Flickr is making the biggest change yet to its service and it's set to hit free users where it hurts.
Back in 2018 it announced that there were changes being made to the free service, fundamental changing to how its free service works, taking away the 1TB of photo storage and limiting users to just 1000 images. This is happening 8 January - from then, users with more than 1,000 items will no longer be able to upload new photos or videos.
That's not all, if you don't download your images or transfer to the Pro version of the service by February 5, 2019, then Flickr will start deleting your photos, until you reach the 1000 limit - starting with the oldest images first.
If you want to keep your photos, then a Pro account will cost you a cool $5.99 a month.
Change of image
The reason for the change is, according to Flickr, to simplify the service and revert some of the change Yahoo made back in 2013, including the free 1TB of storage which caused "a tonal shift" in how the platform was used.
"In 2013, Yahoo lost sight of what makes Flickr truly special and responded to a changing landscape in online photo sharing by giving every Flickr user a staggering terabyte of free storage," explains the post.
"This, and numerous related changes to the Flickr product during that time, had strongly negative consequences."
Flickr is hoping that by reducing the number of photos in the free service it will prove that Flickr and its Pro option is worth paying for. This is going to be hard to stomach for those who have had this for free in the past.
This is the biggest change to Flickr for years and comes after the service was bought by SmugMug in April 2018.
