# Exporting Folders to Flickr



## zut (Sep 4, 2014)

Hi All!
My main goal is to have my images backed up and accessible to /from the internet (so I can occasionally share a link of the kids with the grandparents). 

I did start searching for a solution to do this with Flickr as they are offering a lot of free space. My search has been going on for three evenings already and as I have not found anything I am asking you, more experienced users of LightRoom and Internet. 

The problem I am running into -- none of the solutions /plugins I find has the option to preserve my Folder Hierarchy in any way. I would be glad if at least the bottom level Folders would be created into Albums or Collections on the Flickr site. 

So here come the questions:
1) Is there a tool /settings in some plugin that can help me that for Flickr?
2) If not -- maybe there is a tool for some other service provider. I dont mind Google+ or some other place. As long as I dont need to start paying too quick (would love at least 20GB free space). Can you point me somewhere?

It seems like this could be a common issue, bu even searching these forums did not reveal the info to me. Maybe it is something utterly simple that I am missing.

Thanks!


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 5, 2014)

You can use the Flickr publish services plugin (I'd recommend Jeffrey's more advanced one) to upload collections to Flickr. You'd need to create those collections from your folders though.


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## zut (Sep 5, 2014)

Hi Victoria. I have used both the default Flickr publish service that comes with the Default lightroom 4.4 and Jefferey's more advanced plugin. Neither of them allow me to keep the folder structure /hierarchy on mass upload. While Jeffreys Flickr plugin allows one to create a collection manually per upload (not per LightRoom folder), this would still mean a LOT of manual work at least once. And I cant really add many folders for the upload at the same time like this.

The default plugin just adds all photos to the main photostream and would need even more manual work later on the Flickr website.

###

Maybe my approach is wrong and someone can suggest an alternative process for this kind of backing up /getting modified images online? I do have originals backed up on file level and not worried about that part this much.


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## clee01l (Sep 5, 2014)

> Maybe my approach is wrong and someone can suggest an alternative process for this kind of backing up /getting modified images online? I do have originals backed up on file level and not worried about that part this much.


Filesystem folders are an inadequate means for organizing photo images.  Even Flickr does not use any equivalence of folders.  A Flickr Album can be in one or more collection as can a Flickr image be in one or more Flickr Albums.  In the file system, an image file can be in one and only one folder and that folder can be a sub folder of one and only one other folder. 

I use Jeffrey's jfFlickr Plug-in.  It will automatically create a static and/or a smart Publish Collection for each album already created at Flickr.  By adding a new collection to the jfFlickr Publish Service, the plugin will automatically create a new album of that name at Flickr. 

I use keywords and smart publish collections to organize my Flickr photos. I have a Flickr Album named "04.01: Ornithology".   With the non published keyword @Flickr and a keyword Avian along with other criteria indicating the image is complete and ready to be published, my jfFlickr publish collection named "04.01: Ornithology" collects images destined for that Flickr Album. It does this automatically when I add the necessary keywords, label, flags, Title and Description to an image.

In you initial post you said "my main goal is to have my images backed up".  Flickr is not a backup service It is a social medium for sharing copies of images.  If you want to back up your images safely, you need a true backup application. You can backup to a local HDD, offsite (a friends computer) or to the cloud.  Your HDD will fail.  You will lose everything on it including you LR catalog file, your critical financial records, documents and spreadsheets.  This is why a system backup is important.  I use CrashPlan it backs up to a local EHD, and for $60USD per year my critical data is also stored in the cloud.  I have over 650GB of data backed up by CrashPlan.  Not only is my critical protected from fire flood and pestilence, it is also protected from stupid user mistakes.


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## zut (Sep 6, 2014)

Hi.
I did also write that I have files back upped well enough on file level. Let this part be. I guess I expressed my wrong in the first post.

My main goal is to have the edited photos uploaded in the same structure as I have built up in Lightroom. I do understand that the Folder in file system or LightRoom does not equal Album on Flickr. I have tagged my photos additionally to the Folder structure in LightRoom also with keywords. While "Filesystem folders are an inadequate means for organizing photo images." it is sufficient for me (together with keywords) and I want the same structure preserved.

To my knowledge Jeffreys plugin does not allow to upload several LightRoom Folders in one batch and preserve the same structure on Flickr (does not matter if you call them collections, albums, folders, per folder keywords (if not added before upload process starts) or something else). It can create one new collection per upload and stash all photos in there. So you have to upload each folder separately. As I have hundreds of them, I am looking for a solution to somewhat automate the upload process.

Cletus: I guess you just add a specific keyword to every LightRoom folder (your sample of "0401 ornitology") and then create the same named collection on lightroom. And you do upload just one folder at a time for achieving this?

I guess one way I can go is to start looking for a tool that will first "Publish all edited photos with same structure to the HDD" and then find another tool that will do the "upload all filesystem folders into separate collections on flickr". I did think this would have been automated long ago and wiser people know where to point me.


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## Victoria Bampton (Sep 6, 2014)

Let us know what you find out then.  I haven't come across any automation like that either.


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