There are a lot of different settings that you can tinker with on Flickr. You can change how your profile looks, who can see your stuff, what emails you get from Flickr, and whether or not your photos are shared to other social networks.
To adjust your settings, go to www.flickr.com in your web browser and log in. Then, click your profile picture in the top-right corner to open a drop-down menu, and then click Settings.
Categories of Flickr settings
There are four general categories of settings that you can change: Personal Information (default), Privacy and Permissions, Emails and Notifications, and Sharing and Extending. Click one to edit the settings for that category.
Personal Information
These settings affect what information of yours is (or appears) on Flickr, and who can see it.
View Your Order History / Manage Your Subscriptions — View and manage your subscription to Flickr Pro, as well as any “creations” based on your photos that you have purchased from Flickr. You can also add and edit your billing information here.
Your Safety Level — Here you can see the general audience settings for your photos and videos on Flickr, as determined by the Flickr staff. “Safe” means that anyone can view and share them. “Moderate” or “Restricted” means that it is more difficult to find and share your photos (depending on other people’s settings).
(NOTE: This setting may not be available unless you have at least 5 pictures on Flickr.)
Your Buddy Icon — Click Edit to replace your profile picture. You can replace it with a photo that you’ve uploaded to Flickr, or one that you upload directly from your computer.
Your Screen Name — Click Edit to change the name that represents you on Flickr.
Your Profile — Click Edit to go to a new page where you can change the information in your profile, or click View Your Profile Page to see how your profile looks now. You can also click Edit Who Can See What to choose who can view your email address, instant messaging user names, real name, or the city in which you currently live. Or, click If It’s Searchable to decide whether or not your profile or photos can be found by searching on Flickr itself or through third-party applications.
Your Flickr Web Address — Click Create Your Own Memorable Flickr Web Address to create a custom Internet address for your profile. If you decide to create one, you can’t change it later, so put some thought into it first!
Your Yahoo Account — Click Edit Your Yahoo Password to change your password for Flickr (and any other Yahoo-owned services that you may be using). You can also click Edit Your Yahoo Preferences to change your information and settings for your overall Yahoo account. Finally, you can click Use A Different Yahoo ID For This Flickr Account if you have a different Yahoo account that you want to use to manage your account.
Your Flickr Account — Click Delete Your Flickr Account to begin the process of deleting your account. See our how to delete your Flickr account tutorial for complete instructions.
Privacy and Permissions
These settings control who can see your information and photos on Flickr, and what Flickr or its users can do with your photos or information.
Who Can Access Your Original Image Files? — Click Edit to change who can view and download the original image files of the photos that you put on Flickr.
Largest Shared Image Size — Click Edit to change how large your photos appear on Flickr. This might be useful if you are using the service on a smaller screen, such as on a tablet computer or mobile phone.
Who Can Add You To A Photo? — Click Edit to determine who is allowed to indicate that you are in a photo that has been uploaded.
Printing — Click Edit to change who is allowed to make and purchase “creations” using your photos, and select the country that Flickr should ship “creations” to if you decide to order something yourself.
Allow Your Stuff to be Added to A Gallery — Click Edit to decide whether or not other people can add your photos and videos to “galleries”, custom groups of photos and videos (theirs and other people’s) that revolve around a certain theme.
Hide Your EXIF Data — Click Edit to decide whether or not you want people who view your photos to be able to see the type of camera that you took each photo with.
Show Which Application You Used for Uploading — Click Edit to decide whether or not to show what program you used to upload each of your photos (e.g. Flickr’s website, the Flickr Uploadr program, the Flickr mobile application, etc.).
Hide Your Stuff From Public Searches — Click Edit to decide whether or not people can find your photos and videos on Flickr through common search engines, such as Google Search, Microsoft Bing, or DuckDuckGo.
Hide Your Profile From Public Searches — Click Edit to control whether or not people can find your profile using common search engines, such as Google Search, Microsoft Bing, or DuckDuckGo.
Who Can See What on Your Profile — Click Edit to determine who can see your email address, instant messaging name(s), real name, or current city of residence. Or, click Edit Your IM Names, Real Name, or Current City to edit your profile.
Make Your Photos Eligible for Invitation by Getty Images? — Click Edit to decide whether or not you want to potentially receive invitations from Getty Images to buy the rights to your photos.
Show Autotags — Click Edit to decide whether or not you want to allow Flickr to automatically add “tags” to your photos, which are descriptive keywords that make your photos easier to search for.
Who Will be Able to See, Comment On, Add Notes, or Add People — Click Edit to change who can see, comment on, add notes to, or mark people in your photos after you upload them.
What License Will Your Content Have — Click Edit to change the license that your photos will have when you upload them. This changes how other people are allowed to use your photos (e.g. change them or use them in a work with or without the purpose of making money).
Who Will Be Able to See Your Stuff on A Map — Click Edit to determine who can see photos that you upload that include information about where they were taken.
Import EXIF Location Data — Some cameras can automatically add information to a photo regarding where the photo was taken. Click Edit to decide whether or not you want this information to be included when you upload your photos.
What Safety Level and Content Type Will Your Photostream Have — Click Edit to choose general settings for the classification of images that you’ll be uploading to Flickr, and who your images are appropriate for (or not).
Search Settings — Click Edit to determine if you only want to see “Safe”-rated photos as search results on Flickr, or are okay with seeing “Moderate” or even “Restricted” content. You can also choose whether you want to see only photographs as search results on Flickr, or are okay with seeing illustrations/animations/CGI, screenshots, or videos show up as search results.
Autoplay Videos — Click Edit to decide whether or not you want videos to automatically play when you go to their pages.
Emails and Notifications
These settings control how Flickr can contact you, and what they can contact you about. They also allow you to use email to quickly move your photos and videos to Flickr or your other social networks.
Your Contact Email — Click Edit to change the email address that Flickr will send emails and notifications to.
Notification Emails — Click Edit to decide whether or not you want Flickr to send you emails regarding invitations you receive, people who add you to their contacts, private messages that you’re sent, or reminders on “creations” that you’re working on.
Recent Activity Emails — Click Edit to decide whether or not (or how often) you want to receive emails from Flickr regarding actions that other people take with your photos and videos (such as leaving comments), or your contacts uploading new content.
Your Flickr Upload Email — Click Edit to set up a unique email address that you can send photos to, and have them appear right on your account!
Your Blog Upload Email / Your Flickr2Twitter Upload Email — Click Tell Us A Little About the Blog(s) You Want to Upload To in order to tell Flickr about the details of your Twitter account or other web journal (such as Blogger or WordPress). Once you get things straightened out, you can send photos to a special email address in order to post them directly to your web journal or Twitter feed through Flickr!
Sharing and Extending
These settings let you set up various ways of sharing your photos, either over social networks or hyperlinks that you place on websites, in emails, and so on.
Facebook / Twitter / Tumblr — Click Connect beside any of these to log into your respective account and connect it to your account. This will let you easily post your photos on your social media accounts. You can disconnect your social media accounts here, too.
Guest Pass History — Click this to see temporary hyperlinks that you have created for others to view your (private) photos. You can click Expire to tell Flickr to make a link stop working.
Your Printing Location — Click Tell Us Where You Are In The World to select what country you live in. This will let Flickr know where to ship any “creations” that you design with your photos.
Account Links — This is where any third-party applications or services you have authorized to use Flickr will show up. You can disconnect these services here, if you wish.
Keyboard Shortcuts — Click Edit to decide whether you want to use keyboard shortcuts on Flickr. For example, pressing the “L” key when you have a photo selected will display it in a pop-up window, or pressing the “?” key will show all shortcuts available. Turning off keyboard shortcuts may be useful if you are having trouble typing information into text boxes.
Those are all of the different settings that you can change on Flickr! Experiment and see what works for you!
