Two weeks agone I wrote nearly my new Dropbox-based workflow for photos. Towards the end of the commodity, I mentioned how I was treatment uploads from my iPhone:

The official Dropbox app recently gained the adequacy of automatically uploading photos to the Camera Uploads folder: this ways every time I go out and accept some photos, I tin can come back home, open up the Dropbox app, let it exercise its magic, and then delete the photos from my iPhone. The photos volition be uploaded to the Camera Uploads binder, and sorted using the same Hazel workflow described above.

Thank you to a third-party app, I've managed to (partially) automate the process of uploading photos from my iPhone (and iPad) as soon as I go home. I'm now using CameraSync to upload photos to Dropbox automatically.

CameraSync's interface design isn't the prettiest i effectually, but the app is extremely useful and well-washed (plus, the icon is sweet). CameraSync tin can upload photos and videos to a specific folder on Dropbox, but information technology also supports SkyDrive, FTP, Amazon S3, Flickr, and Box.net. As you can imagine, I'one thousand using it to upload photos to the Dropbox folder I've already set up with my Hazel workflow.

The large advantage of CameraSync over the official Dropbox app is that it supports geofencing. First introduced past News.me and fabricated popular past Marco Arment in Instapaper, groundwork location sync is a feature that simply makes sense for this kind of app.

In the settings, yous can add "locations" the app will monitor; every bit soon as you arrive at, say, your business firm or office, the app will start uploading photos without you having to manually launch anything. CameraSync will inform you of what it'southward doing through local notifications, and information technology'southward even got an option to but trigger groundwork location sync if a WiFi network is found (so you won't swallow 3G or 4G data). In this way, I can take as many photos as I desire, go home, and let CameraSync do its job without having to "worry" nigh annihilation. Outset world trouble: solved.

CameraSync has got more clever features up its sleeves, though. For instance, it comes with a "Content to sync" filter that allows you to automatically avoid uploading screenshots from the Camera Roll (they are saved equally .png files). You tin cull a specific "album" to monitor for new photos (such as a Photo Stream instead of the Photographic camera Coil), and, apparently, the app is capable of only uploading new photos since the last upload session. Unfortunately, due to iOS' limitations, CameraSync can't "upload new files, and then delete them" – so yous'll yet have to do the terminal role of the procedure manually. It'south a trade-off I tin can accept, knowing that CameraSync uploaded my photos every time I arrived at home.

Last, CameraSync preserves all Exif information associated with a photo, which comes in handy for my workflow. As it turns out, even so, after I noticed an issue with timestamps, the developer of the app told me the Dropbox API isn't letting third-party developers ready timestamps for uploaded files properly. This explains why, subsequently using CameraSync, I concluded upward with files renamed (per my Hazel actions) with timestamps showing the upload engagement, rather than the actual modification date. And that was happening even though Finder could see the correct Exif data.

The developer of CameraSync was kind enough to provide a PHP script you tin can run to re-set up the Exif data correctly. I just added the following script to Hazel, and at present all my photos uploaded with CameraSync are renamed with the correct timestamps. On line ii, make certain to modify the timezone to yours.

                          <?php                                                    date_default_timezone_set("Europe/Rome");                                                    $date = exif_read_data($argv[one],"EXIF");                                                    $date = $engagement["DateTimeOriginal"];                                                    $time = date_parse_from_format("Y:m:d H:i:s",$appointment);                                                    $fourth dimension = mktime($fourth dimension["hr"],$fourth dimension["infinitesimal"],$time["second"],$fourth dimension["month"],$fourth dimension["day"],$time["year"]);                                                    touch($argv[1],$time,$fourth dimension);                                                    ?>

To run the script successfully in Hazel, add it before a renaming rule with the beat out set to "/usr/bin/php" (without quotes). If you lot then apply "Date modified" in the rule, y'all should run across the right Exif data for photos uploaded through the app.

CameraSync is a neat example of an iOS app doing i thing very well. Its characteristic gear up is kept to the minimum, but the things information technology does are thoroughly refined and implemented in ways that make sense for iOS device owners – such as background location sync.

If you upload photos to your Dropbox account on a regular ground, my recommendation goes to CameraSync.