How I quickly edit photos and images with Dropbox

Dropbox is great for data backup, from keeping documents on your computer to pictures and files from your phone. However, there is more to it than just being a cloud storage solution. Did you know that you can also edit photos in Dropbox?

Dropbox is a centralized, remote, and continuous way to store data. I want to have the Dropbox app on my phone and store images, files and photos there, not only as a backup but also for easy access on my computer, either through the browser or the desktop app. As long as you are connected to the internet, you can sync all files and folders across devices. Selective syncing also lets you choose which folders to save locally on your computer while keeping everything in the cloud.

Why do I use Dropbox to edit images?

Although many phones offer photo editing within the camera app, I’ve found that editing with Dropbox in the browser is much faster and more efficient overall, especially if you need to edit multiple photos. It’s less cumbersome than any other app and there’s no paywall for using its editing features.

Additionally, all the editing features are on one screen, so I don’t have to switch screens to change multiple things like you might with a photo editing app on your smartphone.

Dropbox also supports photo editing for multiple file formats including JPEG, PNG, BMP, and PSD. When you edit and save images on Dropbox, the platform maintains the original quality without applying additional compression, so your images retain the same quality after editing.

Yes, Dropbox is not Photoshop or Lightroom, but if you need easy and quick photo edits without switching platforms, you might be pleasantly surprised. Editing features are limited, but let’s go over the few options available to you.

How do you edit an image with Dropbox?

To start editing an image, upload it to Dropbox (or open it), then click Crop or Adjust.

Available photo editing features include the ability to change brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows and exposure. You also have the option to increase or decrease the saturation and temperature of the color:

You can also flip the photo or rotate it left or right and manually crop an image or do a custom crop. It even allows you to crop an image for Facebook or Instagram sizes.

When saving, you can choose “Save a copy” (to keep the original) or “Replace original”.

Is there more to it?

There are also some additional features that may not be immediately visible. To access it, save your current changes and then reopen the image in the Dropbox browser. You should see a “Self-Sign” or “Send for Signature” option at the top. Click on any of them and the image will be converted to a PDF file where you can make further edits.

A window will appear asking you to “Add your signature.” Close it. You should now see additional options at the top that allow you to add more pages (or images) to the PDF. You can also see the option to draw, highlight, add text, edit text and sign the image:

Although Dropbox lacks advanced photo editing tools, it is still primarily a cloud storage solution. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t use it with other image editing tools. Dropbox integrates with a variety of apps including Canva, Pixlr Suite, WeVideo, CapCut, and more.

All you need to do is click on the image you want to open in the image editing tool, click the three-dot menu on the right, and navigate to Open in > Connect Apps.

Search for the app name or click Connect and then Allow. You’ll be asked to sign in to your photo editing app, and it will then connect to Dropbox.

Any changes you make to the file you did this to using the third-party app will be saved back to Dropbox. Here is my edited image after doing this:

Note that the text at the bottom of the image above was edited via Dropbox in the browser.

How does Dropbox sync work?

When you save files to your Dropbox folder on your computer, they are automatically synced to the Dropbox servers and other connected devices where you use Dropbox. The synchronization is very efficient because it uses a modified version of the rsync algorithm to synchronize only the changed parts of the files instead of re-uploading entire files. This approach allows Dropbox to handle large files and frequent updates without requiring full file uploads, saving bandwidth and improving sync speeds.

If you downloaded the Dropbox desktop app to your computer, the files are also saved locally.

How about editing directly in the mobile app versus the web?

To edit photos using the Dropbox mobile app, you can either open the image in your Photos app and edit it from there, or edit it directly in the Dropbox app. However, the mobile app’s editing capabilities are extremely limited. You only have two editing options: crop and rotate.

Personally, I avoid using the Dropbox mobile app for cropping or rotating images because I can already do this fairly quickly using my phone editor. If I’m just cropping an image or changing the brightness, I usually just use my phone editor. However, if I want to make multiple changes very quickly I prefer Dropbox, unless I want to do something big then I might consider Photoshop.

Dropbox is not only a cloud storage tool but also a fast photo editor. While it doesn’t come close to the image editing tools available on the market today, the image editing tool is free to use and very efficient considering the automatic syncing. Sure, it lacks advanced editing features, but for quick edits without much effort, you should give it a try. It might even save you some time.