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Forum Discussion
The Photos page is changing...
I've just seen the banner that says "". 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.
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
This is so confusing. Are they saying that we won't be able to share photos, albums etc on the old site, but will allow this on new one?
- No, they're saying there will be no more album sharing or photo viewing as it is now. Any photo sharing needs to be done through normal Dropbox mechanisms - shared folders, shared links - and photos will be viewable on a folder by folder basis just like other files in Dropbox - I.e. No timeline.
Organization based on folders will be a huge pain. If you want to show different subsets of the photos to different people, you will have to manually organize them in a folder, making copies as necessary ? Ugh ... no thanks.
Honestly, I feel like I'm going mad here.
I originally bought into Dropbox because of Carousel, then they axed that and now they're quietly ditching all the remaining photo features.
What an absolute joke for eighty quid a year!
I wouldn't mind if they had the new system(s) in place first and migrated my account rather than just switching things off, but the fact that they haven't means that it's almost certainly been binned and won't be replaced by anything in the future.
Seriously reconsidering continuing to pay for Dropbox now.
If only there was a way for Dropbox to make easily created and shared photo albums without the need to create directories and copy photos needlessly between mutliple directories if you want the same photo in multiple albums. Or, we could just keep the photos page as is and not enact the proposed changes that will take place in June.
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.
- I've only found three viable alternatives. Microsoft OneDrive, Google Photos, and Yahoo Flickr.
All my albums are going to disappear tomorrow, June 30. All that will be left are hundreds upon hundreds of pictures scatered all over the place. I refuse to download several gigabytes of photos and THEN uploading everything again as a dumb file folder. Oh...and I'm not even talking about ending up with a duplicate of all of those photos!
I understand that changes sometimes must be mades, but we haven't received any answers on why you are doing this. If you are changing you file storage system, couldn't you automaticaly recreate the albums as folders? Sad to see dropbox becoming another data dumpster, and throwing away its smartest feature. :(
I'm not going to moan about it, having used Drop box for years and given them hundreds of pounds for a serice I was happy with..its time to leave, I have been moving files to Google Photos, still working through the featuers and family sharing but so far so good..the smart search is very good indeed.
Sometimes you need a company to make a big retrograde change for you to bother looking at alternatives...they have moved on dropbox has moved backwards.
Well it now appears the change isn't happening until July 17th, not sure how I feel about this (does seem a little incompetent to announce a change and on the day just delay)
This news is just one to many! The most stupid thing they could ever come up with as far as I'm concerned. I've been a keen fan of Dropbox for many years but now it seems the time has come to say goodbye!
If they'd atleast offered an explanation and also a way to copy photos listed in an album to a folder and then erasing the album, but no, no such feature! It is more or less impossible to recreate the albums into folders unless one download them all and then upload into folders. Realy crappy!
- Zed
Dropbox Staff
Hello 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.
- 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)
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.
RichardDBXRich, a couple of questions you may be able to answer:
1. What is "?" What does it do? How does one currently use it? There are two types of "scrolling" on timeline. The first is that ability to move backwards and forwards through your photos once you open any one of them. The alternative would require you to open and close each photo. The second is right scroll-bar that, once clicked and dragged, shows dates, enabling you to quickly locate photos taken at a certain time. That is tremendously useful. So which does Dropbox consider "?" Also, what is the reason for eliminating these basic photo tolls? Is it a limitation of the a new Dropbox UE that is being rolled out, or are legal considerations at play?
2. If I understand the Dropbox doublespeak, all photos will essentially be kept in what is now the "Camera Uploads" file of the non-Timeline Dropbox. I don't use albums much, but as I understand albums it is essentially a series of virtual foldes with photo links. This enables a user not to have to keep or make multiple copies of the same photo in different folders, and of course saves space. This tech is ancient prior art -- not patentable. As I understand the change, you will now have to create multiple copies of the same photo and create new folders (instead of albums) to put them in. As you can tell from the comments, that's not going over well with Dropbox users who use albums. So, if my understanding is right, a few questions:
(i) Is this about the limitations of the new UE, or is Dropbox just trying to get users to max out their limits faster?
(ii) does this change precurse Dropbox rolling out and charging an additional fee to preserve (or perhaps enhance) the photo functions currently available?
(iii) in the future, if I want to tag and share selected photos with selected persons (which I can now do by a link, but without creating a link, will that functionality continue to exist.
(iv) Will a user still be able to post selected photos to FB and other social media. (5) and finally, why all the marketing double-speak? I can't believe Dropbox is incapable of using simple and clear prose and direct messaging. It is clearly (and justifiably) apprehensive about how this is going to go over with users, but I usually advise my software clients to be upfront if a newer version is going to eliminate essential or desirable functionality.
I appreciate your time and reponses.
- I agree with your comment about corporate doublespeak. When I see cringe-worthy terms like 'sunset', it makes it difficult to imagine that the user experience is going to improve. If Dropbox would just upload a video demonstrating the new user interface, it would be greatly appreciated and go a long way towards setting our expectations. If that video is not available yet Perhaps Dropbox could let us know when it might be.
I have a question about this. So, with Albums, I could tag a photo in multiple albums and then share those albums. I did not need to create a copy of the photos. After this change, if I want a photo to exist in mulple 'collections', I now need to copy that photo into multiple directories? Which now means maintaining multiple copies of the same photo for no good reason. Have I got this right or am I misunderstanding. If this is the case, Dropbox just went from useful...to useless. The only reason I use Dropbox is for managing my photo library and giving me an easy way to share out photo sets with family and friends without having to maintain duplicate files. I am really hoping I am misunderstanding this change.
- RichardDBX
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,
RichardIf I had the space and/or the inclination to download all my photos to my computer (to preserve my Albums), I wouldn't need Dropbox, now would I?!! I'm so glad I spent HOURS sifting through my camera uploads and organizing them into albums so I could find what I wanted down the line -- aaaaarrrghh! :-(
This is a terrible idea - what on earth is the thinking behind it?
The major reason we use Dropbox is for photo/image organisation and sharing (rather than files) and I use the timeline features multiple times every week...
"The new Photos page will sort photos chronologically and allow you to scroll through your photos. The speed scroller – the timeline on the right-hand side of the page that allows you to quickly view photos from a specific date – will no longer be available after June 30."
- The coyness with which Dropbox announced this change, and the lack of support for those who use albums (fortunately I am not among them) strongly smells like trying to put a happy face on a licensing or patent infringement issue. If not -- if they simply have made a decision to throw existing code, and with it all their photo users down the memory hole -- then they're just idiots. Either way, their messaging sucks.
Charles,
It's not only that. If you want to share a video with someone ,the link no longer supports browser playback. Just a download. The videos won't play in the browser at all like they have been for years. No warning given.
This takes away one of the main reasons I use Dropbox. If they don't fix it, I will use another service.
- I recently saw the notification on this upcoming change. Since I use folders for albums, the removal of virtual albums is not as impactful for me. However, there needs to be some organization assistance, such as groupings by Today, This Week, this Month, etc. Losing the speed scroller is a pretty big deal if you have thousands of photos. I've noticed using the iOS app that I cannot search based on a filename "mask." For example, if I could search based on "2017-04-*", that would be very helpful. I would appreciate it if Dropbox would consider giving us some search tools that will help us narrow down the photo filelist we are viewing. Thanks much.
I have my photos stored in different folders and also have albums of those photos. The best thing about an album is that the photo can stay in it's original location but also be a part of several albums. If I understand this new change correctly, to achieve the same thing I will need to "convert" the albums to folders and have the same photo in multiple folders.
Where I originally had a photo in one folder and also part of six albums, I will now need six folders and six copies of the same photo to accomplish the same thing. All this really does is use more space.
This xkcd on "Photo Library Management" is apropos:
especially the alt (mouseover) text which reads "A good lifehack is to use messy and unstable systems to organize your photos. That way, every five years or so it becomes obsolete and/or collapses, and you have to open it up and pick only your favorite pictures to salvage."
Hello, DB!
