox/Camera\ Uploads -type f -not -newermt "2021-05-06" -delete

This works, but I can't help but thinking that there must be a better way.

Is there?

 

[eyoungren]

I started using iCloud Photos (again) several months ago. I've been using Dropbox Camera Uploads for many years.

Last week I decided to import several thousand old photos into iCloud Photos. The import went very quickly. (Last time I tried this it took several weeks and crashed the Photos app multiple times.)

The one problem I have is that Dropbox Camera Uploads is now trying to upload those thousands of old photos to the Camera Uploads directory on my Mac. I can't find any way to tell Dropbox not to upload old photos. Am I missing something?

In the meantime I'm planning to use launchd to run the following command periodically:

find ~/Dropbox/Camera\ Uploads -type f -not -newermt "2021-05-06" -delete

This works, but I can't help but thinking that there must be a better way.

Is there?

Turn Dropbox Camera Uploads off for a bit, then turn it back on - assuming you still want to upload photos to Dropbox. If you don't, leave it off. It's in the Dropbox app settings.

 

[Buadhai]

Turn Dropbox Camera Uploads off for a bit, then turn it back on - assuming you still want to upload photos to Dropbox. If you don't, leave it off. It's in the Dropbox app settings.

Tried that, didn’t work. I even uninstalled the Dropbox app and reinstalled. It still insists on uploading the thousands of old photos and videos I imported into iCloud Photos.

I’m now running the launchd job every fifteen minutes to delete the old uploaded photos.

 

[Buadhai]

This is ridiculous. Over a week out and there are still so many photos to upload. Plus, it kind of eats my iPhone battery. Here's what's happening this morning:

MrMuscle:camera uploads mnewman$ ls -l | grep 2015
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mnewman  staff   2261836 Jan  9  2015 2015-01-09 16.46.00 HDR.jpg
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mnewman  staff   2574534 Jan  9  2015 2015-01-09 16.46.18 HDR.jpg
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mnewman  staff    731036 Feb 18  2015 2015-02-18 08.46.25.jpg
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mnewman  staff     49431 Mar  3  2015 2015-03-03 13.25.26.jpg
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mnewman  staff   1983161 Mar 15  2015 2015-03-15 06.58.09 HDR.jpg
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mnewman  staff   1253138 Mar 16  2015 2015-03-16 06.42.07.jpg
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mnewman  staff   2559524 Mar 16  2015 2015-03-16 08.46.28.jpg
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mnewman  staff    305000 Mar 30  2015 2015-03-30 13.42.44.jpg
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mnewman  staff    634782 Apr  7  2015 2015-04-06 17.14.14.jpg

 

[Buadhai]

Here's another thing that drives me nuts about this. My iPad and iPhone have identical settings for DropBox Camera Uploads and for the Apple Photos app. The iPhone continues to upload all the old photos that I added to iCloud Photos. The iPad is uploading none of these old photos.

Why the difference in behavior?

 

[Buadhai]

Dropbox finally fixed this offering an option to backup "New photos only". It seems to work. The massive iCloud photos upload has finally stopped.

This is the old iPhone Dropbox preferences.

This is the new Dropbox preferences

 

[eyoungren]

Dropbox finally fixed this offering an option to backup "New photos only". It seems to work. The massive iCloud photos upload has finally stopped.

This is the old iPhone Dropbox preferences.
View attachment 1791010



This is the new Dropbox preferences
View attachment 1791009

I think your problem is why I always turned off background uploading. It's a hazy memory but I know I had that turned off for a reason.

 

[Buadhai]

It's kind of interesting. I posted this issue on the Dropbox forum. The one guy who responded intimated, without actually saying, that he was from Dropbox. (He used "we" and "our".) He told me to go to the Dropbox "Camera Uploads" preferences and select "New photos only." I posted a screenshot showing that this option was not available. Two weeks later the option appears in the updated app.