Does Flickr Support actually fix bugs? 2.5 years of being stuck in a support loop with zero resolution.

[u/Umpahpah_Bg]

Hi guys,

I moderate a few groups on Flickr with a Pro account, and for the past 2 years, group invite notifications (especially in older groups) have been completely unreliable. Invites simply don't reach users. Members have confirmed they aren't getting notified, and response rates have dropped from >70% to ~25%. There were brief periods when it worked again at random, proving it’s a fixable bug on their end, but it always broke again shortly after.

The biggest issue right now is Flickr Support. I’ve been stuck in an endless loop with them since the problem occurred (2 years...). It’s always the same script: they tell me they will "pass it to the engineers" or, even worse, that they are "monitoring the issue," followed by absolute silence. Seems that they just keep rotating my complaint ticket between different support agents, and it doesn't go further.

Has anyone experienced this specific bug with group invites?

More importantly, what do you even do when Flickr Support just strings you along like this? Has anyone had a similar experience with them and actually managed to get a persistent bug fixed? How did you get it solved?

(And please skip the "just leave Flickr" advice. I'd rather find a way to get this fixed than abandon the groups).

Cheers

[u/markazali]

I have the desktop uploader installed on windows and I’m absolutely sure there are some nasty bugs. It uses tons of resources even after all pictures have been uploaded!

[u/Padugan]

Flickr only exists to host MODE now.

[u/PenguinLoop → u/Padugan]

LOL

[u/crazyivan1958 → u/Padugan]

And take your money.

[u/qqphot]

I mean, you still can't block a user so that you don't see their photos, and it's been 22 years, so I wouldn't count too much on it.

[u/PenguinLoop]

Bottom line -- I wouldn't hold my breath. They platform "basically works" for my use cases and I live with the bugs. I try to be thankful that it hasn't gone belly up completely.

But, if you'd like to see if there are others experiencing your problem, check out the unofficial Help Forum: https://www.flickr.com/groups/helpforum/

[u/Blueiskewl]

There are multiple long term bugs and or issues that have not been fixed on flickr. I inquired about two of them and received the standard caned answer. One was they would pass it on to their team of engineers and would get back to me when they fixed it. The other response is they are aware of the issue and are working very hard to resolve the issue. This was a long time ago and can you guess what the end result is. The problems are still not fixed.

[u/siderealscratch]

My experience is that Flickr doesn't fix bugs unless they're truly a awful and affects everyone or maybe if they get flooded with complaints. There are still bugs that go back a decade at least and seemingly affect a substantial numbers of users, but aren't fixed.

I have the disappearing comment bug where some users' comments show in notifications and on comment counts but the comment itself doesn't show. They've suggested supposed fixes and work arounds in the support emails which don't work. The canned response is that they'll let the engineers know or they'll add your account to the list of those with the problem since it's a known bug. But i expect hell to freeze over before the bug is fixed.

A lot of their bugs seem intermittent or only affect some users, this suggests to me that their code isn't great since in general you should get deterministic results and not some random grab bag of what might happen.

Imo, you'll probably just have to accept their bugs and put up with them or leave. Their support was pleasant enough, but doing lots of follow-up with them probably won't get you nearer any resolution of the problem.