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flyhen's avatar
flyhen
Explorer | Level 3
2 months ago

How can I only upload the photos from my phone and not my computer to Dropbox?

Hello All,

 

I've noticed that (for awhile now) after I enabled the "Turn on camera uploads" on my iphone, whenever I had the iOS Dropbox App open, it not only uploaded all the photos in the iphone camera roll (which is what it is suppose to do), but I realized it also uploaded photos in my Mac, to be more specific, it is in my Desktop folder (a dropbox symlink)

 

To put things in perspective, the symlink is already synced to Dropbox, and all things in there, photos and other files, are already uploaded.

 

How can I disable this "extra upload" feature and have my iOS only focused on upload the photos in my iPhone only.


Thanks

 

Camera uploads
Desktop
Mobile
Sync
  • Mark's avatar
    Mark
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    2 months ago

    Sorry I'm confused, where is the symlink on the iPhone or is it on the Mac? Note that Dropbox doesn't support or follow symlinks. 

     

    However, Dropbox does now upload photos from the photo albums on the mobile device. So its possible it is pulling them from that. You can change it in the 'Back Up...' menu

    • flyhen's avatar
      flyhen
      Explorer | Level 3
      2 months ago

      Hi, sorry for the late reply, i was travelling.

      1. the symlink probably has nothing to do with mobile devices as it is a symlink between my laptop and dropbox itself.

      2. don't mean to complicate things, but when i open the dropbox app in my iphone, it will look for any new photos to upload/back in my camera roll, but not only that, it will also do the same for my laptop (photos in the symlink folders).

      All I want is the iphone to be backed up, not the new photos in my laptop.

      • Rich's avatar
        Rich
        Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
        2 months ago
        flyhen wrote:

        ... when i open the dropbox app in my iphone, it will look for any new photos to upload/back in my camera roll, but not only that, it will also do the same for my laptop

        Dropbox doesn't do that. The mobile app can only upload photos and videos that are in the albums on your iPhone. It can't upload photos or videos from your Mac.

         

        One thought, though, and I'm not a Mac user so correct me if I'm wrong, please. Does iCloud sync albums across devices? If so, could it be that iCloud is syncing the photos on your Mac to an album on your iPhone, and Dropbox is uploading the content of that album?

         

        Mark, you're a Mac guy. Does that sound right?

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