Image Host TwitPic Closing Its Doors. Import Images Using MobyPicture
TwitPic, the unaffiliated Twitter image host (Twitter doesn't host the linked images contained in a tweet or retweet) has been forced to shut down by Twitter following a protracted trademark dispute. The shutdown is due to take place on September 25.
How to rescue your images from the image host before the shut down? Well Mobypicture have stepped into the breach with a web app that can help you do just that.
Ways To Pull Out Images From TwitPic
It is possible to use the TwitPic service directly while it is still running to pull out the last 5,000 images via a downloadable ZIP file. Their account settings can help to access this archive.
This download approach is just a ZIP file of images and a simple accompanying text file to indicate image information such as file names. This doesn't however make the information useful directly, searchable in a single manner or easily shareable again later.
With Mobypicture it is possible to download all images and videos stored on TwitPic (not only images and not only the last 5,000 hosted for you). The download is more usable and is also search-able as well. This can make it far easier to find a new place to host the images and videos while sorting through the media collection to upload to another host solution. Or you can just keep it all in Mobypicture and share on social media as needed.
The import feature is fairly self-explanatory for users. The Mobypicture site takes you through the whole process.
Limitations With Access
The constraints though are one of time, download connection and technical limitations. There is less than a week to go until TwitPic shuts its doors for good. Your download speed will change how much data you can download in time (TIP: overnight downloads usually run faster than daytime). Also, the TwitPic API is currently restricted to how many times the TwitPic archive can be accessed per hour. With many users trying to access the archive, this could slow access connections down and need multiple attempts to secure a connection to start the download process.
The Mobypicture service then lets you add the media to social media accounts as you normally would have done with TwitPic.
