How to download all of your Flickr photos using OS X

by Ross McKillop on June 25, 2008

Mac

Maybe you’ve experienced a hard drive crash and need to restore all of those photos you uploaded to Flickr. Maybe you’re wondering when Yahoo will mess up Flickr entirely and you’re getting ready to migrate to another service. Whatever your reason, downloading all of your Flickr photos at once is pretty easy, with the help of Photo Grabbr. Continue reading for the step-by-step instructions.

  1. I should probably note – I tested a number of “Flickr download” tools. This is the only one I could find that downloaded every one of my photos without problems or errors. So, to get started, download and install Photo Grabbr. The installation is very straight forward. Run it from your Applications folder once you’re ready.
  2. Make user Username is selected from the Look up pull-down menu, and enter your Flickr user name in the space provided.

    3. main photo grabbr window
    click to enlarge

  3. If you’d like to download your photos that have been marked private, select Flickr from the top menu and then Authorize… from the drop-down menu. You’ll be taken to a page on Flickr.com asking you to grant access to Photo Grabbr. Click OK, I’LL ALLOW IT.

    4. authorize photo grabbr on flickr
    click to enlarge

  4. Select Photo Grabbr from the top menu, and then Preferences from the drop-down menu. From here you can change the default save location (and photo size and name) if you’d like.

    5. photo grabbr preferences
    click to enlarge

  5. Back in the main Photo Grabbr window, click the Download All Photos button. All of your Flickr photos will begin downloading.

    6. photo grabbr downloading flickr photos
    click to enlarge

  6. It took less than 20 minutes to download my 550 images on Flickr, quite a few of which were rather large in size. The download time will vary on your Internet connection speed, the number and size of your photos.


    7. click to enlarge

  • http://www.sumolabs.com Jordan Willms

    Says “API Key Expired”. Bunk.

  • Kris

    Interesting! Can it also download a specific Flickr SET ?

  • Felipe Bastos

    Yes. It would be nice if we could download a set!

  • Felipe Bastos

    Ups. It actually lets you choose which set(s) to download. Nice!

  • Scottish Lass

    Excellent, just what I have been looking for. Now, how do we update the downloads, without downloading images that have previously been downloaded? ie: I have downloaded my entire Flickr and want to be able to only download what I upload from this point on…checked the settings cannot see how to do that…ahy info?

    Thanks for a great application.

  • Bingo

    Great ap… except… Most of the pictures I see on Flickr have the default copyright on each photo… This client will not download any of these even though you can by “hand,” one at a time. sigh.

  • NBD

    Thank you!!!! Wonderful

  • http://true-consulting.se Therese Reuterswärd

    Help! Where did the photos go? Just downloaded all of my photos to a specified folder – and it is empty? Tried it two times.

  • Chris

    Bonjour Ross,
    Voici mon problème :
    “Marque Nom d’utilisateur utilisateur est sélectionné à partir du Look up menu déroulant et saisissez votre nom d’utilisateur Flickr dans l’espace prévu.”
    Je saisis ce qui correspond dans mon compte Flickr à mon pseudo et là : “User not found” ! Et bien sûr aucune de mes photos n’apparaissent.
    A l’aide. J’ai absolument besoin de récupérer quelques unes de mes photos.
    Merci d’avance.

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  • sm

    awesome, awesome, AWESOME!!! thank you.

  • http://stellauntalan.com ste!!a

    Getting this error when I try to download a set. I have a pro account and have given the app permission to access Flickr. Any suggestions?

    The error “0, Photo not found” has interrupted your download. Would you like to resume downloading your photos?

  • Jessica

    won’t find my username? :( !!

  • Melissa

    I get that same message “0, photo not found” only on the bottom 3 quarters of the sets that come up.

  • Melissa

    Stella, If under preferences I unselect the “generate xml file with data from photos downloaded” then they seem to download without the error. Bummer though, cause It would be nice to have the info with it. Wierd too cause I downloaded a few of them earlier today with no problem

  • Ashley

    I would like to download photos that I have a guest pass to- but it doesn’t show on the list.
    How do I do this?

  • http://shahidhussain.com Shahid Hussain

    Worked a treat, thank you!

  • http://www.kris-toph.com kris

    Best app/review ever! Need this for a last minute keynote presentation I’m doing, and you saved the night!

  • Chris

    What if your user name is not found but you know it’s valid?

  • http://julieschoening.com Julie

    Same with you Chris. My username isn’t being found. I’m trying another username for a separate account and that one is showing up. Just not this other one…

  • S Iyer

    Hi I get a message saying the “user is not found”.

    I have set flickr to authorize photo grabbr.

    Any suggestions?

  • Kay

    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! So simple.