The Photos page is changing...

[Darren S.1]

I've just seen the banner that says "The Photos page is changing on 30 June 2017 but your pictures will stay safe in your Dropbox account. Learn more". The gist is that they are removing the final remants of the Carousel functionality - which makes me wonder what the point was in purchasing it in the first place:

"After that date, you’ll no longer be able to create or share albums on the web, or browse photos in the current timeline view. However, all your photos will remain safe in your Dropbox account."

Even funnier, it says:

"Creating a better photos experience

We’re continuing to work on new photos and file experiences on dropbox.com. As we learn more about how our users prefer to work with photos, we’ll launch improvements to the experience."

With these changes there will be no photos experience that is any different to normal files. If they remove camera uploads, that would be the last straw for me and I'll be moving to a different service.

[Gil K.1]

Doesn't seem like a joke -- rather reasonable scepticism.  I think Drobox simply has a desire to get out of the photo-storing and photo-organizing business.  It's possible that this is largely "retail" work.  Corporate data is wholesale and a more profitable investment of support staff salaries.

[Gil K.1]

Well, their repeated expression of "understanding" frustration -- and repetition of their intent to cause that frustrtation by ending the feature -- suggests that they simply no longer want the business.  I think I'll start looking around for alternatives.

[cdysthe]

Sure looks like this is a cynical behind it all. In my case we are many Dropbox users in my company. We will cancel our business accounts also if this new photos thing isn't resolved.

[Rob A.13]

I've only found three viable alternatives. Microsoft OneDrive, Google Photos, and Yahoo Flickr.

[philipmcdaniel]

Agree 100% - this is the biggest pain in the A$$ 

[fgrati]

Hey Dropbox team, I understand you want to change how photos work and not leave people create albums anymore. Fine with that. But I need to move my pictures from existing album to new folders in my file tree, and the only supported way of doing that is to download all those pictures and upload them again in the new folder. Seriously? You cannot do anything better than that? What about a new item in the menu which says "move pictures to a folder" and I can just pick up one? Doesn't sound too complicated to me, considering this is a paid service.

[Gil K.1]

Thanks to Rick L. for this articulate and intelligent statement of the problem. I do wish that Dropbox corporate and tech would show even a hint of understanding of the problem which is now causing me, along with Rick L., to look for the alternatives. I spend more than $150 annually on Dropbox, and have been doing so for some years. That income stream (with low cost to them) is about to disappear. I think they can multiply this by many users . . . . It's a bad business decision, pure and simple. Bad show all around.
Gil K.

[Gil K.1]

Thanks for the suggestions -- I'll look at it. Much appreciated.

[Rob A.13]

I finally decided to switch to Google Drive and use Google Photos to backup my photos. Google's ability to help me find photos using search based on facial identity, location, date, and content is unprecedented versus any other service. I'm very happy with my decision.

[JedDinger]

After a month of evaluating other options, I came to the same conclusion, Google photos is going to be the most seamless transition. No big surprise there.