Bad news, Costco shoppers: the Costco Photo Center online portal shut down permanently on Jan. 28, 2023.
Costco announced the closure to customers in an email stating that all products and services from CostcoPhotoCenter.com, CostcoDVD.com, and CostcoBusinessPrinting.com will no longer be offered. Now they’re encouraging shoppers to transfer any photos over to Shutterfly.
This news followed the 2021 closure of their in-store Photo Centers, which is when they moved all their photo services to online only.
With photo services no longer available from Costco, here’s what you need to know and when you need to transfer your photos over so you don’t lose them.
The Costco Online Photo Center officially closed on Jan. 28, 2023.
According to Costco, any earlier photo projects you’ve started online will no longer be available. If you’d like extra copies of any of these projects, you’d need to place the order before Jan. 28.
Costco also says members can download any Costco-uploaded photos to a personal computer through Jan. 31, 2024. They reached out to members in mid-January (around Jan. 11) about how to transfer photos.
To save space on your personal computer, you may want to invest in an external hard drive. Prices depend on the size you get, which is specified by the number of terabytes (TB) of storage it offers (1 TB can store approximately 250,000 photos).
Shop these external hard drive deals on Amazon:
Members can transfer their photos and address book to Shutterfly.
Costco is suggesting members use Shutterfly as an alternative to their online photo services. However, any projects like photo books, calendars, greeting cards, or collage prints saved to the online Costco Photo Center will not be transferrable to Shutterfly.com.
To store your photos with Shutterfly on a continual basis, they now require “Active Participation” in their services — meaning, you have to make some sort of Shutterfly purchase (even a super small one) at least once in any 18-month period.
Costco members will get a 51% discount at Shutterfly and free shipping on orders of $49 or more.
Moving forward, only Costco members will get an exclusive 51% discount at Shutterfly and free shipping on Shutterfly orders of $49 or more.
Shutterfly offers the same products and services Costco Photo Centers have previously offered — and way more. Shutterfly’s standard photo prints start at $0.16 for 4×6 prints and $15.29 for their largest print size: 12×36. These prices are actually SLIGHTLY cheaper than Amazon’s Photo Prints, which start at $0.17 for 4×6 prints. But Shutterfly’s prices are slightly higher than what Costco Photo Center used to charge ($0.11 for 4×6 prints).
You can also create personalized home decor, gifts, calendars, and wedding favors on Shutterfly, which is something you couldn’t do with Costco. And with the standard 4×6 glossy prints from Shutterfly, you can order them for in-store pickup at your local Walgreens or CVS in as little as one hour.
Grab a free shipping code when you sign up for Shutterfly.
When you create a Shutterfly account, you immediately get a free shipping code sent by email.
You’ll have 30 days after you sign up to snag your code. It’s good for free economy shipping on one order shipped within the U.S.
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