How to Download Full-Res Images From Dropbox to Your iPad
May 1, 2012 by Evan Kline 
6 Comments
Dropbox is a great tool for moving files between different operating systems, but it isn’t perfect. If you use the Dropbox iPad app, then you may have noticed one glaring weakness: if you download images to your iPad’s Camera Roll via the app, you’ll find that the image quality is horrible. Yes, the Dropbox iPad app downconverts your images, leaving you with, in technical terms, crappy photos. There are at least a couple of workarounds, though.
I first noticed this problem in my never-ending quest to get images from my Android phone onto my iPad. I’ve previously written about how to do this both with and without wires. Dropbox seemed like the next logical solution to the problem. I uploaded my photos to a Dropbox folder from my Android phone, using the Dropbox Android app. I then downloaded the photos to my iPad using the Dropbox iPad app, only to see the horrible image quality.
Workaround #1 is to just visit your Dropbox account in Safari, instead of using the iPad app. From there you can click the link to each photo to display it, one at a time. Then perform a long press on each photo after it loads and select”Save Image.” That will send each photo into your camera roll.
Workaround #2 is to use Goodreader, a PDF reader for the iPad that is more of an uber file and document manager. With Goodreader, you can input your Dropbox credentials, browse your Dropbox files, and download full resolution copies of your photos.
In Goodreader, add your Dropbox account in the “Connect to Server” section by clicking the “Add” button. Once you’ve entered your credentials and logged into your Dropbox account, browse through your Dropbox folders in Goodreader until you find your photos. Tap on each photo that you want to download (you can select multiple photos), and click the “Download” button. Choose where you want the photos to be saved in Goodreader, and then click the next download button.
You can then Close Goodreader’s Dropbox window. Go to the “My Documents” pane in Goodreader, and browse to the location where you just saved the photos. One by one, you can load each photo, and tap on the camera icon to save it to your Camera Roll.
Goodreader costs $4.99 in the App Store, but it is a worthwhile investment, given how versatile it is.
Do you have another method for getting photos onto your iPad? If so, let us know in the comments.
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I have never really tried this way… as I usually use android operating system and I still haven’t faced any problem yet….
Thanx for this…I was trying to transfer videos I took with my iPhone to my iPad, via Dropbox…and there doesn’t seem to be a way to export them from Dropbox to the iPad’s Photo app. This was really helpful, and since I’m relatively new to Dropbox I hadn’t noticed the resolution degradation issue yet, but now I can avoid it. But what worked for me was to download the file into Good Reader…which I had, but had never really used, and then use Good Reader’s file manager to open it in Photo Manager Pro, which then gave me a way to export it to the Camera roll. It’s awkward taking videos with the iPad…and equally awkward trying to edit them down on an iPhone…the little frame sliders and controls are too small to tap. Thanx again for the great info!
I have one question concerning the Goodreader workaround. Does this method retain the date taken of the photo? I know when i import to Camera Roll from Photostream, it changes the date taken to the date imported. I want a solution that will retain the date taken. Thanks for the post.
A million thanks for this post, Evan! I have ruined more than one photo since I didn’t know this downsize-default-problem but suddenly discovered the images were… really bad when downloading them to the ipad camera roll.
I use Dropbox on a daily basis, and GoodReader not as often but almost, so this workaround suits me perfectly!
I tried using the iPad Dropbox method and found that you can’t simply hold on the picture to save but first need to click on download and then hold and save on the larger image that is then displayed. The method listed above was still downloading the lower quality image to my camera roll. Has anyone else found the same thing?
Another point: Transferring more than one photo is tedious, since they all have to be selected individually. That is why we are building an iPhone-App that downloads all photos in one particular folder (pics2phone) from Dropbox to your iPhone’s Album-app (no downscaling). If you create subfolders, these are also replicated as photo-albums to the iPhone locally. It’s nice for editing photos taken with an SLR-camera with instagram or other photo-apps.
Subscribe to our launch-page http://pics2phone.launchrock.com and follow us on twitter http://twitter.com/pics2phone