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Downloading Snapfish photos
I uploaded my pictures to Snapfish over the last few years of of a mix of computers, and I'd like to download them all again so that I have them in one place off the internet for some projects I'd like to do on power point, etc. Is there a way I can download the pictures that I had uploaded without paying for each download (given that they were my own pictures to start with)?
I’m hopeful!
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Hi all,
I am sorry for the confusion here, and I can personally understand why the charge for downloading hi-resolution images might be unexpected to some. Please be aware that you can download medium resolution versions of your images for free by simply right-clicking them.
But in specific response to Mr. Torr's legal arguments we need to be clear, so please excuse my legalese here: We have never allowed downloads of hi-resolution images for free. As advertised, the Snapfish site is designed for the uploading of images for the purposes of digital photo printing, photo sharing, and ordering personalized photo products. Storage is not the purpose of the site. Downloading of images is an option Snapfish makes available to customers, in addition to printing, sharing and personalized photo products. The download price is clearly displayed in our pricing table (http://www1.snapfish.com/helppricing#...) along with all other product and services pricing, and the price is also clearly displayed at the time of download. The customer is provided and must accept the download charge prior to downloading and has the option to cancel the download if they do not wish to proceed with transaction after seeing the price.
If you have any further questions or concerns about any of these issues, I’ll be glad to help!
Yours, Otto
Otto Imken
Worldwide Customer Support Manager
Snapfish by HP
otto.imken at hp.com
Tel: (415) 979-3910
The company says
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The best answer from everyone
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Hello,
Please note that this is NOT a scam. If you would please refer to our website's Terms and Conditions, which you had to state that you read and agreed to prior to creating your Snapfish account, you will see clear confirmation of this:
http://www2.snapfish.com/termsAndCond...=2806294/csrcode=ADM
" II. Digital Image Storage
1. Snapfish offers free, unlimited storage of online photos to Members who maintain Active Participation. There is no limit to the Content you can upload. When you upload image Content to the Service, the original resolution of your Content may be affected depending on the upload speed you choose. Further, if you upload an image with more than nine mega-pixels of resolution, Snapfish may in its discretion down-sample the image regardless of the upload speed you choose.
2. You should always preserve your original Content, or make back-up copies of such Content, on your personal system. You should not use the Service as the only repository or other source for your Content."
Thank you.
The company says
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Inappropriate?Hello,
Thank you for contacting us.
This is how you can download FREE pictures from Snapfish to your computer:
Images available for free download are of lower quality than the high-resolution versions we have stored on our computers. The High Resolution scans are used for making reprints when you order them, for creating Photo CD ROM's, and are available for purchase in direct download form as well.
You can use free images where you would view them with a computer, but they won't print high quality photos.
For Free downloads, we recommend that you download a picture from the "slide" view, as opposed to the "entire album" or "thumbnail" view, as the slide show view has larger images. Instructions are below.
A little technical information for customers who need it: the resolution of the "Slide View" photos is 384x256 pixels and the resolution of the thumbnail view is 96 x 64 pixels. The high resolution scans provided in high resolution download or with a Photo CD are 1536x1024 pixels.
All photos are in "JPEG" or ".jpg" format.
The instructions below cover FREE downloads for both Windows and Macintosh Computers. Please check our site for information and instructions on High Resolution Downloads at www.snapfish.com/helphiresphotos.
http://www.snapfish.com/helpindex
Place your cursor (pointer) at the center of the picture.
If you are using a Windows PC, click the right button. A box will appear, giving you several choices. You will probably want to choose "Save [Picture] As . . ." then just choose the place on your computer where you will store the photo. If the name of that file does not automatically end with ".jpg", you will need to give the photo a name that ends with ".jpg" -- don't forget the period before jpg! If you don't use .jpg, your computer will probably not recognize this as a photo when you try to use it later on. After you give your photograph file a name, Save the file.
If you are using a Macintosh computer, you will have a similar process, but there is only one button on the mouse, so you press the button and hold it down. Your Macintosh software will probably recognize the file type without using .jpg. but you may use this file on another computer at some time, so we recommend you add .jpg at the end of the name anyway.
Please note that (other than the Snapfish "hi-res download") the saving of pictures from the internet to your computer is not a function of the Snapfish website; it is a function of your computer's Operating System.
Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.
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So my photos now become your photos? Lame. I thought they were mine! So I have to buy my photos back from you? -
Right clicking is disabled by Snapfish. See "satlan's" answer below for the real way to download your photos for free.
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Couldn't agree more with you, Pat! This is completely LAME -- and it HAS NOT always been Snapfish's practice. I don't know when it changed, but I am a VERY longtime Snapfish customer and I previously had no problem accessing MY OWN files at FULL resolution. I've been continuing to upload photos in reliance on Snapfish/HP's misleading advertising promises and my previous experience downloading my own files at full-resolution, whenever I wish, any number of times, at no additional charge. Perhaps the recession has made HP regress into the greedy, customer-be-damned opportunists the company has been at certain times in its history.
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1 person says
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Inappropriate?Hello,
Please note that Snapfish is not a "backup" site for your hi-res photos.
You can download lo-res versions of your photos from our website for free, however hi-res photos are not free. That is why we highly recommend that you keep you original digital photo files saved on your computer's hard drive.
We apologize for any confusion this matter has caused you.
1 person says
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Inappropriate?The real problem is that I thought my photos were safe at yahoo's photo site, then they got automatically transfered to you all where there have been technical problems and where I now cannot get my pictures back without spending hours or lots of money. They way to do business here is to keep your customer's happy. Snapfish is going a bad job.
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Inappropriate?This is why I love winkflash. You can download your hi-res images back to your computer for free.
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Inappropriate?Does snapfish retain the original photo, as it was uploaded, or do they automatically resize everything to 2.1MP? Is it possible to download the hi-res original at all? I think snapfish should either get in to the online photo-sharing business, or stay out of it altogether and just focus on making good prints, preferably the latter. I'm not opposed to paying a nickel for a photo I want to download, but I should at least be able to get the original. I'm not going to pay anything for a 2.1MP thumbnail.1 Comment Add a comment
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i agree whit u did u find any way to download from tham whitout pay :(
hope for anser
david
sh.dudi@gmail.com -
Inappropriate?@weaponzero: I'd like to know the answer to that question too. And it's 1.5 megapixels, not 2.1. Which would be a real shame.
Snapfish, can you weigh in here, please? Are you archiving the original photo or not?
Thanks!
I’m scared
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Inappropriate?"Printscreen" from the album is the best way I see to download the pics.
I thought this was a data storage area. I see from this string it is not the case. Below is a direct lift from the site.
"Snapfish is designed to provide a private, secure place for you to store and share your photos."
I concur with the complaints above and feel as if I have been scamed.
I’m frustrated
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Inappropriate?Hello,
Please note that this is NOT a scam. If you would please refer to our website's Terms and Conditions, which you had to state that you read and agreed to prior to creating your Snapfish account, you will see clear confirmation of this:
http://www2.snapfish.com/termsAndCond...=2806294/csrcode=ADM
" II. Digital Image Storage
1. Snapfish offers free, unlimited storage of online photos to Members who maintain Active Participation. There is no limit to the Content you can upload. When you upload image Content to the Service, the original resolution of your Content may be affected depending on the upload speed you choose. Further, if you upload an image with more than nine mega-pixels of resolution, Snapfish may in its discretion down-sample the image regardless of the upload speed you choose.
2. You should always preserve your original Content, or make back-up copies of such Content, on your personal system. You should not use the Service as the only repository or other source for your Content."
Thank you.
The company says
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That's crap. Customers believe what you advertise (i.e., "Snapfish is designed to provide a private, secure place for you to store and share your photos.") Nothing written there about hi-res, lo-res or no-res. We're supposed to fread through your terms & conditions to see if you are pulling a bait & switch? Who'd a thunk it about a company owned by H-P? Also, if Snapfish only keeps your photos in lo-res, how can you continue to sell them in hi-res? H-P is normally so user-friendly, going over and above to keep their customers satisfied. Unfortunately, Snapfish is a blemish on their reputation. No need to respond, btw, I won't be back to this site. Happy Holidays!!
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This reply was removed on 12/23/08.
see the change log -
Inappropriate?You know customer service folk are in over their heads when
- they don't realize they need to escalate a thread like this up the chain
- instead, they start by saying "Please Note that this is NOT a scam"
- the competition posts a link to the thread in their advertising
Snapfish. Listen to the people. Snapfish_Is_A_Ripoff makes a point you just can't ignore.
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/photo-s... -
Inappropriate?Here's how to download the photos without paying for them.
On SnapFish, view a slideshow of the photos you want to download. It doesn't matter which photo of the slideshow you have enlarged when you do the following, as long as you know the title of the photo(s) you want to download. View the page's source (View: Source, in Internet Explorer). In the source, search for the title of the photo you want to download. Look for the first URL that appears above the photo's title, it should start with ""http://images1b.snapfish.com/". Copy and paste the entire URL into your web browser and hit enter. If you did it right, the image will appear by itself and you can right click it and save it to your computer.
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awesome, thanks. this worked great for me! Now, do you know how to do the same thing from Shutterfly? I can't seem to do the same thing there to get my photos downloaded at high res. Thanks for your help!!!
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This may have worked in the past, but Snapfish now uses Flash to do the slideshow. There's no option to View Source. Brooke, are you sure you got a high-res image? There are ways to download the images (i.e., Save Image As) but they're not high-res and you have to do them one at a time. :(
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Inappropriate?Unfortunately, this type of thing has happened to me before, and now you need to be very careful which sites you use and for what reasons. Some sites are great just for printing cheap prints, while others are better for storage and backup of your photos but have very expensive prints...At this point I use several different sites all at the same time.
Check out this site I found called Photo Sharing Reviews that gives a breakdown of many different photo sharing, printing, and selling sites. Here is a good link that has what I think is an excellent breakdown of features:
http://www.photosharingreviews.com/co...
Sites like this can help us all sort out the good from the bad! Hope that helps! -
This reply was removed on 01/09/09.
see the change log -
Inappropriate?I "shared" the image with myself and right-clicked (Ctrl-click on a Mac) the image, chose properties (Get Info [I think] on a Mac), copy-pased the URL in my web browser, and then did Save Picture As... (I'm not sure what it is on a Mac).
Hope this helps anyone who needs it,
Kobi1 Comment Add a comment
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Thanks, Kobi!
I cannot tell you how disappointed I am in Snapfish. Call me naive but I was totally unaware that this was a possibility. Not only did I upload all my wedding and honeymoon photos to this site but I generated my "thank you" cards through them providing plenty of revenue and wasted advertisement (which would have been better spent with a more honest company).
What I love is "the saving of pictures from the internet to your computer is not a function of the Snapfish website; it is a function of your computer's Operating System". Hmmm...guess my operating system decided to change in the last six months, huh?
Thanks for the alternate site recommendations. I'm saving my photos and closing my account. -
Inappropriate?I have used Snapfish for years and I'm done after this. I tried the url trick above but it doesn't seem to want to work for me. I appreciate everyone's time trying to look after our OWN pictures. What a bunch of @#$%.
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Inappropriate?This is all very dishonest. Snapfish needs to either: A) Make it very clear that customers' original photos are not available for download without a fee, OR B) Allow customers to use the site as it intuitively should work; one uploads photos to a personal account, and these same photos can then be available to download as one chooses. What if Gmail stored your emails in their entirety, but only let you view the first 10 words of each email unless you "buy" your emails back from them. This is an asinine and insulting way to treat customers. I cannot imagine snapfish losing tons of revenue if they changed this--I mean, are there really that many people out there willing to buy their photos back?
Please follow me in not supporting snapfish with your business anymore b/c of clear dishonesty and poor customer service (see above posts from reps/employees for more evidence). There are other sites that provide full access to stored images.
I’m disappointed
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Inappropriate?Wow, I'm going through the same problems here...I have photos that were unwillingly migrated over from Yahoo, and now that I want to get them back to give my mother as a birthday gift, I have to pay? I literally have a couple hundred, there's no way I'm right-clicking each one or paying a nickel per photo. Lame, lame, lame!
I’m pissed
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Snapfish, you are terrible. First, you false advertise and steal my photos. You make it impossible to transfer them to Facebook or anywhere else. And now that you've forced me to pay for my own pictures somehow, your payment system won't accept my zip code as correct for the order. Keep up the good work, and congrats on losing another customer.
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Inappropriate?Hello,
If your projects do not need very large digital files, you can simply open up a Snapfish photo and right-click on it and save it to your computer. If you need the hi-resolution version of your photos, you can purchase hi-resolution downloads, or you can purchase a Photo CD with those same hi-res files.
The advantage to the CD is that it is probably a safer archive of your images than downloading them to your hard drive. -
Inappropriate?Actually, the part of the user agreement that HP's "Colin" quoted says NOTHING about charging users to download their own photos in the original uploaded resolution (assuming the photos are less than 9 Mpixels and were not automatically down-sized when you uploaded them).
I started using Snapfish many years ago and transferred some Yahoo photos to Snapfish when Yahoo abandoned its photo-service users. Until today, I have always been able to download my own stored photos at the full resolution at which I originally uploaded them, at NO CHARGE. I haven't tried downloading for some time, so I have no idea when Snapfish began charging users for the privilege of downloading their own full-res photo files. It cannot be more than a year ago, by my reckoning.
Colin's quoted excerpt from the Snapfish Terms & Conditions does NOT support this change in policy. Even the portion warning against using Snapfish as the sole storage place for your photos says users "should not" do this. That's a recommendation, not a prohibition.
I believe there is ample basis for a class-action lawsuit against HP and Snapfish to recover any charges the company(s) have collected from users for downloading the user's own "high-" (I would just say "original-")resolution photos. The case is most clear for files that we uploaded before Snapfish began charging for "high-res" downloads, but I believe it's pretty strong even for more recent uploads, since Snapfish and HP advertising clearly promises unrestricted storage of a user's own photo files -- and nothing in the current Terms & Conditions repudiates that marketing message.
(to be cont. -- see followup msg below...) -
Inappropriate?Dear Snapfish Sucks,
I am sorry that you feel we false advertise. I assure you that we do not. All of our terms and conditions are clearly listed on our site. You can find those below:
If you would please refer to our website's Terms and Conditions, which you had to state that you read and agreed to prior to creating your Snapfish account, you will see clear confirmation of this:
http://www2.snapfish.com/termsAndCond...=ADM
" II. Digital Image Storage
1. Snapfish offers free, unlimited storage of online photos to Members who maintain Active Participation. There is no limit to the Content you can upload. When you upload image Content to the Service, the original resolution of your Content may be affected depending on the upload speed you choose. Further, if you upload an image with more than nine mega-pixels of resolution, Snapfish may in its discretion down-sample the image regardless of the upload speed you choose.
2. You should always preserve your original Content, or make back-up copies of such Content, on your personal system. You should not use the Service as the only repository or other source for your Content."
I would be happy to assist you with the purchase of any photos that you have lost from your files. If you would feel more comfortable doing this over the phone, please feel free to contact me at sara dot hawley at hp dot com and provide your phone number. Most customers who run into issues with zip codes simply need to confirm with their financial institution to make sure that the address and information they provide matches what the financial institution has on file.
As for transferring your photos to Facebook, that feature isn't available yet. However, we do have a share feature that allows you to post links of your photos on Snapfish to your Facebook page.
Thank you,
Sara1 Comment Add a comment
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Err... clearly listed in the fine print? You're clearly expecting something unreasonable from users. I think the problem you're dealing with is that users have an expectation that even though they uploaded their content they still own it and can download or do what they want with it. When you restrict that, whether or not it's in the fine print, users get annoyed.
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Inappropriate?Dear Colin,
I completely understand what you are saying and appreciate you participation in this thread.
Thank you,
Sara -
Inappropriate?I agree, there is NOTHING in their Terms and Conditions that they have REPEATEDLY listed on here as an "official" response that states we have to pay for high-resolution downloads of our own photos. If there is a class action lawsuit, count me in.
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Inappropriate?Hi all,
I am sorry for the confusion here, and I can personally understand why the charge for downloading hi-resolution images might be unexpected to some. Please be aware that you can download medium resolution versions of your images for free by simply right-clicking them.
But in specific response to Mr. Torr's legal arguments we need to be clear, so please excuse my legalese here: We have never allowed downloads of hi-resolution images for free. As advertised, the Snapfish site is designed for the uploading of images for the purposes of digital photo printing, photo sharing, and ordering personalized photo products. Storage is not the purpose of the site. Downloading of images is an option Snapfish makes available to customers, in addition to printing, sharing and personalized photo products. The download price is clearly displayed in our pricing table (http://www1.snapfish.com/helppricing#...) along with all other product and services pricing, and the price is also clearly displayed at the time of download. The customer is provided and must accept the download charge prior to downloading and has the option to cancel the download if they do not wish to proceed with transaction after seeing the price.
If you have any further questions or concerns about any of these issues, I’ll be glad to help!
Yours, Otto
Otto Imken
Worldwide Customer Support Manager
Snapfish by HP
otto.imken at hp.com
Tel: (415) 979-3910
The company says
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You know what I have issues with, though? My photos were transferred over from Yahoo! You say the site isn't meant for storage, but I never agreed to having to pay to get the full quality of my original photos back (who wants "medium quality" of their own personal photos? Seriously?). For those of us that had no choice and have hundreds of our photos held captive on your site, it really doesn't make sense. This photo migration from Yahoo! should have been better thought out. I would appreciate a response about this, thanks.
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Mr. Imken,
You might want to run this by your legal department. I'm not sure how many years of law school or legal experience you have, but in a class action lawsuit, the first thing I would do, as an attorney with quite a few years of experience, is subpoena all the various versions of your user agreement and figure out when Snapfish changed (1) its agreement language; and (2) its actual practices.
You keep referring to your CURRENT subscriber agreement. Even if you could get around the argument that it is an adhesion contract and thus could be unenforceable (especially under California's generally more consumer-friendly contract law), your attorneys will be hard-pressed to win any argument that the fees and sequestration of user-uploaded content somehow applies RETROACTIVELY to content your customers uploaded BEFORE Snapfish unilaterally (with or without proper notice to users?) modified the site's subscriber agreement to impose fees for recovering a user's own content in its original resolution.
I'm sorry to sound like a broken record, but you really haven't provided any response to the questions raised in this thread. You could start by answering -- preferably without the need for a subpoena -- the fundamental question of WHEN Snapfish began charging users for full-resolution downloads of the user's own photos?
If you cannot, or will not, give us a straight answer to that question, I would personally prefer that you just be straightforward about it and tell us all to go to hell, rather than continuing to repeat the current policy, which after all is the object of the serious complaints you see in this thread.
Thanks.
kmt -
Dear sir, as I previously stated "We have never allowed downloads of hi-resolution images for free." To re-state: We have always charged for hi-res downloads. I hope that is clear to all. ;-) thanks, otto
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I am absolutely disgusted with Snapfish, and HP. I receive an email stating that my photos will be deleted (today) because I haven't purchased anything in over 12 months. Excuse me? I don't recall that being a requirement for a Snapfish account back then. Do you make it a habit to threaten your customers? Do you win many customers that way?
I go to my account, with the intent of retrieving MY PHOTOS and closing the account. But I discover that I can't retrieve the photos from my Snapfish account unless I pay for the priviledge? An account, I might add, that I only have because when Homestead abandoned their customers, the images were TRANSFERRED TO SNAPFISH. I had no choice, except to allow the photos to be deleted.
I'm now told to buy something today or lose my account, and my photos? I can order 1 4x6 for 9 cents (plus shipping), or have my albums deleted? Is HP really that greedy? Before my account is terminated I don't even have an option to retrieve these images at their original resolution without having to pay HP/Snapfish? You are joking! Maybe this isn't a scam, but this unacceptable business practice if you expect to survive in such a highly competitive photo market. I can understand HP/Snapfish charging VISITORS to my site to download my photos, but I OWN THE COPYRIGHT TO THESE PHOTOS, NOT HP, and I have every right to have them returned to me exactly as I uploaded them, at the same resolution! I should be able to upload and download content to MY ACCOUNT as I see fit.
All you're doing is chasing customers away. You have a lot of competition in this arena, and you're fools to treat your customers this way for the sake of 9 cents. It's petty, it's greedy, and unless you reverse this policy you will continue to lose marketshare in this arena. I will never purchase products through Snapfish again, I won't recommend your "service" to anyone, and I will seriously think twice about the Designjet photo printer I was considering purchasing from HP. You have competition there to. Even though some photographs I have in one album on my site are the only copies of those images I still have, I refuse to be held over a barrel to get them back. There's no excuse for these policies from Snapfish, except greed. -
CStaveley: I understand your frustration - I was in a similar situation as you are in now. My best advice is to talk to Otto one on one. He offered me a solution and was very quick in his response time. He's really committed to getting this worked out.
~Choco -
Inappropriate?www.picasa.com
PICASA, PICASA, PICASA, PICASA, PICASA.
No tricks, just focused on customers.
It is unbelievable that snapfish does not allow you to download your own photos. They consider the issue closed by pointing to their terms and conditions.
Here are some hints for snapfish:
1. Trying to make a profit off of your customers misunderstanding of your service is a bad business practice.
2. Your terms and conditions should match your customers expectations.
3. Change your practice, change your terms and conditions, and seriously, change your attitude.
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Thanks for your feedback, M: I'll be sure it gets passed along to the right people at Snapfish. otto
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Inappropriate?Chocoagogo, Please write me directly at otto.imken at hp.com and I will try to get this sorted out for you. thanks, Otto2 Comments Add a comment
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Otto: I wrote to you twice...no response or follow up was received.
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Choco - my apologies - I just replied to you with more details about your photos transferred from Yahoo. yours, otto
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Inappropriate?Way to go! Single out one customer to "help" and leave the rest of us hanging. What an utterly unbelievable way to treat customers. Now I'm off to find my credit card so I can pay for pictures of my recently deceased child. How unfortunate that your company has chosen to rip people off as a way to ride out the bad economy. Good luck with that.1 Comment Add a comment
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Hello Ms Thomas, can you please write me at otto.imken at hp.com and I'll be happy to help with your case as well? thank you and I'm very sorry for your loss. Yours Sincerely, Otto Imken
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Inappropriate?My photos were transferred over from Yahoo Photo as well - I did not choose Snapfish and do not think I should have to pay for high-res downloads. Nice way for the company to "inherit" a ton of new customers and then hold our photos hostage.
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Inappropriate?Glad I found this thread (courtesy of *mug *ug warning/link). Scratch Snapfish off my narrowing list of choices for hosting/sharing/selling images. At least my choice is becoming more clear. Thanks for that much, at least! 'Enjoy'. gtg, bye.
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Inappropriate?its pathetic. i'm off too..
thanks to *mug*mug link which brought me here.
else i would have never known the true face of this fish...
thanks god,
iam warned in time....
I’m its pathetic
EMPLOYEE
EMPLOYEE
EMPLOYEE
EMPLOYEE
