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Dropbox background camera uploads not uploading?

^The location services arrow will stay in the top bar only if you don't completely close out of drop box (double clicking the home button and closing out the app) making me think it's working int he background... except it's not.

Also the guy who has slow uploads... my wifi is plenty fast but for some reason dropbox uploads faster on a 4G LTE connection in my experience.. only talking about one wifi network though.
 
rhett7660 said:
I am wondering if this could be your cell service? How does it work on wifi? I have no issues on either cell or wifi.

I have noticed if I leave the app open (iOS 7) that the photos still load in the background. I also have camera upload>>background uploading turned on.
Click to expand...

Since i do not have unlimited data, I have dropbox to only upload on Wifi, I know I dont have the fastest internet around. I just feel like back with iOS 6 it was a lot faster.
 
If anyone is interested it appears the updated SkyDrive app also has the ability to upload photos...not sure how automatic it will be but worth a go for those that dont want to or cant use the Dropbox app. You also get 7gb free to start with on SkyDrive so more room to play with.

I'm in the process of moving my back ups to date over to SkyDrive then going to use this one just for photo back up so i have more room to use plus it gives me space back on my Dropbox for the other stuff i store on there. Throw in the 50Gb Box account for backing up stuff taken on our proper camera and transferred to the PC and i'm more or less covered for backing stuff up!! :)
 
bransoj said:
If anyone is interested it appears the updated SkyDrive app also has the ability to upload photos...not sure how automatic it will be but worth a go for those that dont want to or cant use the Dropbox app. You also get 7gb free to start with on SkyDrive so more room to play with.

I'm in the process of moving my back ups to date over to SkyDrive then going to use this one just for photo back up so i have more room to use plus it gives me space back on my Dropbox for the other stuff i store on there. Throw in the 50Gb Box account for backing up stuff taken on our proper camera and transferred to the PC and i'm more or less covered for backing stuff up!! :)
Click to expand...

I came to post this... SkyDrive seems to have photo uploads now.. just as good as DropBox so far for me... although neither of them have automatic backup like DropBox was supposed to. (SkyDrive doesn't advertise automatic backup so not a total letdown here..)
 
Dropbox automatic backup now works without opening the app now.

I took some photos yesterday, and just check Dropbox and saw the photos were already uploaded.
 
can some explian why i need to turn on location settings? also

i am running ios 7 and i turn background app refresh on

will my files upload in the background ? or do i necessarily need to turn on location settings
 
fardeenah said:
can some explian why i need to turn on location settings? also

i am running ios 7 and i turn background app refresh on

will my files upload in the background ? or do i necessarily need to turn on location settings
Click to expand...

Because it only refreshes in the background when the app is open and your location changes so yes it needs it. Not the best way to do it IMO but we can't do much about it.
 
I don't know why it requires location services. The background transfer service was introduced in iOS 7 to do stuff like uploads... but I don't know the technical details. Dropbox merely say it 'makes it more efficient'

"The background uploading option needs information about your iPhone's location in order to work. For this reason, the Dropbox app will request access to your iPhone's location services when you turn on the option. This feature is designed to make your Camera Uploads work more efficiently. It doesn’t collect your location information."

Would love a developers input on this.
 
snappyfool said:
Would love a developers input on this.
Click to expand...

There are probably three things at play here:

1) If you have Location services enabled for the Camera app, each photo you take will have geographic data tagged with it. If Dropbox wants to access those photos, it needs to ask for permission to use your location because of that tagging.

2) While the "Background Refresh" feature in iOS 7 lets Apps run in the background, it only allows that in a very limited fashion - Apps can only run for about 30 seconds, at intervals that are not necessarily regular or predictable. That isn't really suitable for uploading images automatically. Depending on the speed of the connection you have at that particular time and how many photos you've taken, you'll probably need much more than that.

As a workaround (and this is something that has always been possible since iOS 4), some Apps will ask iOS to tell them when your location changes significantly. This doesn't use a great deal of power, but it gives the App a reasonable portion of time to do something when your location changes.

Apple did not design the location features to be used in this way, and it's technically against the App Store's rules to do it.

3) Because Apple knows that some Apps use the location features to update content in the background, they decided to lump all Apps that use those features into the Background Refresh section of the Settings App. Apps that haven't been updated for iOS 7 will appear there too.
 
This feature has never worked in iOS7 for me, from Beta to public, Dropbox has never auto uploaded my pictures in the background unless I open the app, then they all start in a queue. A friend of mine noticed the same thing, despite us both having background uploads switched on in the app, and background app refresh on in settings.

It's only a minor inconvenience, but it's still annoying.
 
Daveoc64 said:
...
2) While the "Background Refresh" feature in iOS 7 lets Apps run in the background, it only allows that in a very limited fashion - Apps can only run for about 30 seconds, at intervals that are not necessarily regular or predictable. That isn't really suitable for uploading images automatically. Depending on the speed of the connection you have at that particular time and how many photos you've taken, you'll probably need much more than that.
Click to expand...

But what about the new iOS 7 Background Transfer Service?

http://www.tuicool.com/articles/3QFbEb

Background transfer service originated with iOS 6. This feature allowed apps to transfer files in both foreground and background modes, but limited the minutes. The biggest problem was when the “limited minutes” did not allow the user to download or upload large files. This is why Apple improved the framework in iOS 7.

With iOS 7, this feature underwent major changes, including:

iOS manages downloads and uploads
The transfer continues even when the user closes the application
Time is unlimited
It can be put in the queue anytime (foreground and background)
The app wakes up to handle authentication, errors, or completion
The app includes a Progress View

Background Transfer Service can be used for several distinct and useful tasks such as: uploading photos or videos, combining background fetch and remote notifications, and for keeping the app up to date, like with purchases for books, TV shows, podcasts, game content, maps, and more.
Click to expand...

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/releasenotes/General/WhatsNewIniOS/Articles/iOS7.html

For small content updates, use the NSURLRequest class. To upload or download larger pieces of content in the background, use the new NSURLSession class. This class improves on the existing NSURLConnection class by providing a simple, task-based interface for initiating and processing NSURLRequest objects. A single NSURLSession object can initiate multiple download and upload tasks, and use its delegate to handle any authentication requests coming from the server
Click to expand...

Sounds like iOs 7 containts new features perfect for uploading photos in the background... I don't see any mention of needing location services for this to work though, and other apps which I allow access to my photos don't require location services


--------------------

My guess would be that there isn't a decent API Dropbox can use which raises an event when a new photo has been taken. Rather than schedule a check every 10 minutes or something, they decided to do it upon a location change event. It also means rather than uploading 1 or 2 photos at a time (each time setting up a connection, authenticating, etc. etc.), it's more efficient to do them in batches. Just my thoughts...
 
Last edited:
daijholt said:
This feature has never worked in iOS7 for me, from Beta to public, Dropbox has never auto uploaded my pictures in the background unless I open the app, then they all start in a queue. A friend of mine noticed the same thing, despite us both having background uploads switched on in the app, and background app refresh on in settings.

It's only a minor inconvenience, but it's still annoying.
Click to expand...

It should work if the app is open in multitasking. You don't have to keep opening it but it does have to stay open in the background for background app refresh to work.
 
snappyfool said:
But what about the new iOS 7 Background Transfer Service?
Click to expand...

I'm not entirely sure how that API works (I understand what it does from the documentation, but Apple does not generally provide specifics about how things work when an app is "in the background"), but the App would need to know that there was something to upload in the first place - and it would need to be started somehow for that to work.

snappyfool said:
My guess would be that there isn't a decent API Dropbox can use which raises an event when a new photo has been taken. Rather than schedule a check every 10 minutes or something, they decided to do it upon a location change event. It also means rather than uploading 1 or 2 photos at a time (each time setting up a connection, authenticating, etc. etc.), it's more efficient to do them in batches. Just my thoughts...
Click to expand...

That's pretty much it. Out of all of the things that iOS lets Apps monitor (which isn't much), major background changes provide the best trade-off between refresh frequency and battery usage.
 
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