Stuck scanning photo library

[akvictor84]

Dropbox has been stuck “scanning your photo library” the last several times I’ve tried to backup my photos. Has anyone else had this happen to them?

[jboulter]

That's really great to hear, @Raino12 !  Have you noticed after uploads were all caught up, did it go back to "Scanning your library" or did it go to "All done for now" ?  Both are valid, we just would like to know which you're seeing. 🙂

[Raino12]

"All done backing up"

[sgclark]

I'm observing similar issues on my wife's iPhone 12 Mini and Dropbox.  We have a workflow that uses Dropbox so we can share photos files between our accounts/devices and so I can archive the photos she takes.  

The issues are similar to those previously noted on this string in terms of having to delete/reinstall the Dropbox (DB) app and also having to log out and log in multiple times.  What is strange is that I do not see this problematic behavior on my iPhone 12 with DB installed and the most updated iOS installed. 

I'll detail what I've seen.

1. Open up DB app. Go to Photos and it starts 'reading photos' on the iPhone 12 Mini to prepare to sync to DB.

2. It says that there are ~8000 photos to sync, which I know is not correct.  That # is likely what is in my wife's total Apple Photo stream.

3. Log out of DB app.

4. Re log in to DB app.  Get prompted by offers and then asked if we want to sync photos.  Say yes.

5. Go to Photos in DB app and this time, it says there are ~650 photos to sync/upload which is the correct number of Photos to sync.

6. Photos start to sync as normal/expected.

7. We have to keep the screen 'active' when DB is syncing because if the phone goes to sleep, then the syncing stops. 

7A.  Also, in the DB settings area on the iPhone 12 Mini, the 'Background App Refresh' toggle is greyed out so I can't even turn it on.  

8 . When this happens, we 'wake' the phone, go to DB, and it starts the process of discovering the photos again, and the app then again says that we have ~8000 photos to sync.  

9.  Log out of DB, then re-log into DB, and it then says we have ~620 photos to sync (650 minus whatever was uploaded in the time between steps 4 and 8 above).  DB starts to sync photos and the ~620 number gets smaller.

I've deleted and reinstalled the DB app on her phone numerous times during this process.  You almost have to just sit there and watch the app sync the photos with the screen active, which is about as painful as watching paint dry.

Any suggestions or fixes would be appreciated!

Stephen

[PawelR]

Why isnt this fixed yet at the end of September? I am on ios 15 and have 1 month old iphone 12 pro max with 256gb capacity and 110gb free dropbox version 252.2 been stuck at scanning photo library for a whole day now. no upload activity on my phone from dropbox.

[geoffmacd]

@PawelR

Can you try turning off "new photos only" from the camera upload settings. Please ensure you are backing up "all photos".

Thanks.

[PawelR]

@geoffmacd 

I'm not turning that off because I am not going to deal with duplicates that dropbox likes to shove in there regularly. Your app doesn't finish uploading everything that is NEW since turning on camera uploads the first time when it should. Fix that first!

I reinstalled the app today and manually selected 2 days of photos and videos. It didn't upload them! AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it does not upload in the background when I have all settings enabled for that in ios. Your app no longer has a setting to upload in the background when it did in the past. 

[PawelR]

@geoffmacd

What the hell, I turned on all photo uploads, now its stuck at original problem scanning your photo library. This app is completely useless. Even plugging the phone to the computer and uploading photos and videos that way through dropbox does not work. How many times am i going to uninstall and reinstall this crap before it works?

[SOram]

Mine just locked up again and I read this thread. Nothing helped!

But when I was in Account settings on the iPhone I just saw a 'Clear Cache' button and decided to click it for kicks and giggles. Lo and behold it started uploading. Only did about 5 photos before stopping again 😞 Clearing the cache again restarted it.........

[PawelR]

@SOramI did that but it appeared to sync 3 files and is stuck again. Thanks for an idea to try something else.

@geoffmacd I am giving up on Dropbox. After turning on photo uploads for all photos it was stuck at scanning my 6800 photos/videos. FYI I only have approximately 50 new ones that this useless app won't sync, the rest was already synced months ago on my old phone. I will plug my phone in to pc and manually download my photos and videos as Dropbox don't work on there. Maybe in a few months I will try again.

Dropboxers don't know how to help people here and their support is already worse than AOL back in the 90s where when you call in, YES CALL IN!!!!!!!!! they would only tell you what can be found in their online support pages anyway, just like here. So just like AOL these guys have no clue what to do and just refer you to online documentation. So like I said I cannot wait any longer for slow, unreliable support. I am paying for the 2TB plan and I can't get reasonably responsive support. Unacceptable! And yes, I emailed support and each time their response takes at least a day and they refer me to online help which I have already tried including what is in this thread! I'm losing time as I have to get these photos and videos to my family/friends and support here is useless. On top of that, now my computer is stuck trying to sync a file I deleted on the phone to try and see if that will help anything related to this problem. So now I have 2 problems. Anyway I am rambling, I give up on Dropbox just like Dropboxers give up to offer us meaningful support. CYA!

[Eat with Oscar]

Hi Jay, 

I am having the same issue with iPhone 13 Pro Max. Just upgraded my account last night and all pictures and videos were uploaded. Then I changed the white balance and exposure on several photos, took some new pictures, and boom! The APP was stuck. I had to delete the APP and reinstall it to see my edits. I wonder if other content creators are also experiencing the same issue? Or did I do something wrong? Please advise.