The desktop tool lets you automatically back up all your images and videos from your computer’s hard drive, storing the content safely in the cloud and freeing up space on your PC in the process. All the uploads are private unless you choose to share them via the site, and Flickr also helpfully removes any duplicates it finds.
Great thing was, the feature was free and offered up to a terabyte of space for all your media. Yes, we said “was.”
This week Yahoo-owned Flickr announced it’s now charging for the service. That’s right, to continue using Uploadr you’ll need a Flickr Pro account, which costs $6 a month or $50 a year if you pay in one go, though a limited-time discount is currently offering 12 months for $35. To be clear, Flickr’s Auto-Uploadr tool for smartphones remains free, at least for the time being.
While the move is set to disappoint users of Flickr’s free tier who’ve been happily using Uploadr since it launched nearly 12 months ago, rival services will surely be looking forward to welcoming a few disgruntled Flickr users heading their way to make use of cloud storage solutions that cost the princely sum of nothing.
Google Photos, for example, offers unlimited storage along with a bunch of other features. If you’re not already using it, DT has plenty of helpful information on the service here, here, and here.
So is Flickr’s Uploadr tool worth the payout? All Pro accounts – whether paid for monthly or annually – also offer access to advanced stats on your images, shipping discounts for Flickr merchandise, an ad-free experience throughout the site, and the all-important “Pro” badge for your Flickr page.
Pay for a whole year and you’ll also get a 20 percent discount on an Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan, an offer that could appeal to the more serious snappers out there.
If you’ve been using Flickr’s Uploadr tool to store your photos and videos, what do you think of its decision to shift it to the Pro plan? Will you be coughing up or going elsewhere? Let us know in the comments below.
