FAQ for the new Flickr: What’s changed and what’s stayed the same?

Yahoo's announcement yesterday of the overhauled Flickr has got a lot of people excited for very good reasons: 1TB of free storage and an exciting new design is a lot to like. But with a new pricing structure, there are still a lot of questions about how the system will work for old Pro users, new users, and everyone in between.

The basic differences between the various account types in the overhauled Flickr are laid out here, which should help you sort through the confusion a bit. However, we're going to try to address some of the thornier issues going on with the new Flickr, that haven't been laid out by parent company Yahoo or Flickr itself, quite so clearly yet.

What if I'm already a Pro user, and I want to keep my Pro account?

Flickr is allowing Pro users to maintain their Pro accounts by being "grandfathered" in, but it's a messy proposition. If you're a recurring Pro member, you can keep your Pro subscription, but they won't be selling any more of them. That means if you've been a long-time Pro user, but don't have it set to auto-renew, you're out of luck (like happened to Thomas Hawk). However, it looks like there are plans to let non-recurring Pro users sign up for recurring accounts.

What if I just paid to be a Pro user, and now want to switch to a free account?

If you just care about the storage space rather than other features, you can now switch to a free account, and you should receive a pro-rated refund. You can switch from this site.

What about the other Pro features?

Pro users used to get a lot more than just more storage. They also had access to analytics and unlimited sets. What's happening to these features is really unclear. We don't know if paid members will still have access to statistics. In fact, unless you have a grandfathered Pro account, stats seem to have entirely disappeared. Likewise, there doesn't seem to be any information about set limitations.

What's the deal with the 300MB upload limit?

With old Flickr, free users were limited to 300MB of uploads per month. Some users have reported that they're still being hit by this limit, even though free users are allowed 200MB large individual files. Thankfully, this seems to be a bug, and there isn't an official bandwidth limitation.

Why did Marissa Mayer say "there’s really no such thing as professional photographers anymore"?

We're not going to try and put words in her mouth, but this controversial quote is being passed around as if to prove that Mayer hates professional photographers, and hence the new Flickr design. You can see what she actually said in this video, starting around the 45:30 mark or so. She's obviously talking quickly and extemporaneously, and seems to be referring more to the fact that everyone needs huge amounts of storage and high quality images, not just "professionals."

Where is EXIF data and view more sizes?

They're still around. It's a redesign, things have been shuffled.

The first TB of storage is free but it costs $500 for an extra TB! That's a huge amount of money!

Yes, yes it is.

Obviously, Flickr has just been radically overhauled, both in terms of look and feel, and there's going to be an adjustment period. Bugs will be ironed out, some users will love it, some users will hate it. Maybe some of the missing features will return, and maybe something completely new will be added. What do our readers think? Is the new Flickr a change for the better? Or a horrible switch for the worse?