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That 1TB of free storage you had on Flickr is going away in March

Start downloading your pictures if you want to keep them, Flickr will be deleting anything over the 1,000 image limit for free users.

Flickr taking photo of butterfly
Image: Unsplash

One of the changes to Flickr that SmugMug is bringing in after buying the service last year was to drop the 1TB of storage available on the free plan. The original date for the switch to a maximum of 1,000 images was February 5. Following an outcry of users that said they couldn’t download their content fast enough, Flickr will now be extending that date to March 12.

Once that date arrives, Flickr will start deleting photos in accounts belonging to free users to get them below that 1,000-image limit. If you’ve got more than that number of images, and don’t want to change photo storage services, you can sign up to Flickr’s Pro membership. Billed annually at $50 or $72 if billed monthly, the Pro membership gives you unlimited storage, an ad-free experience and the use of Flickr’s desktop Auto-Uploadr software.

If you’re seriously invested in using Flickr, this is a good option, although we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that you could get the same functionality with a competing service for cheaper. Both Google Photos and Amazon Photos are viable alternatives, but you’ll need to download all your images and re-upload to the new service. Flickr doesn’t have an easy, one-click option to download all your precious images so you’ll have to go batch-by-batch. That means you should start sooner rather than later to finish in time for the switch on March 12.

How to save your memories from Flickr

  1. Log in to Flickr
  2. Hover over the You menu and select Camera Roll
  3. Click the Select all option next to each batch of images
  4. Once Flickr has selected all the images on that batch, click the Download link at the bottom of the page
  5. Then select Create zip file, and wait for Flickr to send you an email containing a download link

If you’ve already sorted images into albums, you can download each album by selecting the Album option under the You tab.

It’s going to be a time-consuming process, but it’s worth it if you don’t want to lose images or pay the subscription fees for the Pro account.

Have a bunch of photos on Flickr? Plan on moving them over or will you upgrade? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere. His hobbies include photography, animation, and hoarding Reddit gold.

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