Does Dropbox compress photos?

Dropbox is a popular file hosting service with its app available on across all the platforms. It offers all the essential features of a cloud drive utility including automatic file synchronization, personal cloud, and client software.

Messenger apps like WhatsApp compress media files to speed up upload and download speed. This is also true for other cloud storage apps like Google Photos.

But what about Dropbox? Does Dropbox compress photos?

How can I find out if Dropbox compresses photos?

If you read the Dropbox blog, it says:

When you open the app, photos, and videos from your iPhone or iPad are saved to Dropbox at their original size and quality in a private Camera Uploads folder.

However, this may not have been the case a few years ago. A simple search on the internet would bring up the results that do show file re-compression with Dropbox.

That said, in our testing, Dropbox doesn’t seem to re-compresses your photos before it uploads them to your account. And there are no visible changes in the image quality.

We uploaded an image to Dropbox with a file size of 4.47 MB and a disk size of 4.48 MB.

After uploading the photo and viewing the details on Dropbox, it shows the photo size as 4.48 MB, which is similar to the disk size shown on PC.

Downloading the same photo did not downgrade the image quality either. The downloaded file retained the same size and image quality.

After brief testing, we can say that Dropbox does not compress photos. Even if there is a compression or re-compression, it is not visible in the uploaded or downloaded images.

So, unlike other cloud services and messaging apps, Dropbox can be used to share media files without worrying about the loss of quality.

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