CST Team Guide

Auto-Backup Your Work Photos to Dropbox

iPhone setup  ·  ~10 minutes, once  ·  Built for Sarah and the CST team
TL;DR
  • Make one "Work" album on your phone. After a shoot, drop the work photos in it. That tap is the only decision you make.
  • A free built-in Shortcut uploads that album to a Dropbox folder every night automatically while you sleep.
  • Your personal and family photos never go in the album, so they never touch the work Dropbox. Privacy stays clean.
  • The laptop-kept-awake-overnight step goes away. The phone uploads straight to Dropbox.
  • Built to be self-healing: a missed night catches up on its own, and you never get duplicate files.

1One-time setup

Five minutes. You only do this once.

  1. Make the album. Open Photos, go to the Albums tab, tap + → New Album, and name it Work.
  2. Install Dropbox and pick your folder. Install the Dropbox app, sign in, and make the destination folder (for example Work Photos or your shared team folder). Create it now so the shortcut has somewhere to put things.
  3. Turn Dropbox on inside Files. Open the Files app → Browse → tap ··· (top right) → Edit → toggle Dropbox on. The shortcut can't see Dropbox until you do this.

2Build the shortcut

Open the Shortcuts app (it's already on every iPhone), tap + to create a new one, and name it Upload Work Photos. Add these three actions in order.

  1. Add action: Find Photos
    Tap Add Filter and set: Album → is → Work.
    Leave it there. Do not add a date filter (that is on purpose, see the "Why it's safe" section).
  2. Add action: Repeat with Each
    It automatically uses the photos from Find Photos. The next action goes inside this repeat block.
  3. Inside the repeat, add: Save File
    • File = Repeat Item
    • Tap Destination Path and browse to your Dropbox / Work Photos folder
    • Turn Ask Where to Save → OFF
    • Turn Overwrite If File Exists → ON
Test it now

Add a couple of photos to the Work album, then tap the shortcut once. They should appear in your Dropbox folder within a few seconds. If they do, you're done building.

3Make it run every night

This is what makes it hands-off. Set it once and forget it.

  1. In Shortcuts, go to the Automation tab → tap + → Create Personal Automation.
  2. Trigger: choose Time of Day → set 1:00 AM → Daily.
  3. Action: Run Shortcut → pick Upload Work Photos.
  4. Turn Ask Before Running → OFF so it runs silently. Keep your phone charging on wifi overnight and it uploads on its own.

4The only two habits

Everything above runs itself. These are the two small things a human still does.

After a shoot (10 seconds)

In Photos, select the work shots → Share → Add to Album → Work. That selection is the work-vs-personal decision. Personal photos you don't add simply never leave your phone.

Once a week (15 seconds)

Open the Work album, select all, and remove them from the album (this does not delete them from your phone or from Dropbox). It just keeps the nightly upload quick instead of re-scanning old shoots.

5Why it's built this way

A couple of choices look odd until you know the reason. Both make it more reliable, not less.

It uploads the whole album every night, not "only new photos"

With Overwrite ON, the same photo keeps the same filename, so re-running just overwrites itself. That means no duplicates, a missed night catches up on the next run so nothing is ever lost, and photos you file late (shot days ago, added today) still upload. The "only new" version looks cleaner but quietly skips late-filed photos.

The automation never guesses work vs personal

It can't, and it shouldn't try. You already know which photos are work, so you make that call in one tap. Nothing scans your family photos, and nothing personal ever lands in the work Dropbox.

6Even simpler option (if you'd rather not wait overnight)

Skip the album and the schedule entirely. Make the same shortcut a Share Sheet action instead:

In the shortcut's settings, turn on Show in Share Sheet and set the input to Images. Then your flow becomes: select work photos in Photos → Share → Upload to Dropbox.

One tap, instant, no scheduling, no weekly cleanup. The trade: it's "one deliberate tap when you choose" instead of fully automatic overnight. Pick whichever fits how you work.

7On Android?

Same idea, different tool. Install the free Autosync for Dropbox app, point it at a chosen camera folder, and it auto-syncs that folder to a Dropbox folder. Save your work shots to that folder and they back up on their own.