How does the online-only feature work, and how does Dropbox handle photos on my iPhone?

[GregQ]

I don’t know anyone to help me with DB -
I have dabbled on-off for 15 years but get frustrated and delete the program - Now I’ve decided that DB can do what I want but I need to learn snd understand the DB basics -
This month I started again with the “DB Essentials 3TB” package -
Two things I need to know if someone is kind enough to help.
Q1 - Say, I have a 500gb Folder with 10 subfolders and files and photos. I want to make available “on-line only”.
Do I have the make the folder on-line inly before I start or, after it is uploaded to DB?
I did one one ok but can’t do with the 2nd effort. I don’t want the DB files on my PC.

Q2 - How does DB sort, handle, manage my photos if I link to my iPhone?
I have thousands of photos on external drives that I want to store in DB, they are all sorted by chronological dates YEAR/MTH/DAY
2024-01-26
Will DB stuff up all my hard work of naming/dating my photo folfers?

Thank you in advance if any replies, advice very appreciated people… 🤞😉

[Jay]

Hi @GregQ, thanks for posting your questions on the Community!

In order for those files to be made available online-only, as it sounds like they're already on your computer in a non-Dropbox folder, you'd need to move them into the Dropbox folder, allow the time for those files to fully upload via the desktop app, and then mark the folder as online-only. This would make those files no longer take up space on your machine.

Regarding the photos, if you are planning on using the automatic camera upload feature in the Dropbox mobile app, then Dropbox would upload all photos on your camera roll and any selected albums. However, it won't retain the filenames or folder/album names. All files would be uploading into the Camera Uploads folder on your account, and have automatic filenames in the form of YYYY-MM-DD HH.MM.SS.jpg (or whatever extension you have selected for your images and videos). 

As you mentioned you have photos on external drives, are you planning on moving them into your Dropbox folder?

If you need any further assistance or have any further questions, please let me know!

[GregQ]

Hello Jay - My files are already uploaded from my PC to Dropbox - However DB has filled my hard-drive with copies on my hard-drive under Windows Users - I’m beginning to think because tge files came from an external thumb-drive that DB made an extra copy onto my PC hard-drive…. All my folders and files are on-line only at this stage just to get the job done. I will use selective sync later when I get my HD space back - I have the 3TB Dropbox plan so no issues there..
Thank you Greg Q

[GregQ]

Thanks Jay
I’m sorted now but wanted to share my newly learn DB knowledge”… I tried to upload 300,000 files and then I complained my hard-drive was full. With no indication in DV or on my PC of progress - Long story shortened - I eventually was told by Riely DB Support to click on the DB ICON, bottom right screen menu bar, there was no DB icon… She said to reboot, still nothing but after 3 successive reboots “bingo ir appeared”. So now I could see that 100,000 files were uploaded and the remaining files upload was still progressing. So for 7 days DB is still uploading, now tonight 39-07-2024 tgere are just 15,000 files to go. My whole problem relates back to the fact that the DB Icon was missing… Now my GD available storage space is increasing as my files get uploaded to DB it automatically releases more available HD space…
Hope this helps any other newbies -