Photobucket now charges for embedding images

**Rubenandres77** · #1 06-30-2017, 08:15 AM

I woke up this morning to the ugly surprise that Photobucket has changed
the way they allow people to embed images to forums and other sites.

Read the news here:
https://www.ghacks.net/2017/06/30/ph...hosted-images/

And here:
https://www.pcmag.com/news/354711/ph...s-the-internet

This happened without previous warning to the users.

If you (like me) have images stored in Photobucket, and have linked to the forum
to show photos of your models, chances are that they do not show, and a dummy
image is shown instead.

Too bad. It affects millions of images stored in that site,
and thousands of threads in quite a lot of forums around the globe.

**rickstef** · #2 06-30-2017, 09:14 AM

Sounds like a move to other hosts is in order

**SCEtoAUX** · #3 06-30-2017, 09:24 AM

I noticed that in some of the posts today.

I went back and checked if some of the photos I linked to on PhotoBucket still showed up. A picture still shows up in Post 38 Page 4 in this thread:
Cathedral de Chartres, L'Instant Durable

The following is a test of a picture of a cheetah model stored on PhotoBucket...:

...which shows up in this post when viewing on my computer. Does it show up on other folk's computer screen?

**JohnM** · #4 06-30-2017, 09:34 AM

Thanks for the head up Ruben. Nice of them to let us know, eh?

I've checked some of mine Doug, and they've gone. I haven't checked them all though.

Just in case others have missed it ... the pictures are still in your library.

To quote "You can download your entire library of images by selecting Library on Photobucket, and there the download album link under actions."

I have just put this in motion, but as I have 53 pages of pics on there ... only time will tell if the library download is successful.

Meantime, I'm working through my library and utilizing the 'Save as' trick to extract the important ones to my desktop.

I will be looking for info on alternative hosting facilities in the near future, as Photobucket is the only service I've ever used for posting pics onto forums, but $399 a year hosting fee is a bit too dear for me.

**The-EDSEL** · #5 06-30-2017, 09:59 AM

Flikr & Fotki are 2 that I knwo offer free use too
I have a small account on Flickr
Or did have Back when I first started taking pics
I got the email from them on Wed..
Yes, I too will be Closing the photobucket account
UNLESS pics link from there are still open here and on other forums I am a member of

**rickstef** · #6 06-30-2017, 10:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCEtoAUX

I noticed that in some of the posts today.

I went back and checked if some of the photos I linked to on PhotoBucket still showed up. A picture still shows up in Post 38 Page 4 in this thread:
Cathedral de Chartres, L'Instant Durable

The following is a test of a picture of a cheetah model stored on PhotoBucket...:

...which shows up in this post when viewing on my computer. Does it show up on other folk's computer screen?

Yes, the Cheetah shows up nicely

**Rubenandres77** · #7 06-30-2017, 10:11 AM

I can also see the cheetah!

Apparently by the time being the affected accounts are the ones that had over x number of photos stored, or those that had certain bandwidth use.

After checking, none of my p***bucket photos is showing in any of the forums I use (paper and non-paper related).

But some people's accounts I know are using the same service still are unaffected.
I wonder how much longer will they be. As now (updated 2 days ago in their terms of service) even the free accounts (and also the cheapest of the paid accounts) don't allow external linking/embedding of images. So all new users already start with the restriction.

**SCEtoAUX** · #8 06-30-2017, 10:28 AM

Yes, I only have 9 pages of photos stored on the site.
Give it a while and all of my photos will probably stop showing up in the various posts made through the years.

**draccus** · #9 06-30-2017, 11:04 AM

Photobucket show how to lose their clients, First annoying commercials, popups and now this. They shoot themself in the knee. Now im useing flicr or fotosik

**airdave** · #10 06-30-2017, 11:10 AM

I don't understand this Photobucket change.
I have seen no such notices.
And all my photos still appear to be visible.

I just checked some old post on other forums that I haven't been to in years
and they are all still visible.
I even logged out of my photobucket account to make sure that wasn't affecting things.

I wonder, since I am already a paying customer (photobucket) that the situation is the same for me?
I have so many photos on photobucket...and posted on dozens of websites...
it will be devastating for me if I have to switch photo hosts.

Are we sure it doesn't have something to do with how images are posted/shared?