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

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?

Thank you for the clarification Richard.  I appreciate it.

I just switched on Camera Upload the other day. Prior to that my "Storage Usage" for DropBox app was minimal. (in the 10s of MB)

After the upload (which it did correctly to my Camera Folder), my DropBox app shows 1.1GB of Storage Usage. 

Question: How long does it take for the DropBox app to remove them from the iPhone?

If I click on a particular image in DropBox from the Photos tab and then select "..." for its settings I see that is say "Make Available for Offline" which can be toggled to "Remove From Device". Which is the correct setting to remove them my device?

All the recently added images seem to be set to "Make Available for Offline". Do I need to manually change them all to "Remove From Device"? 

Is there a way to set the default to "Remove From Device" if that is the setting I'm looking for? I don't seen any obvious way to select all the images and set this globally.

Current Setting on all images and movies in Dropbox - "Photos"

Thank you for your help.

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?

Yikes, sure we can manually move photos and video files out of the automatic photo uploads folder up on Dropbox.com and.or out on a connected computer, and then manually delete them from the phone.. But shouldn't the computer(s) just do it for us? Seriously, this is a perfect example of just the kind of simple repetitive task suited to automation. I guess I'll go engage with Dropbox support. Perhaps there's a fix for this already. (.. as well as for the RAW file auto export problem.)

Thanks for the helpful procedurals though. They do clarify the synching relationships.

I have an iPhone 6 and want to move my pictures from my iphone to my hp pavilion sleekbook PC to free up space on my iphone. What is the easiest way to do this? I already have it set up to auto transfer pics weekly from iPhone to PC but want to be able to (comfortably)delete off iPhone with the knowledge they won't be lost if I delete off
iPhone.

I want to organize the photos I take and have them available, in grid form, on both my iphone and computer. As far as I can tell, Dropbox only offers a list form. I like seeing them as my iphone Photos displays them - bigger, in a grid. Does anyone know a solution? Ideally I want to sync and organize them to dropbox and then as I do that they are deleted from the photos app on my phone. I want to be able to find them in their folders, and not duplicated in other places.

Thanks!

It seems Dropbox used to have something called Carousel. Will they be coming out with something soon? Thank you!

Hi there, 

Could you tell me what does not work, what steps you are following and where you get unexpected behavior from the app? 

If you would like a member of the support team to have a closer look at this, you can get in touch here: 

www.dropbox.com/support

Thanks! 

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.

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

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