Flickr limits free accounts to 1,000 photos, mass deletion begins AI-researched
Dependency: Flickr free hosting tier
After SmugMug acquired Flickr, free accounts were slashed from 1 TB to 1,000 photos. Excess photos were deleted oldest-first starting February 2019, jeopardizing content from 100 million users and breaking projects that relied on Flickr as permanent image hosting.
Fixes & Mitigations
- Migration: Users could upgrade to Flickr Pro ($50/year) to retain unlimited storage, or download and re-host their content.
- Archive: Creative Commons and public-domain images uploaded before November 1, 2018 were exempted from deletion.
After SmugMug acquired Flickr from Yahoo (via Verizon), free accounts were limited from 1 terabyte of storage to just 1,000 photos and videos. Starting February 2019 (extended to March 12), photos exceeding the limit were deleted oldest-first.
What changed
Flickr’s generous free tier had functioned as de facto permanent image hosting for over a decade. Photography projects, art documentation, Creative Commons archives, and any web content that hotlinked or embedded Flickr-hosted images were at risk. The oldest-first deletion order meant the most historically valuable content was destroyed first.
Creative Commons and public-domain images uploaded before November 2018 were exempted, but “All Rights Reserved” content — including much art photography — was purged. The Flickr API also changed during this period, breaking third-party gallery integrations.
Notes
The event illustrates the fragility of relying on any platform’s free tier as archival storage. When the business model changed, over a decade of assumed permanence evaporated in weeks.