What Is Bulkr and What Can It Do for Flickr Users?

Updated

Bulkr is a desktop application for Mac and Windows that backs up, browses, and downloads photos and videos from Flickr. It fits users who want a local copy of their own photostream, or who need to pull down large volumes of images — sets, favorites, group pools, or Creative Commons results — without clicking through the Flickr website one photo at a time. A free version is available to install, and a PRO tier exists for users who need more.

What Bulkr does

The core job is bulk download and backup. According to the site, Bulkr can:

  • Back up your photostream and videos with one click — a full local copy of what you've uploaded.
  • Download Flickr videos, not just still images.
  • Download sets (albums) — your own or any other user's.
  • Download photos in 4 different sizes, so you can choose between smaller files and full-resolution originals.
  • Write metadata to EXIF/XMP — title, tags, description, and geotag are carried into the downloaded file.
  • Preview images before downloading, so you can filter before committing to a large transfer.
  • Auto-resume downloads if the connection breaks — useful when pulling thousands of files over a flaky connection.

Where it can pull photos from

Bulkr isn't limited to your own account. The site lists these sources:

Source What it means
Your photostream Everything you've uploaded
Any user's photostream or set Another photographer's public work or a specific album
Your favorites Photos you've starred on Flickr
Any Flickr group The group's photo pool
Explored photos Flickr's Explore selection
Flickr search Search results, including Creative Commons

For Creative Commons material, the site states you can download up to 500 at a go from search, your photostream, a user's photostream or set, your favorites, a group, or Explore.

Who it's for

Bulkr makes sense if you fall into one of these situations:

  • You're leaving or hedging against Flickr. A one-click backup of your photostream and videos gives you a local archive you control.
  • You curate or research. Downloading a group pool, a set, or Creative Commons search results in bulk is far faster than manual saving.
  • You want metadata preserved. The EXIF/XMP writing means titles, tags, descriptions, and geotags travel with the files instead of being lost.
  • You handle large jobs. One user quoted on the site says it was "the only app I tried for downloading 10,000 full-size photos that didn't crash on me" — relevant if you're working at that scale.

It's less useful if you only need a handful of images occasionally, since the browser and Flickr's own download options may be enough.

Free vs. PRO

The site offers a free install and a separate PRO page. The free version covers the core download and backup workflow; PRO is positioned as the tier for users who need more ("Do more with Bulkr PRO!"). The site does not publish specific PRO feature limits or pricing on the pages reviewed here, so check the PRO page directly before deciding whether the upgrade matters for your use case.

Practical notes

  • Platform: Mac and Windows desktop app — not a web tool or mobile app.
  • Scale: The site reports over 749 million photos downloaded, which speaks to it being built for volume.
  • Independence: Bulkr uses the Flickr API but states it is "not endorsed or certified by Flickr."
  • Setup: The site describes installation as free and quick, with a short intro video ("Bulkr in just over 1 minute").

If your goal is a durable local backup of a Flickr library, or bulk retrieval of sets, groups, favorites, or Creative Commons images with metadata intact, Bulkr is built for exactly that. Start with the free install to test the workflow on a small set, then evaluate PRO if you hit its limits.