Image and video hosting site Flickr is cutting down free cloud storage from 1TB to 1000 pictures. The company has already deleted pictures to make it easier for free users. Flickr is only allowed to limit free storage to 1000 photos only regarding the image size. Such awful news, right? The company was formerly owned by Yahoo, users who have a free account will lose its access permanently. The users will need to think thoroughly what to do with the excess photos til January 8th, 2019. The company stated only 3% of free users stored photos that are up to 1000 photos currently uploaded. They argued that the majority of the users are not participating in the site and it is not helping to build a friendly community for the website.

“The free terabyte largely attracted members who were drawn by the free storage, not by engagement with other lovers of photography.” said Andrew Stadlen, Vice President of Flickr.

The free limit was suitable for those Flickr users who hosted images that are presented offsite especially for newsletters and bloggers. As the company deletes images from its archive, viewers from other sites would question the blank spaces where images should be. In other words, viewers will be puzzled about the missing content where the imagery should be. Back in 2013, the company offered 200 photos for free tier users with no limit of storing images that were stored privately. However, Stadlen stated this would yield negative consequences in the community, and the storage would be limited. The former owners increased the number of limits to 1TB to retrieve the prospect of the site.

“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,” said Stadlen.

In 2018, a photography company SmugMug bought Flickr to pay the subscription and was retooled to focus on the advertising revenue.

“You can tell a lot about a product by how it makes money,” he said. “Giving away vast amounts of storage creates data that can be sold to advertisers, with the inevitable result being that advertisers’ interests are prioritised over yours.”– Andrew Stadlen

So if you are a Flickr user and are facing this issue. It is advisable to either upgrade it for $49 per year for Flickr Pro service and make arrangements to download photos or have your photos deleted immediately before February 9th, 2019. So you need to figure out the solution otherwise your pictures will be automatically deleted, starting with the oldest photos first. The Flickr Pro tier costs $50 annually, and the company is offering a 30% discount until the end of November. Users who are on a free tier will be unable to upload a new content after January 8. So users, hurry up and delete your unnecessary photos! You do not want to get your needy photos removed first! Hope the situation for Flickr is sorted out! Stay tuned to our updates!