MacBros' Place |

Wow! I was actually very disappointed when I received an e-mail from Rogers saying that they are going to discontinue the free Flickr Pro service. This is what they have to say in their e-mail.

Dear Rogers Yahoo! customer,

We are writing to inform you that on July 1, 2009, your Flickr Pro account included with your Rogers Hi-Speed Internet service will change to a free Flickr account. The free Flickr service has many of the same features as Pro, but is subject to some limits.

Your existing photos or videos will not be deleted as a result of this change. If you have more than 200 photos in the free Flickr account, only the most recent 200 are displayed. Other changes include:

• 100MB monthly upload limit (10MB per photo)
• 2 video uploads each month (max. 90 seconds and 150MB per video)
• Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later) 

If you enjoy the full flexibility and storage capacity of your current Flickr Pro account, you can maintain your Pro account by subscribing directly to the service for $24.95 (USD) a year. Subscribe before September 1, 2009 and get two months free. 

We want to thank you for being a Rogers Yahoo! customer. It is our pleasure to provide you with an enjoyable online photo experience.

Sincerely,

Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet Customer Service

That to me is quite a kick in the teeth if you ask me. 

I have 2373 photos on my account right now and I don’t have them stored on my hard drive. I know, stupid idea to put my trust in an online service to store my precious photos. Well, there is a way to get them all backed up to your hard drive or on DVD.

I will be using an application called Flickr Edit. It is a Java Based application that will allow you to backup all your Flickr photos to whatever storage media that you want to use. I’ll be downloading them to my hard drive so I can upload them to my own web site’s photo gallery. To download the application, just click on the Launch button below:

When you execute the application you will see a User button in the top right corner, when you click that it will open a browser window and it will have the authenticate option window from Flickr asking you to allow the application to have access to your Flickr account. Just click on the ‘OK, I’ll Allow It’ button to continue.

OK, I'll allow it

Once you successfully allow Flickr Edit to have access to your Flickr account, you will then see the following screen:

Success!

Once your done authorizing Flickr Edit, you can then go back to the application and start your backup process.

Now I have gone and opted to download all the sets. that way they are all manageable for uploading them back to My Gallery. Before you backup, I would recommend going into the preferences of the application so you can set it up for your own preferences. They are basic and straight forward so no further explanation is needed IMO.

Select Your Sets For Backup

Once I selected all the sets that I wanted to backup, I then proceeded with the backup options. I have chosen to back up to my hard drive like I already mentioned. There is an option to compress all the files into a zip file for those who want to save on file size. In my case I will be uploading them as soon as I download them all, so I will not be compressing mine, so I selected the ‘none’ radio button. Of course I also chose the location I wanted to download my files into.

Backup Options

Once I had my backup options I simply pressed ‘Start Backup’ and then the waiting process starts. Since I have so many files to download, it will take a very long time. Depending on your Computer Power and your Internet speeds, you can choose how many download process you want to run at a time. I left it at the default of 5, but you can go into the settings and lower or raise that number if you choose.

The Progress Screen

Just so you know. This application also allows you to edit images too. So you can still use it whenever you want even though your not using it to back up your shit.

So there you go. If your a Rogers Internet Customer, or have an ISP that’s yanking your Flickr Pro account out from under you, here you have a easy way to grab your shit before they cut you out completely.