We are aware of the issue with the badge emails resending to everyone, we apologise for the inconvenience - learn more here.
Forum Discussion
The Photos page is changing...
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 re...
Hi everyone,
Thanks again for your continued feedback on our upcoming changes.
I wanted to let you know that we've heard your concerns about how difficult it is to preserve your album structures in Dropbox. Our engineers have created a simple album export tool to help make this process easier. It's available starting today at the following URL:
www.dropbox.com/photos/album_download
The tool will allow you to download your albums to your desktop as .zip files. Please note that you'll be downloading a new copy of your photos, not moving them, so the photos will still exist in your Dropbox in the original location you saved them.We hope this tool will help alleviate some of the frustration that some of you have reported in this thread. If you have any problems using the tool, feel free to contact us via www.dropbox.com/support.
Regards,
Richard
Zed
Dropbox Staff
Dropbox StaffHello everyone,
I read all your comments regarding the upcoming change of the Photos page. We appreciate providing feedback on this and please I kindly request that we keep the discussion active in the form of constructive criticism - I will personally gather the feedback and forward it to our developers on this.
Regarding this change, Dropbox is committed to being the best place for you to work with all your files. The Photos page on dropbox.com — which includes the timeline and albums — only works with certain image types, doesn’t support team workflows, and isn’t aligned with our new web redesign.
As a result, we’ve decided to sunset the Photos page so we can focus on building new and better ways for you to work with all your file types, including photos.
After June 30, you’ll no longer be able to create or share albums on the web, or browse photos in the current timeline view. Your photos will remain safe in Dropbox, and you can view them like any other file in your Dropbox. The quick scroll functionality of the current Photos timeline will no longer be available, but you'll be able to view all your photos in a redesigned page using the same link to Photos in the left navigation bar.
Additionally, our recently-launched website redesign introduces gallery view, a new way of viewing your files as large thumbnail previews. This view works for photos, and also many other file types.
Once again, thanks for taking time to provide feedback on this change and feel free to reach out back here for additional comments on this change. If you have any suggestions, ideas, requests you can post them here and I will make sure that every comment will reach our team.
Thank you!
Zed, thanks for taking the time to comment here, but all you've really done is repeat what's been said on the annoucement page.
I don't really have a horse in the race when it comes to albums as I only have a handful, but can you comment on the concerns raised here by people who have hundreds or thousands of albums - surely it should be fairly trivial to provide a tool to convert them into folders?
For me, the two most important features of Photos is the timeline view and automatic camera uploads. The former is going away so can you give us a clue as to what the newly designed photos page will look like? How will it be different to the normal Dropbox file browser (and if it's the same, what's the point in having a separate Photos page)?
Can you please also confirm there are no plans to remove the automatic camera uploads feature on the mobile apps? That is a deal breaker for me. I already had to purchase a third-party app to replace the functionality of the standalone Carousel app, next time I will just be switching storage providers.
Thanks.
I have to agree with Darren, that didn't answer the question at all!
The key thing for me is why should I stay with dropbox rather than paying Google for full-quality photo storage? I can get the same backing up behaviour and many more photos features, plus plenty of space in Drive to store all the rest of my junk.
I have been using dropbox for years..managing to get my IOS using family away from iCloud as the automatic time lining of photos from all our devices (android/IOS) and cameras could be consolidated in a single place. The ability to quickly scroll through 15 years of digital photos from phones and SLR’s together is the key defining feature we use, it has basically replaced any local storage on my phone apart from a NAS sync dropbox is my storage for photos.
If I read this right you are taking away this functionality to replace it with a traditional folder view..?
If so, what does dropbox offer in functionality over and above my internet connected NAS drive?
I would rather not have the hassle of moving several TB’s of data across to googles servers, but losing the timeline feature and albums removes the point of using dropbox for me.
- Darren, Curious what "third-party app" you purchased, and what functionality of the Carousel app did it replicate that you missed?
- Charles L.5
It's called Unbound for Dropbox - Unbound for Dropbox by Ryan Harter
https://appsto.re/gb/jOV7I.i
The main thing I wanted was to be able to put it on my wife's phone and have her photos uploaded to my DB account giving her access to my entire account with the main DB app.
- Responding to your request for constructive criticism, would it be possible to post a visual aid to the new UX. A simple YouTube video describing the new user experience would go a long way towards helping your customers understand the upcoming changes.
JedDinger wrote:
Responding to your request for constructive criticism, would it be possible to post a visual aid to the new UX. A simple YouTube video describing the new user experience would go a long way towards helping your customers understand the upcoming changes.On similar lines: is there going to be any functionality that replicates e.g. albums and timeline? Or will photos just be treated as files like any other (as the messages seem to imply)
For those thinking of switching, as I am, here is a recent of photo sharing sites
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/comparing-the-best-ways-to-store-your-photos-online/
I am thinking either Flickr or Google Photos. Unfortunately I had just renewed Dropbox for a year ... I wonder if I can get my $$ back?
(Ironically, the review above says "Dropbox, for example, has a standalone photo-focused app called Carousel, designed for simple photo sharing that backs up your photos to your account automatically".)
I concur with this. It seems as though they did not do a very good job at "unfreezing" (to borrow Lewin's Model) to their users by disseminating this information much sooner and given their customers more time to adjust to this change. A simple YouTube video would have helped. Perhaps they are trying to hide from customers that their focus is not on the photo navigation or albums any longer but on their commercial customers storing files, merely being a data storage house. Gone is the Carousel functionality (which I loved!) and this announcement further pushes me toward simply buying a large NAS and pitching the DB subscription. I think this is the nail in their coffin for sellability of their service.
- Without timeline, DB will be less usable cuz i was looking these big photos rapidly and choosing which one is that i am looking for. If it turns to thumbnails then it will not be easy to understand which photo is that i am demanding, i will need to press on them on by one to find wanted one. I hope at least you will convert album names into same folder names and same number of folders will be exist.
There is no replacement being roled out. Why?
I don't believe it after all the lies before Carousel was killed "....integrate just like Carousel but in Dropbox...." NEVER HAPPENED!
Dropbox has a serious trust issue. I don't trust for one second they are going replace it. If they were concerned they would have made the process less painful and dovetailed into a new format with a replacement ready to go.
Organizing photo files in separate folders and then sharing them is NOT a subtitute to the photo albums. The Dropbox team must understand they are taking one important funcionality away and not replacing it properly. Unless there's new photo tools on the way -- and the first responses to the community indicate there won't be any -- my first reaction here is to look for another storage service that will let me keep handling and organizing my pictures with basic gallery/album tools. Why not just going back to Google Drive/Photos? I never thought I'd consider that, but here I am. I've been using Dropbox to store all my files including my pictures, but suddenly it's not good for pictures anymore. As a user this change feels just gratuitous and misguided.
For a foundational platform that actually had something good going this is a fantastic mistake. Anytime your new web design and capabilities require that you go backwards on an essential, popular feature there is a real product development issue. Unfortunaltely, I'll just have to begin using Google. You're goiong to loose a LOT of customers. Sad
At the very least, can Dropbox please create a migration tool that automatically migrates existing Albums into folders?
