Two Mistakes People Commonly Make On Flickr

Knowing How Flickr Runs Will Help You Overcome Common Mistakes

Mistakes can happen, even with the best run sites. Fortunately, they usually are minor and can easily be overcome if you understand what's happening.

The Symptom

Occasionally, members experience problems logging in to their Flickr accounts after signing into Yahoo!, especially after merging their accounts. On other occasions, they have difficulty logging in because of the way their browsers and computers are set up, specifically the Cookies and firewalls.

Mistake #1

When people cannot log in, they think there's a problem with their Flickr account, so they create a new one and delete the old one. If this happens to you, it will result in the loss of any photos that you have uploaded to your Flickr account and you'll have to start over. If you delete your Yahoo! account your Flickr account will become inaccessible.

The Solution

Contact Flickr management with your account name and they will help you resolve the log in issue. Also, check to see if you have more than one Yahoo! account, as this can be the cause. In this case, simply try logging in again with your second Yahoo! account.

Check your security settings on your browser and your computer. You might have to lower the settings to gain access to Flickr. Cookies are a common culprit as Flickr needs to install one on your system to identify you as a member. Lower the security and cookie settings gradually and try logging in again until you reach the level that lets you in.

Symptom

Sometimes, the Flickr site will start acting weird. Realize that Flickr runs several different databases to store all the hundreds of thousands of images that have been uploaded to the site. You might get errors, such as your comments not appearing, tags you've entered are not coming up, and certain error messages related to some photos.

Generally, these glitches will occur when many members are busy working around the site at the same time. They might be posting comments and photos to groups, editing a comment, or even confirming their email addresses. This puts pressure on the Flickr databases to take care of all those changes, save images, add new information, etc. If it gets too busy, these errors will occur.

Mistake #2

Members often try posting their comments again when it didn't work the first time. This burdens the system even more.

Solution

Recognize that the system is just too busy at that time. Take a break yourself, grab a snack or a drink and try again a little later when things calm down on Flickr.

If you ever experience any of these issues, don't panic. Simply take these steps to overcome them and you will soon get the results you expect within your Flickr account.