How to Automatically Upload iPhone and iPad Photos to Dropbox

Although Apple would prefer you use iCloud to back up iPhone and iPad photos to the cloud, Dropbox users can enable a feature called Camera Upload to back up photos and videos to your Dropbox account. Personally, since I have Dropbox on all my machines and devices, this is the process I use to centrally backup and copy all my mobile photos/videos to the Dropbox folder on my PC where they get backed up with Crashplan and later processed into my Picasa archive for editing/tagging/archival. Although Brian tells me daily… I should be using OneDrive to backup my photos, Dropbox works for me. <smile>

How to enable Camera Upload to Dropbox on iPhone and iPad devices.

Open Dropbox on your iPhone/iPad. Tap Settings, Camera Upload.

Tap Camera Upload to enable it. Background Uploading should also be enabled so you won’t need to open Dropbox to back up your files.

Starting out, you might want to keep Use Cellular Data disabled so Dropbox will only upload photos when your connected to WiFi. If you don’t mind burning data on your mobile plan however, feel free to enable Use Cellular Data option as I did below. Personally, I have an unlimited plan so burning a few gigs is no big deal.

Files uploaded to Dropbox will be placed in the Camera Uploads folder in the root of your Dropbox folder on all devices syncing to your Dropbox account.

Dropbox Camera Upload folder on Mac OSX

A side benefit of having all your photos backed up to Dropbox is being able to easily create Dropbox Photo Galleries. It’s a quick and easy process especially if you just want to quickly share a few shots with family and friends.

Do you have a Dropbox tip? Drop us a comment below! Although we have tons of Dropbox tips and tricks, I’m always looking for a new angle for future Dropbox articles.