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Forum Discussion
Slide show feature removed
Viewing a folder of photos as a slide show is a basic feature which was previously available in Dropbox but has been removed. In my view this is a fundamental capability. I would like to send a li...
Walter
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHey there KMH - how are you today?
As I'm not sure I understand, can you please elaborate on your query? What exactly do you mean by "slideshow" and how long have you been noticing this behavior with your shared links?
If I may ask, do you see it on other browsers other than the one you used so far and/or on an incognito or private browsing window - possibly after clearing your browser's cache as well?
Note that everyone who accesses a shared link to an album with photos should be able to browse them by simply pressing the back or forward arrows on their keyboard.
In any case, please let me know what you find and we'll take it from there.
Thanks in advance!
I usually don't share folders of pictures because people generally don't want to fill up their space with someone else's pictures. I sent links to folders instead.
When you view the folder of pictures in your browser, you can go to a full screen mode, but you have to manually click or right-arrow or swipe through them - I like the option for automatic advance. In Chrome on a PC with Windows, the pictures constantly get resized after the initial display, which makes for an very clunky and abrupt transition that is hard to watch. When video files are encountered in the same folder, Dropbox goes out of full-screen mode and you manually have to run the video and select full screen mode. Advancing to the next file, pictures are displayed out of full screen mode. Lots of button pushing and not a good user experience.
Contrast this with Windows Photos app. You can select the first photo in the folder, choose "slide show", and then all photos and videos in the folder are displayed in sequence with smooth transitions. If viewing my own pictures, that's what I use.
If someone else receives a link to a Dropbox folder, they cannot use the Windows Photo app (or a comparable app in a different OS) without a full download of all the pictures. If they are using a phone and the Dropbox app, they can swipe through the folder ok and manually run any videos. If they are using a PC and browser, they are forced to endure a lot of resizing and button pushing and aren't likely to view the whole thing. In the past, the dropbox.com had a good slide show feature that worked smoothly, now it's gone.
Hope this helps.
Chrome Version 71.0.3578.98
Windows 10 Home version 1803
Thank you for describing this ommission so well 'KMH' . . .
A self running slideshow is what I expect people to be able to be offered and to use when I send them a link to a folder full of .jpg photos. I am sure that it worked last week in some circumstances but I cannot even see the option offered now (in Firefox).- Walter
Thanks so much on elaborating on this one for me KMH - most appreciated.
I will be passing your comments along to the team as a feature request for previewing shared links as a slide-show - thank you for taking the time to provide your extensive feedback on this; it really helps a lot improve our services and current features.
In the meantime, I don't know if this would work for you, but there's a function that's very similar to what you'd like to achieve -- it's Paper's presentation mode which allows you to present any Paper doc in full screen.
As mentioned, I'm not sure if this will do the trick for you so please feel free to try it out and let me know how it goes.
Thanks again!
I too miss the slide show feature. i share links with my family, and would like to offer them a slide show. this is the whole reason I paid for drop box. do i need to switch to some other photo service??
- Walter
Thanks for adding your voice to this feature request SJon - I'll make sure to pass your comments on to our dev team for consideration.
In the meantime, if my previous suggestions didn't work out well for you, you could give our Showcase feature a go as this is really close to what you'd like to achieve. Just note that it's available to our Professional and on our Dropbox Business plans (Advanced, Enterprise and Education).
Let me know if you have any more feedback or questions.
