Flickr to drop the ax on free users, will begin deleting old photos in March

By Michael Archambault Updated February 6, 2019

Beginning March 12, Flickr will start deleting photos from free user accounts to bring them within a new 1,000-photo limit — a delay from the February 5 deadline following a surge of complaints from users who couldn’t download their media fast enough.

The new photo limit, announced with SmugMug’s acquisition of the company last year, meant discontinuation of the free 1TB of storage space that was previously granted to users, restricting free users to only 1.000 pics. Flickr users with more than 1,000 photos have a few options to avoid losing pictures.

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The primary option, and ideally the route that Flickr would like you to consider, is to upgrade to the site’s Pro membership. Costing $50 a year if billed annually, and $72 a year if billed monthly, benefits include unlimited storage, an ad-free experience, and access to Flickr’s desktop Auto-Uploadr for your desktop PC. While serious Flickr users may benefit from the upgrade, other services serve the same purpose at a more affordable price.

If you think it might be time to break up with Flickr and consider an alternative, such as Google Photos or Amazon Photos, you can follow the guide below to download your photos from Flickr before they are deleted — just remember not to delay as mass deletion begins March 12. Note that Flickr doesn’t have a one-click option to download your entire photo archive, but following these steps provides the most straightforward alternative method.

How to download your photos From Flickr

Log in to your Flickr account.
Hover over the You menu and select Camera Roll.
Click the Select all option next to each batch of photographs.
Once all your photos are selected, click Download at the bottom of the webpage.
Select Create zip file, and Flickr will email you a link for downloading when ready.

The above method isn’t perfect and it may take some time for your photographs to become ready for download, but if you don’t want to lose your memories, it is one of your only options. Alternatively, if you have sorted all of your photos in albums, you can also download pictures by the album, merely select the Albums option under the You tab.

Updated on February 6, 2019: Flickr will be moving its deletion date to March 12.

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Michael Archambault

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Michael Archambault is a technology writer and digital marketer located in Long Island, New York. For the past decade…

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