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Forum Discussion

Kar's avatar
Kar
New member | Level 2
7 years ago

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

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...
Organize
sync
upload
  • Jane's avatar
    Jane
    7 years ago
    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: 
     
    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's avatar
samtastik
New member | Level 2

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's avatar
Jane
Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
6 years ago
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's avatar
    liamcaff
    Helpful | Level 5
    6 years ago

    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's avatar
      Jane
      Icon for Dropbox Staff rankDropbox Staff
      6 years ago
      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's avatar
        liamcaff
        Helpful | Level 5
        6 years ago

        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

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