Flickr allow downloading of photos in one album

Andy Kawa says:

I am getting this error as well. It happens when there are a certain number of pictures in an album. I don't know the exact number but I cannot download albums with around 150 pictures or more. I get the message an error has occurred. This was never a problem before.

There seems to be some limit on creating a download based on the number of pictures an album contains.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Andy Kawa says:

Just tried an album with 139 photos and got the error so the cutoff is lower than that.

Successfully got an album with 120 so must be somewhere in that range.

This needs to be fixed.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

wildhareuk says:

vms7714:

I don't normally need to download albums as I have everything stored locally. However, I have tried to download a couple of albums and there does seem to a number of photos limit.

I would contact the Support Heroes at: help.flickr.com/contact/contact-us-rkBc7roJQ as there is no guarantee that Flick staff will see this topic.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

~andre says:

Flickr keeps ZIP files under 500 images, which is probably what triggers this behavior.

EDIT: Misspoke about the limit criteria - supposed to be images, not ZIP file size.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )
~andre edited this topic 17 months ago.

vms7714 says:

Thanks for the responses. This is a new issue as I have successfully downloaded an album with over 200 photos in the past.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Andy Kawa says:

Still having this issue. Flickr Support please take a look at this. I am also opening up a support request.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Andy Kawa says:

~andre:

You are correct. In the past when I tried to download an album that is too large flickr would break them into separate zip files.

The files I am trying to download now are not even close to the limit. This is a new issue.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Andy Kawa says:

Flickr support: The cutoff seems to be at 132. Albums with 131 items or less will create the zip file. Albums with 132 or more will cause the error.

I will send this to support via email as well.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

~andre says:

@Flickr

Behind the scenes flickr.download.archives.create is failing with this response:

{"stat":"fail","code":1,"message":"Failed to create archive"}

Nothing special in the headers. Here's a couple that might be useful.

server: Apache/2.4.39 (Ubuntu)
x-cache: Miss from cloudfront
x-amz-cf-pop: ATL51-C1

The response comes back within a few hundred milliseconds, so it's not that it tries even.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Triplica says:

I have also reported this problem. Let's hope we get a positive response!
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Andy Kawa says:

This was NOT an issue after the migration to the new platform. This only started this weekend. I was creating downloads before this weekend with 300 to 400 photos.

Flickr support please take notice.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )
Andy Kawa edited this topic 17 months ago.

jennchase says:

Recently having this issues as well. Was not an issue a couple of weeks ago.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

anniem514 says:

I also reported the same problem. I just paid for flickr pro or whatever and now I cannot download my albums. I have so many pictures and I do not see a way to split my larger albums. It is too hard to locate my pictures in the photostream. I have to look at the albums and I do not see a way to download from my albums right now. I am not happy since I just paid in order to keep my services.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

~andre says:

anniem514:

I have so many pictures and I do not see a way to split my larger albums.

hinalthakkar177 says:

vms7714:

Facing same issue :/
were you able to download?
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Andy Kawa says:

hinalthakkar177:

I have been able to download albums with 131 or fewer photos. I've done several tests with different size photos and that seems to be the number for me. Interesting to see if anyone else has the same result since a lot of other users have this issue.

You should open up a support request using this link:

help.flickr.com/contact/contact-us-rkBc7roJQ
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Andy Kawa says:

Flickr support please take notice of this issue.

It's wide spread and only began this past weekend.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Andy Kawa says:

Issue is resolved...Thank you Flickr Support

Yesterday I received a nice email from Flickr support asking for all the specifics I knew on this issue and what testing I had performed. They seemed very interested in collecting this information and informed me that they were sending this to development engineers since many people were reporting this.

Within an hour of me sending the information and receiving confirmation from Flickr that they received it the issue was resolved.


Support tickets and this forum really do work so thank you Flickr Support for listening and thank you to all the users of this forum.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

katie_ko says:

Hi Everyone!

Thanks for keeping us in the loop with trouble you're having downloading specific albums. We've since identified the problem and issued a fix.

If you haven't already, please go ahead and try downloading the albums once more. If you're still running into problems, let me know and we can dig a little deeper.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Chipps Chippendale says:

anniem514:

That's what I've just done - joined Flickr Pro as it wouldn't let me download larger albums on the free one - and now I get the same reply...

I'm still having issues, Katie
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

Chipps Chippendale says:

Chipps Chippendale:

As I mentioned above, I'm having the same issues. Albums up to 200 seem fine, but trying to download 2000 images is an instant 'Nil points' from the Swedish Judges...
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

katie_ko says:

Chipps Chippendale:

Currently it's not possible to download albums containing more than 500 photos- shooting you an email now so we can find a workaround.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

TheAmazingLarry says:

Is there a workaround for this or do I have to tediously start dividing all of my albums into 500 or less photos :(
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )

flowery fang says:

A few days ago I was also experiencing not being able to download other user's albums if larger than 132 pics. Now, I can't even see the download icon in the albums for any user here on Flickr.
Posted 17 months ago. ( permalink )