Can I delete photos from my phone after uploading them without deleting them from Dropbox too?

[Jonathan B.3]

Here's the essence of the problem: I have DropBox Pro installed on an iPhone 5s, iPad Air, MacBook Pro and Windows desktop computer. I do NOT want to clog up my iPhone, iPad and MacBook with files from DropBox. I want to simply upload and then delete them from the mobile devices. I'd like to use automatic Camera Upload but when I delete the photos from my iPhone or iPad I do NOT want them deleted from DropBox...as has happened on numerous occasions (most recently when I exchanged a broken iPhone for a new one and then tried to copy content from one to the other and subsequently delete unwanted photos...on the iPhone, not "unwanted" from my DropBox space). So how do I do a one way sync? Keep in mind that after photos appear in the Camera Upload folder, I MOVE them to a different desired location...and when they're deleted from my iPhone, they are still deleted from the new location!

[J L.17]

I agree with Richard G and am very frustrated!! My new phone now has no storage left-- even when I delete the Dropbox app.  I have thousands of files I have to manually delete, or else completely reset my phone.  Are these my only options other than clicking each single file?

[Rod W.5]

Check out this video I made. It should give you some understanding of how to make backups rather then mirrored files and storage.

This will help save space on your hard drive but will also allow you to access the files later on DropBox's website.

This video is for PC & will have a link in description for mobile devices show how to set up and save your files.

Best is by date's I'd say. You'll be able to create a folder with the date {Mar-30-16} put files in that folder than deselect the sync to device to remove the files from the DropBox app of the device. Now checking they are on DropBox you can delete them from the device and still have a backup on DropBox

Again saving the valueble space you want on your phone. Its hard but that's how I know to do it. Let me know if you need help and I will try to help. Enjoy and hope I did help some of you out in understanding DropBox for backup rather than mirrored files on a device.

https://youtu.be/IoptLQleVRA Video here how to.

[Leonie S.1]

I installed dropbox on my device just over a year ago, never really used it, however on the day that we decided to use is to share folders etc, I noticed that my pictures are there - that same day my phone got stolen - now that I accessed my dropbox again and looked more into detail, I discovered that the photo folders (created on my device) is not in dropbox? Is there a different way to upload the photo folders.  I only created the folders 2 weeks before - is there still a way to recover the photos? Really hope for some positive feedback  - thank you

[Kelly H.23]

This dropbox app is killing me. I bought it to back up my pictures and videos. It is using up all 128 gigs of my memory! I didn't see any solutions to the original question and it appears there are no settings on dropbox website or in app to offload these pics from my phone to free up space and store them in the cloud, which it sounds like is what everyone is trying to do. Wake up dropbox! give us a solution that works without complication. 

[Rod W.5]

Hi Kelly, technically to upload to Dropbox and backup to the cloud without it being automatic sync is to create a folder for the files that you want to back up and then manually add the files there that's the option that is given. What you do then is unselect in settings not to synchronize that folder. It's recommended that you use a date for the folder dealing with photos that way you can know the time period of your photos and get back to them so yes you can technically back up and then clear your phone and your files will still be on Dropbox. Let me know if this helps you out or if you understood it thank you

Rod Warrix

[Rod W.5]

Hi Kelly, technically to upload to Dropbox and backup to the cloud without it being automatic sync is to create a folder for the files that you want to back up and then manually add the files there that's the option that is given. What you do then is unselect in settings not to synchronize that folder. It's recommended that you use a date for the folder dealing with photos that way you can know the time period of your photos and get back to them so yes you can technically back up and then clear your phone and your files will still be on Dropbox. Let me know if this helps you out or if you understood it thank you

Here's a way to do this - go to my files select all files click the share button select Dropbox It'll ask to add to which folder I believe you can create a new folder when that's done click the add button you'll have to do this for images videos and any other files that she just wants a backup I recommend doing this over Wi-Fi and make sure the setting is set to only on Wi-Fi for upload then it's All About Time for a hundred and twenty eight gigs that's going to take a little bit of time I've done 20 gigs overnight before on super high-speed internet but if you have it set to Wi-Fi only then you might be in luck and a pickup every time you're connected to Wi-Fi to upload files until they're uploaded.

Rod Warrix 

www.rtwmerchants.com

[Berrett M.]

Need the feature to purge backed up files that was in carousel.

[Kay O.2]

There appears to not be a system to handle this problem within Dropbox! Now, where to look for an app for this problem?

I wish there were a place I could go to find succinct help?

[martin h.]

No one answered the question about how to delete from dropbox on a macbook pro while still having the images on the cloud. Is this possible? can i just delete the images in the camera uploads folder on my macbook and they will still be on the cloud? Is this folder acting differently than other folders on the dropbox platform?

[Jonathan B.3]

Here's the process I've used that seems to work: move (not delete) the files from the Camera Uploads folder (on Win or Mac) to another folder. I move the files to folders named by date, such as 2016\01_January, 2016\02_February, 2016\03_March, and so on). 

Once moved (not copied or deleted) from the Camera Uploads folder, Dropbox does not upload again (because they've already been synced from your mobile device (phone/tablet) to Camera Uploads. Once I've moved the files to another folder, I can delete the images from my mobile device. 

Now here's the caveat! I have a windows PC with lots of storage. I also use a MacBook Pro with less storage plus an iPhone and iPad. I take photos on all devices (except the PC) and don't want to clutter up my phone, tablet or MacBook with excess photos. BUT Dropbox must be able to sync somewhere and for me that somewhere is my desktop PC. So when I move files to my PC, they are still synced with Dropbox and I can delete off the other devices. I do selective sync with the other devices (most important on the MacBook because otherwise it wants to sync all Dropbox files on its limited storage).

The same approach could be done using an external drive on your Macbook. Dropbox would upload files automatically to your Camera Uploads folder, you'd then move them to the external drive and free up space on the (probably) more limited MacBook storage. Make sense?