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How to send pictures directly from Android camera to Dropbox

There are many ways to share pictures these days, but Dropbox and other cloud servers are becoming increasingly popular. Android's Dropbox app makes it dead simple to send pictures, videos and more to your shared folder. Learn how in this blog post by Rob Lightner.

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Rob Lightner
Rob Lightner is a tech and gaming writer based in Seattle. He has reviewed games, gadgets, and technical manuals, written copy for space travel gear, and composed horoscopes for cats.
Rob Lightner
2 min read

Dropbox is one great way to share pictures, video clips, and other files across devices and between people. Its Android app has a sneaky feature that lets it take over your camera, camcorder, voice recorder, or text editor to create a file that is saved directly to the appropriate Dropbox folder. It's terrific for sharing media quickly with groups or just for making life easier when it's time to edit or send your files. Here's how to do it:

  1. If you haven't already done so, pick up a free 2GB Dropbox account and install the Dropbox app from the Android Market. You may want to check in with your friends to see if one of them has an account already, as you'll both score some extra space if you let them refer you. Once your Dropbox app is installed and linked to your account, you're good to go.
  2. Open the app and navigate to the folder in which you want to store your new file.
  3. Click the Menu button, then "New," then select which kind of file you want to create. "Picture" opens the camera and "Video" opens the camcorder, while other files require you to select an app.
  4. Android Dropbox New Item Menu
    Step 3: Pick a file type
  5. Take your pic or shoot your vid and then choose "Save" or "Discard." If you discard, you get another try to get the perfect shot, but if you save, you're kicked back to the Dropbox app while it sends your file off to the cloud. (It's also saved to your device in case you lose your connectivity.) Shortly, your new file should show up in your Dropbox folder so you can check it out on your other devices or share it with your people.

 
Dropbox camera save or discard screen
Step 4: Save or Discard
Dropbox photo folder
Now it's in Dropbox!