Bottom line: Nobody likes adhering to strict guidelines after having what essentially amounted to unlimited storage for years but it's a necessary evil that should make for a better overall user experience. Either way, you'll want to take action if you are a free user over the 1,000 image limit to ensure you don't lose content.
Image hosting service Flickr in late 2018 announced plans to impose restrictions on its free tier that would limit storage to 1,000 photos and videos in most cases.
Until recently, free tier users were given 1TB of online storage which was enough to accommodate more than 500,000 average-size photos. Flickr’s new owner, SmugMug, said the previous owner’s (Yahoo) decision to offer that much storage was a mistake that undervalued the worth of paid storage and attracted people interested in the free storage, not necessarily those who love photography.
Since January 8, 2019, free members over the 1,000 limit haven’t been able to upload additional photos to Flickr. And starting tomorrow, February 5, 2019, Flickr will start deleting photos and videos beyond the threshold, starting with the oldest media first.
To ensure your content doesn’t disappear into thin air, you can either upgrade to a paid Flickr Pro account or download and save your images locally, either through the Camera Roll or the Albums section.
The clock is ticking. If you don’t want to risk losing anything, it’d be best to get to downloading ASAP, especially if you don’t want to pay for a premium account. And even if you do upgrade to a paid account, it’s never a bad idea to keep a local backup of your work.
