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Forum Discussion
Camera upload from different phones into different folders
Hello, I have created a new folder "Camera upload Karla" where I want my wifes iPhone to automatically upload photos to. This seems not to be so easy, as Dropbox on a phone will only upload to "Cam...
Hi,
I'd like to ask whether is there any follow up to this matter? Recently bumped into this problem and saw this was dated close to 2 years ago.
Hope to hear back soon!
Thanks
It is my opinion that Dropbox does not want to do this because they believe that they will sell more accounts this way.
Their answer to this issue has always been "Dropbox was not designed to backup more than one phone at a time. If you want to keep your data seperate you will need to purchase seperate accounts for each phone"
Considering the number of requests for this and the number of years this has been requested this is obviously a marketing decision and has nothing to do with technology or what the customer wants.
Dropbox please prove me wrong. Please show us that you actually care about what the customer wants and not just corporate profits.
There are some moderately functional alternatives to do this for Android but unfortunatley none for the iPhone (I don't think Apple would allow a program in the iStore that could possibly take sales away from iCloud storage).
- Mark
Super User II
Actually Mike in my opinion I think its more to do with the fact they are totally moving away from photos and anything to do with them (e.g. removal of albums etc.)
However, yes, I agree that the security thing is a big issue - Dropbox have always been exceptionally strict on one user = one account which isnt really that unreasonable.Mark,
I don't know abouit albums, to be honest I don't use dropbox for sharing photos. As for the security, if I choose to share my account with my wife I should be able to do that.
Maybe Dropbox needs a new paradigm. That of a family account Package. One bill per family but with the ability to create multiple "sub-accouns".
Each sub-account could have the option of linking to zero or more other sub-accounts and one or more devices.
All devices linked to a single subaccount would be synchronized. For example my wife's iPad and iPhone, everything on one would also appear on the other).
Any sub-account linked to another sub-account would appear as a separate folder on the device. For example, my wife's photos would appear as a "Wife's Photos" folder on my tablet or phone.
The granularity of what is shared and what is not shared between linked sub-accounts would be up to Dropbox but as an engineer I would like to see as much control given to me as possible.
Theoretically each device being backed up could have a different login but still under the same family account. Possibly even to the point where parents could setup a "child's account" which would allow the account administrator to view and control the "child's account".
This could actually be a marketing feature where parents can keep better track of their children. I can think of many features that could be part of this package.
Imagine the following scenario:
A family of mom, dad and son, each having a phone and a tablet and there is a family computer and dad has a laptop.
Sub-Accounts and Linked Devices
Mom
Phone
Tablet
Family Computer
Dad
Phone
Tablet
Laptop
Son
Phone
Tablet
Linked sub-accounts
Dad
Family Computer
Son's Sub-Account
Mom
Family Computer
Son's Sub-Account
Son
Family Computer
In addition Son's phone could periodically send it's location to the family account so mom or dad could check on where he is.
In the above scenario mom and dad can see everything in sons sub-account but son cannot see what is in mom's or dad's sub-account.
This would be worth the same $99 I am paying now for a pro account.
I believe alot of these features already exist for business accounts.
I am seriously looking to switch to another cloud storage like Google just because of this phone issue.
One other thing that is required is a proper app for the iOS that can backup Apple products completely to something other than iCloud.
- MarkThey wont launch a product like what you said above for that price simply because a lot of the costs they have are not the storage its the support of the users and the connections to and from the servers (paid per time).
Also, if they did that all of the $750pa users on Business would simply downgrade.
