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Forum Discussion
What do I do about my Live Photos and metadata on other uploads?
Dear Dropbox Community,
I have read through so many posts after searching the term “Live Photos" but still do not know if Dropbox lets you upload Live Photos from an iOS device, using any method would be fine with me. I only care about preservation and maintaining metadata. So, can I make it simple and ask: Live Photos and DB, do they work together?
I mentioned metadata; a possibly completely different question but I believe both belong in one, simple, "do this, ok?" Response. Please and thank you in advance— how should i upload any Photo or Video from my iPhone to Dropbox without wondering or worrying that metadata dates altered because I uploaded, let’s say, by clicking the plus sign in the app or going to the website and uploading that way.
Will different ways of uploading result in different versions of the uploads of anything from my iPhone’s Photos?
Thanks again,
LBN.
PS- i need to remove all media from an iPhone 8. My next post will be about not Photos, Live Photos and Videos but about voice memos & their data. But for right now, let’s just tell me what to do about my Live Photos! Hundreds. I hope I don’t have to AirDrop them to another apple device to keep them. I dont have that option. Dropbox is my only backup method for a while going forward. I would hate to end all those Photos as Live ones and hate to have the dates embedded mess up on everything i can upload if I can’t upload the live ones as is. No thread just says in February of 2021, yes DB works with Live Photos or No, you are in trouble. Especially because you don’t know which way you uploaded what. Tried all the ways. Sometimes metadata dates placed videos correctly in the timeline and other times with the exact same file, just left it in “this month”. It was from October 2018, definitely not this month! So i can only imagine what is happening when I upload the Live Photos...
I did wonder why some photos didn’t show up on that part of the ios app, and one of the Live Photo threads taught me that edited photos dont. I manually upload everything so i think they are otherwise ok.
- Jay
Dropbox Staff
Hi LBNLBNLBN, thanks for contacting us!
Currently, Live Photos aren't supported in the iOS mobile app with the camera upload feature.
Uploading via the plus button will only keep the jpg portion of the file, and metadata will be changes slightly since the creation date will be the moment you upload the file (which is the same for any file uploaded via that method).
If you wish, you can suggest allowing Live photos to upload for others to vote on, so the dev team can look into this in future!Thank you for the reply so soon, Jay !
I am very scared now that you said anything uploaded via the plus button resets the creation date. I have uploaded so much that way. I guess I just have to live with my files this way.
This makes me really want to know now if there is a way to upload to Dropbox without any changes occurring?For example, should I go on mobile Safari and to dropbox.com to upload my images?
I cannot use the automatic camera uploads feature because I am only saving some pictures and videos; not everything is mine.
I did notice a "Mobile Uploads" folder was created: what happened to those creation dates? Changed, too?The iOS application in the past used to allow me to see the metadata on my files and media; it does not any longer for most file types or media types. I could have seen this altering of information embedded in my storage happening if the opportunity to view that stuff existed as easily as it once did. There is no information button on most items.
Why is the plus sign front and center if it changes your uploads?
I thought Dropbox was for backup...
Would this round about way through Readdle Documents work?
If I zip up a folder with Live Photos in it, will that preserve the Live part once I download and unzip somewhere else (like, a friend's desktop for example)?
How about creation dates and other metadata on any kind of file or photo if zipped up before uploading to DB?
(Just trying to think of some way to save them. I don't have much time to remove my stuff from my mother's iPhone I'd been borrowing often. She wants the space back. Also, I am imagining ahead to audio recordings.)
So, thank you very, very much for the quick simple "no" regarding Live Photos!
Thank you as well for the tip about uploads from the plus button!
If I am understanding correctly, I am going to have to get creative and just except that when I finally have a laptop of my own, and download all of my Dropbox (like a hard drive) onto it, the iPhotos thing will be way, way wrong. Unfortunately I used that and cannot reupload those original items. I thought they were safe and erased what i had transferred to DB already; wish i had asked sooner! For all other items going forward, I will just have to have an extensive folder system like on my old PCs before metadata and all that did the organizing and relevant things for me: folder name > folder name year > folder name year and month > folder name year and month and day.
Thanks again for the help so far,
laura beth
- JayWhen using the camera uploads feature, any images in the camera roll are uploaded with the correct metadata into a Camera Uploads folder.
Moving files into the Dropbox folder would retain the metadata when it's uploaded to the site, so if you can copy the files to your computer, and then to the folder, then it would sync fine.
Uploading files directly the site is the same with the mobile app plus button, the metadata would be for that specific moment.
Third party apps would be able to upload files, however, it depends on the app on it it keeps the metadata. Zipping files would retain the info inside the zip file, once extracted on that end, in general.
