At Flickr, we’re committed to maintaining a platform that’s secure, trustworthy, and built for photographers who are passionate about sharing their work. As part of that ongoing commitment, we’re introducing a policy to remove inactive accounts that have never been used. These are free accounts that have been inactive for at least 90 days and contain no photos, no comments, no favorites, and no group activity – but they do represent real security risk, including potential for account takeover, spam, and abuse.

Why this matters

Dormant, empty accounts are a target for bad actors. Keeping millions of unused accounts in our system creates unnecessary exposure for our platform and, by extension, for the active community members who depend on Flickr. Cleaning up these accounts helps us run a safer, healthier platform.

What happens next

Starting July 15th, 2026, we will:

• Publish this blog post as public notice of the policy
• After 30 days from the go-live date, we will begin locking affected accounts
• 14 days after locking, permanently delete accounts where no reclaim has been made

If you think your account might be affected

Simply log in to your Flickr account at flickr.com before August 31st, 2026. Logging in is all it takes to keep your account active. If your account has been locked and you’d like to reclaim it, contact our support team at flickrhelp.com – we’re happy to help.

What gets deleted

For accounts that are removed, all associated data – including profile information and account credentials – will be permanently deleted in accordance with our Privacy Policy.

Because these accounts contain no photos, no comments, no groups, and no social connections, the data involved is minimal: essentially an email address, a username, and authentication credentials.

Questions?

Visit our Help Center at flickrhelp.com or review our Terms of Service for more information.

We appreciate your understanding as we work to keep Flickr a safe and vibrant home for photography.

— The Flickr Team