How to import Dropbox files into iPhoto?

I don't know whether to be more irritated with Apple for not providing a batch mechanism or with the app developers for restricting their input to the camera roll (unless that's an Apple requirement).

The lack of a batch mechanism is annoying, but the restriction to the Camera Roll is built deep into the saftety restriction for IOS devices. Apps are restricted to their "Sandbox", and the Camera Roll is the central sharing place for photos on iOS devices. There is no way to circumvent this.

Maybe, your problem to get the photos into the Camera Roll is due to using Dropbox and not one of Apple's own provided tools to transfer the photos, see the list of possibilities to transfer photos between devices. For example, Photo Stream would save the photos automatically to the Camera Roll. Or use iTunes Photos sync.

http://help.apple.com/iphoto/iphone/2.0/?handbuch#blnka7d353af

Once you can make iPhoto see the photos in an album, you can batch-save them to to camera roll: (http://help.apple.com/iphoto/iphone/2.0/?handbuch#blnkee26bc1f)

Save photos to the Camera Roll on your iOS device

• Tap a photo, album, or event and tap the share button > Camera Roll.
• Tap Selected, or change the photos you want to save:
  • Select different photos: Tap Choose Photos, tap up to 100 photos, and tap Next.
  • Select a range of photos: Tap Choose Photos, tap Range, tap the first and last photos in the range, and tap Next.
  • Select all the photos in an album or event: Tap All.
• Tap Done.
• To use your photo in another app, open the app and select the Camera Roll album.

If the photos you need were taken on your iOS device, all you need to do is install Dropbox on your computer.

If you have the program installed, Dropbox automatically creates a folder where all your pictures are saved. It's usually under your main documents folder. You can double check by going to the Dropbox application, then clicking on the settings cog. Under the account tab you can specify where you want your photos folder to be saved. Once you have that folder opened, you will see a camera uploads subfolder. You can select all the photos by by clicking (command + A) then drag it to iPhoto.

The next step to import your selected photos back onto your iPhone/iPad would be manually select the photos and create an album on iPhoto. Then, through iTunes you can then sync the album to your device.

This may be time consuming but this is the only way I've found to solve the problem.

If you have an easier solution by now, please let me know. 🙂

Here's another thought, which I think works for me. I have an app called Photo Transfer and you can get a plugin for this app that allows you to use Dropbox (costs 79p). I have just successfully moved a whole load of photos from Dropbox to my camera roll using this. (You might wonder why I'm doing this. I too have an app that I use that needs to use photos from the camera roll - it's called PhotoMgrPro and allows me to organise my photos on my iPad using folders and subfolders.) Hope this suggestion might be useful for you!

If your having particular trouble on the new update if you go ont the photo you would like to save and press on it for a couple of seconds it should come up with the option to save to camera roll. Hope this helps