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Forum Discussion
Help! How to Transfer Photos From Dropbox TO iPhoto!?
I've searched the Dropbox site repeatedly. Twice, they list the answer for How to transfer photos from iPhoto to Dropbox. But, I want to do the reverse!
I've emailed Dropbox: No response. By mistake, my new macbook was linked to automatically receive my photos when my iPad or iPhone connected to my computer. I believe that I've rectified that for the future.
But, I find nothing about how to import my current Dropbox photos to my iPhoto on my computer.
Help, please!
Scott y.1 wrote:
I can't move individual pics or folders from online dropbox to my i-photo either.
Super frustrating.
Thats because you cannot just drag things from web pages in to applications - same as any program. The files need to physically exist on the computer first so you need to download them and THEN put them in iPhoto.
We need more info I'm afraid as to how you are trying to do it.
Richard P.Super User alumni
Drag them from the Dropbox folder into the iPhoto app, just like normal.
I'm finding the same problem. Dropbox wants me to upgrade now that they've put all my photos in Dropbox. I can't use iphoto anymore. I want to quite Dropbox entirely. I want to be able to import my photos as before, which went right into iphoto for editing. How can I disable Dropbox, while retaining all my photos and having new photo imports go directly to iphoto?
I eventually fixed this problem myself. I had to uninstall dropbox and then re-install it. In the set up process there is a point at which you can select not to sync your photos with dropbox. It is not obvious, you have to look for it carefully. I obviously missed it the first time round and I can't remember now exactly where it was so look carefully in the preferences. My iPhoto library then re-installed itself from the backup so I didn't lose any photos. I've used dropbox sins and it hasn't been a problem. The drop box help sites are of no help with this problem, they only want you to use dropbox!
This thread only appears to apply to moving photos from the Dropbox app to iPhoto, not from Dropbox web interface. I stopped using the Dropbox app because it stores everything on the hard drive so using valuable storage space on a Macbook Air. I prefer to store using the Dropbox cloud for storage (in addition to my external Time Machine storage facility). So how do I transfer photos from the on-line Dropbox site. I have been able to do this by use of the Download facility, except for many of my photo files on Dropbox it only downloads zip files which I can't seem to open. I also get some transferring as "unspecified HTML" files, which also don't open. Very frustrating and random. Nothing in the FAQ section of Facebook site. Any clues out there?
Thank you, Richard!! That was sooo simple. And, to think of all the time and frustration in trying to discover it on my own.
Elizabeth M.30 wrote:Thank you, Richard!! That was sooo simple. And, to think of all the time and frustration in trying to discover it on my own.
Not simple to me. I need to copy, drag or whatever pictures from or in a dropbox into a file that I can use however, I have never been able to copy pictures to my picture items in Picasa. How is that done in my simple understanding for this 83 year old man.
Bruce Manning
I had to install dropbox on my own macbook air for work. It has automatically uploaded all my photos from iPhoto (something I didn't want). It now says my dropbox storage is full plus it has disabled the iPhoto app so that when you click on it, it says "closing the library".
I can't open iPhoto, I can't upload any more photos and I don't know how to transfer my photos back from dropbox and stop it happening again.
I tried dragging the 'camera upload' icon on dropbox to my iPhoto icon as suggested above but it doesn't work.
Any advice please?
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I had the same question as you, Elizabeth M., and doing what Richard P. suggested didn't help at first because I was attempting to drag my photos from my Dropbox ONLINE folders instead of my Dropbox HARD DRIVE folders! Once I accessed the photos via Dropbox on my hard drive, I was able to click and drag into iPhoto and they were then automatically imported/uploaded to iPhoto :)
Of course, this was only after I sent an email inquiry to Dropbox to help me figure it out ... here is their response:
"I'm happy to share information on how you can disable the Dropbox application to perform Camera Uploads from those devices.
You can disable the camera uploads feature by following the steps outlined in this Help Center article:
https://www.dropbox.com/help/307
To add photos that you have in Dropbox, you can drag and drop or copy and paste files in the Dropbox folder on that device to any other applications. Your Dropbox folder is just a normal folder on your hard drive. Therefore, if you drag and drop files into the Dropbox folder, those files will be moved instead of copied.
It's common to assume Dropbox works like a network drive because of its many online features. However, your Dropbox folder is actually a normal folder and its contents are stored on your hard drive. The Dropbox application only watches your Dropbox folder for changes and syncs those changes online and to your other computers. One of the benefits of this way of syncing is always having access to your files, even while you are offline."
For more information on moving files versus copying them, visit the Help Center article:
I can't move individual pics or folders from online dropbox to my i-photo either.
Super frustrating.
- Mark
Super User II
Scott y.1 wrote:
I can't move individual pics or folders from online dropbox to my i-photo either.
Super frustrating.
Thats because you cannot just drag things from web pages in to applications - same as any program. The files need to physically exist on the computer first so you need to download them and THEN put them in iPhoto.
We need more info I'm afraid as to how you are trying to do it.
