Camera uploads tries to upload all my photos, even though it had already uploaded 90% of them

[mcthom]

I am on a desktop Mac and I have been plugging in my phone to upload my photos to DB for years. I prefer this method to using the phone app because it renames the photos to the date, which helps organize them. Suddenly the camera uploads WON'T just upload the latest photos--it wants to upload all my photos, which it can't because I don't have room for 25 GB of photos (and I don' want to). So it stalls and nothing is uploaded.  I have made sure my computer and dropbox all have the latest software. I have stopped and relaunched the DB app. I have turned cellular data off. Not sure what else I can try. 

[Hannah]

Hey @mcthom, thanks for letting us know about this.

In general, camera uploads will recognize the photos that are already uploaded, and will continue only with the ones that aren't.

This is quite strange indeed; can you let me know how you can see that it's trying to upload all your photos?

Have you allowed any photos to upload? And can you compare them with the original ones, to see if their sizes match?

Let me know what you find.

[mcthom]

Thanks, Hannah. 

Activity says "importing photos" for quite a while.  However, Camera Uploads folder is empty ( I empty it after every session so I still have room on dropbox). Previously, Camera uploads would start having at least one photo after 1 min or so and then it woudl add all the photos one at a time--and the speed would depend on my wifi speed.  Now, after some length of time, the message is 'not enough room', which to me indicates it is trying to upload too many photos (as I know the 20-50 photos will fit in my 13 GB space on my DB. So it is inference rather than direct knowledge of the problem.    

I should add that this problem used to be only on my husband's phone and now it is with both phones. I have reinstalled DB twice in the last month to see if that  would help and it doesn't.  

[mcthom]

I will add that NO photos are being uploaded. I am not blocking them--it just doesn't work at all. I have used Camera uploads for my photos for many years so not sure what is different now, other than I am using Mac OS 13.0 (Ventura).   When I look at the progress tab, it says it will take 4 hours to upload (something that used to be a 5 min job).  I checked my internet speed and it is 75 download and 10 upload, which is "very fast." I would love to hear any other ideas. 

[Hannah]

Thanks for getting back to me here, @mcthom.

Would you mind sending us a screenshot of the 'not enough space' error you're getting?

Is it referring to Dropbox space or perhaps hard drive space?

[mcthom]

HI Hannah:  I figured out that I must have previously only been upIoading photos and not videos. I must have toggled a change  because after 4 hours a bunch of video were uploaded and then it said not enough space.  I only had 50GB left on my hard drive, but I deleted a bunch of stuff so now I have 150 GB so that should be enough.   (How I could have that many videos on my phone when my phone until July only had 64 GB of space I don't know but I am trying).      

My second work around is change the toggle again to just upload photos.  No success on that however.

 First it said "Can't upload from your computer" or something like that (too fast for me to screen share) and gave me the link to this: https://help.dropbox.com/create-upload/camera-uploads-overview.  The only thing I hadn't tried before was this: 

Note: If you’re using macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or higher, you’ll see a notification that says “Dropbox would like to access files on a removable volume.” Clicking OK will allow camera uploads to work. You can change this preference any time:

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Click Security and Privacy.
3. Click the Privacy tab. 
4. Click Files and Folders.
5. Check or uncheck the box next to Removable Volumes under Dropbox.

But Dropbox is NOT one of the applications that is listed in that tab so I cannot check any box. (Note I have reinstalled Dropbox twice in the last month. )

 It says that it is importing photos but the progress has one tiny dot on the line.  For 30 min- 1 hour. And nothing uploads. 

[Hannah]

Thanks for the info and the screenshot here.

Is there any progress so far?

And what do you see when you hover your mouse over the Dropbox icon in your menu bar?