Camera uploads is a feature that automatically uploads photos and videos from your phone or tablet.
Learn more in our camera uploads overview article.
To get help with common issues with camera uploads, click the question that best fits your needs.
Frequently asked questions covered in this article
Common error messages
If you get an error message while using camera uploads, or camera uploads isn’t working, try these quick troubleshooting steps:
Note: Camera uploads is available to all Dropbox users (Basic, Plus, Family, Professional, and Business), with the following three exceptions:
Dropbox Basic users must have the Dropbox desktop application installed on their computer to use camera uploads.
If you’re using camera uploads, your photos will always go to your Camera Uploads folder. You can’t change the destination of your photos to a different folder. However, you can move photos to a different folder after they’ve been uploaded to your Camera Uploads folder.
Camera uploads can use a large amount of battery power during its first sync with your Dropbox account. After the photos on your phone upload, battery usage should return to normal.
By default, the Dropbox app stops auto-uploading when your battery is low to save battery life.
If you’re still experiencing an issue with battery life, try the troubleshooting steps in this article.
To prevent duplicates, camera uploads checks if a photo or video was previously uploaded. Photos and videos that have already been uploaded using camera uploads don’t upload again, even if you deleted the files from your account.
If you apply an edit or filter to a photo, the altered version will only be added to camera uploads if it is in your camera roll when the original is uploaded. If you apply a filter after the original has been uploaded, you will need to upload the filtered photo manually to your Camera Uploads folder.
Note: Burst and live photos on iOS are not automatically added to camera uploads. If you would like to add burst and live photos to your Camera Uploads folder, you will need to upload them manually.
RAW files
Some RAW files may not upload with camera uploads. Learn more about approved image file formats on the Android MediaStore or the iOS Developer page.
If you see someone else’s photos in your Camera Uploads folder, you can:
How did these photos get there in the first place?
When you connect a phone or tablet to a computer with the Dropbox desktop application, a pop-up asks if you want to use camera uploads. So, for example, if someone used your computer to charge their phone, they may have clicked OK to that pop-up without realizing it.
How can I find out who uploaded their photos to my account?
To find out who uploaded photos to your account:
There are a lot of reasons that Dropbox might identify a photo or video file as corrupt. This typically has nothing to do with security, and there’s a chance the file will still open normally on your computer or phone.
If you remove the corrupted files, the error message will go away and camera uploads will resume.
How can I tell which files are corrupted?
There may not be a simple way to tell which camera uploads are corrupted. You may have to contact Dropbox support for help. Before you do, we recommend these steps: