Dropbox Photo Sharing Issues

Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2023 10:39 pm

Has Dropbox recently changed something about how photos are shared and/or links created? Or am I just f'ing something up?

I have lots of dropbox photos in prior posts and if I edit the post and copy the photo link and paste it into a new post, the photo shows. So that old dropbox link still works.

And, if I go to dropbox and find the original photo and get a new link to it, and then modify it as I always have done (to change the www.dropbox.com to dl.dropbox.com and drop the ?dl=0 at the end), and then paste that link into a new post, the photo shows there as well.

However, I then upload a new file to any of the dropbox folders containing any of my posted photos, and get a link for the photo. The link I get looks very different, and I can't figure out how to make it show up in the post.

Here is the new-style raw link from a newly posted photo that I can't get to work:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/crv0udpyha55r26fvjsnk/PistonWear.png?rlkey=j9dgg2fgpiiwqy5v2ck4awn4s&dl=0

Here is what the old-style raw link looks like for an older photo that still works:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xchd31aqqbfizn8/HEIModuleBracket2.JPG?dl=0

Here is proof that it still works (after modification as described above):

Actually, after further review, I am finding that for SOME of the old original photos dropbox gives me an "old-style" link and some of them give me a "new-style" link. I can't predict which I'll get.

As far as I know I have not made any recent changes to my Dropbox account (It's a paid Dropbox Plus account). Does anyone know what's going on here?

MB-5 Joined: Mar 31, 2022 Posts: 15 Location: Australia

PGSmick wrote:

Has Dropbox recently changed something about how photos are shared and/or links created? Or am I just f'ing something up?

I have lots of dropbox photos in prior posts and if I edit the post and copy the photo link and paste it into a new post, the photo shows. So that old dropbox link still works.

And, if I go to dropbox and find the original photo and get a new link to it, and then modify it as I always have done (to change the www.dropbox.com to dl.dropbox.com and drop the ?dl=0 at the end), and then paste that link into a new post, the photo shows there as well.

However, I then upload a new file to any of the dropbox folders containing any of my posted photos, and get a link for the photo. The link I get looks very different, and I can't figure out how to make it show up in the post.

Here is the new-style raw link from a newly posted photo that I can't get to work:
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/crv0udpyha55r26fvjsnk/PistonWear.png?rlkey=j9dgg2fgpiiwqy5v2ck4awn4s&dl=0

Here is what the old-style raw link looks like for an older photo that still works:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/xchd31aqqbfizn8/HEIModuleBracket2.JPG?dl=0

Here is proof that it still works (after modification as described above):

Actually, after further review, I am finding that for SOME of the old original photos dropbox gives me an "old-style" link and some of them give me a "new-style" link. I can't predict which I'll get.

As far as I know I have not made any recent changes to my Dropbox account (It's a paid Dropbox Plus account). Does anyone know what's going on here?

Yes I noticed that as well. When you attach your image and you preview you get (As your example above

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/crv0udpyha55r26fvjsnk/PistonWear.png?rlkey=j9dgg2fgpiiwqy5v2ck4awn4s&dl=0

You need to edit it to
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/crv0udpyha55r26fvjsnk/PistonWear.png

Then it should paste your image

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2023 2:31 am

That gets a little closer, but not all the way. (BTW, I am using Windows 11 and Microsoft Edge.) The result of your suggested edit is that the submitted post shows an icon for an image and the word "Image", but clicking the icon does nothing and right clicking and choosing Open image in new tab does display the image but only if I am logged in to my Dropbox account. If not logged in, clicking the icon invites me to sign up for a Dropbox account to view the image. Not at all what we want.

Do you see the same thing I do when you look at this post?

And thank you for working with me on this. You didn't know you'd volunteered, did you. Wink

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2023 4:49 am

Apparently, the new link format Dropbox rolled out sometime in June is causing problems like this for lots of people and while Dropbox does appear to be working on this and its tech support people are actively responding on the Dropbox community support forum, there appears to be no fix or workaround yet.

What a PITA!

MB-5 Joined: Mar 31, 2022 Posts: 15 Location: Australia

Truncating the junk after the .jpg or whatever format the file is in worked for me in windows 11 and Brave browser.
The line in preview should look like this without the spaces.

[img] https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/crv0udpyha55r26fvjsnk/PistonWear.png [img]

does the site accept .png image files

Not sure if this helps but worth a shot

Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2023 7:18 pm

According to Dropbox, the junk after the question mark (i.e. the rlkey parameter) is what contains the permissions to view the contents of the link under their new security scheme. If you leave it out, then I think what happens is that nobody will be allowed to view the content unless they have a dropbox account and are logged in. Under the prior scheme, permissions were handled differently, and the links to photos did not have or need the rlkey parameter.

Dropbox is, for now, continuing to support the older scheme but that may go away in the future.

.png files should be no problem either for dropbox or this website.