Apple is shutting down the really old 'My Photo Stream' on July 26

Posted:
in iCloud
Apple's free "My Photo Stream" service technically provides one way to upload recent photos, but the service is old, and Apple is finally ready to make the full transition to iCloud Photos for all users.

Apple iCloud Photos
Apple iCloud Photos


Apple on Friday confirmed the My Photo Stream service will shut down on July 26, 2023. The company also announced that uploads using My Photo Stream will stop one month before, on June 26, 2023.

My Photo Stream launched alongside iCloud in 2011, and it has been showing its age for quite some time. Saving photos is cumbersome, forcing users to select photos from their stream and save them manually to their library or Camera Roll.

The worst part of the service is its inability to save photos at their full resolution. This degradation of quality is one of the reasons why Apple moved away from the service and moved on to iCloud Photos in 2015.

iCloud Photos is the superior option for simplicity alone, but also the fact it saves high-quality photos and videos at their full resolution. The only potential drawback to the feature is iCloud storage availability.

My Photo Stream automatically uploads the last 30 days of photos and videos, up to 1,000, to iCloud. It's a feature that has to be enabled, though.

In the support document Apple released on May 26, the company says that there should be no loss of photos with this transition. Users just need to make sure they have the device with the original photos on them.

"The photos in My Photo Stream are already stored on at least one of your devices, so as long as you have the device with your originals, you won't lose any photos as part of this process. If a photo you want isn't already in your library on a particular iPhone, iPad, or Mac, make sure that you save it to your library on that device."

Apple notes that any photos uploaded before June 26 will remain available in iCloud up to 30 days from the upload date, and available from any device that My Photo Stream is currently enabled. However, when the service shuts down, those photos will not be available in iCloud via My Photo Stream.

Apple recommends switching over to iCloud Photos from here on out, to make sure your photos and videos are saved properly moving forward.

Apple outlines how to save photos currently in a user's My Photo Stream:

On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch


  • Open Photos and tap Albums.

  • Tap My Photo Stream > Select.

  • Tap the photos that you want to save, then tap the Share button > Save Image.

On your Mac


  • Open the Photos app, then open the My Photo Stream album.

  • Select any photos you want to save that aren't currently in your photo library.

  • Drag them from the My Photo Stream album to your Library.

iCloud Photos already makes it easy to keep your photos and videos stored in the cloud. It's also easy to share that content to others, especially with Shared iCloud Photo Library which launched with iOS 16.1.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    tundraboytundraboy Posts: 1,884member
    Wait!  Doesn't Apple Photos on Mac automatically put copies of the My Photo Stream uploads in the main Apple Photos library folder?
    watto_cobraAlex1N
  • Reply 2 of 11
    ravnorodomravnorodom Posts: 692member
    I got the email, too. Confusing. I don't see My Photo Stream anywhere in my Photos app. All of my photos are automatically mirrored under iCloud Photos. Maybe the latest OS already got rid of it?
    Anilu_777watto_cobraAlex1N
  • Reply 3 of 11
    Anilu_777Anilu_777 Posts: 521member
    I had My Photo Stream back in 2019 (I have this in a screen shot for some reason). But there’s no My Photo Stream album. Does that mean they’re already in iCloud?
    Alex1N
  • Reply 4 of 11
    y2any2an Posts: 187member
    Photo Stream is showing its age for lack of ongoing development, not anything which couldn’t be addressed with ongoing investment. This change by Apple is a pure monetisation play, intended to drive up iCloud storage fees. The AI article could frankly have been written by an Apple product manager wanting to use the press to assuage the public’s angry reaction - where is objective and critical journalism when you need it?
    cornchipAlex1Nbyronl
  • Reply 5 of 11
    tifosi01tifosi01 Posts: 4member
    I love My Photo Stream and will be saddened when it no longer works. I'm probably one of the .01% who do not want to use iCloud to store backups and would rather have everything on my Mini. I'm aware that's not the safest thing, from a multiple backups point of view, but I still only backup my phone to my Mini and not iCloud. I don't want to pay monthly for the slight convenience that iCloud provides, so guess I'll just have to transfer over photos when I backup my phone. 
    command_fVanteercornchipbrianmAlex1N
  • Reply 6 of 11
    command_fcommand_f Posts: 421member
    I also like Photo Stream, I've been using it since Apple introduced it. I take a lot of 'disposable' pictures on my iPhone so am happy to just extract those that are keepers. My main photo library lives on my Mac so I don't have any issues with resolution (the article is a little misleading on this, Photo Stream on Mac contains full res photos - see this page).

    iCloud Photo Library is no alternative to Photo Stream, it's a different beast. Photo Stream automatically discards the photos you don't choose to keep*, doesn't use your iCloud storage allowance and is free. My photo library is curated, includes photos from my 'proper' camera and lives on external HDs with no subscription fee.

    A certain Steve Jobs was also a Photo Stream fan. He described it during the introduction of iCloud as "maybe my favourite [feature]". This video at about 1:36:02.

    *I'm not a good enough photographer to want to keep anything like all my pictures, even those from my ILC let alone my iPhone. I suspect many others are in the same category.
    Vanteermuthuk_vanalingamAlex1N
  • Reply 7 of 11
    VanteerVanteer Posts: 1member
    command_f said:
    I also like Photo Stream, I've been using it since Apple introduced it. I take a lot of 'disposable' pictures on my iPhone so am happy to just extract those that are keepers. My main photo library lives on my Mac so I don't have any issues with resolution (the article is a little misleading on this, Photo Stream on Mac contains full res photos - see this page).

    iCloud Photo Library is no alternative to Photo Stream, it's a different beast. Photo Stream automatically discards the photos you don't choose to keep*, doesn't use your iCloud storage allowance and is free. My photo library is curated, includes photos from my 'proper' camera and lives on external HDs with no subscription fee.

    A certain Steve Jobs was also a Photo Stream fan. He described it during the introduction of iCloud as "maybe my favourite [feature]". This video at about 1:36:02.

    *I'm not a good enough photographer to want to keep anything like all my pictures, even those from my ILC let alone my iPhone. I suspect many others are in the same category.
    I have used My Photo Stream as far back as I can remember. I started with the iPhone 4, so that was many years ago.  I also backup and store all my photos I want to keep on my external HDs.  I have no use for iCloud Photos.  Since Apple is dropping My Photo Stream, sure would be nice if they upgraded iCould to allow configurations to "act"  like Photo Stream.  (upload only last 30 days).  Or down load only last 30 days.  

    My favorite use was to take pictures on my phone, and then be able to, pretty much right away, view them on my Mac mini or my iPad.  Now I will have to either pay $36.00 to $120.00 a year, or regularly purge my phone of older pictures to maintain under the 50G space, which will still cost $12.00 a year.  Overall very bummed with Apple's decision to drop Photo Stream.  
    command_fAlex1N
  • Reply 8 of 11
    eightzeroeightzero Posts: 3,056member
    I've never completely understood how any of the photo apps and iCloud and attendant stuff actually works. I make copies of the local libraries periodically just in case, but none of it makes any intuitive sense to me.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    cornchipcornchip Posts: 1,945member
    I’ll keep it all on my Mac, thanks. 
  • Reply 10 of 11
    I'm going to be missing it. I dont care about full resolution blah blah. I just want a decent photo on my Mac and Photo Stream makes it super simple for me. I am not going to iCloud Photos. I dont want my ENTIRE photo library from decades ago be uploaded to some server in the cloud.

    I'm ok with only my most recent photos being on the cloud, hence why I liked PS.

    I guess if I want to update my Mac with photos, I will have to do it manually from now on. Definitely a step backwards.
    sphericAlex1N
  • Reply 11 of 11
    sphericspheric Posts: 2,544member
    mindwaves said:
    I'm going to be missing it. I dont care about full resolution blah blah. I just want a decent photo on my Mac and Photo Stream makes it super simple for me. I am not going to iCloud Photos. I dont want my ENTIRE photo library from decades ago be uploaded to some server in the cloud.

    I'm ok with only my most recent photos being on the cloud, hence why I liked PS.

    I guess if I want to update my Mac with photos, I will have to do it manually from now on. Definitely a step backwards.
    This. 

    It's a way to push people into generating more services revenue, I guess. It worked for a support client of mine who recently discovered Photo Stream had stopped working and had to opt into an iCloud Storage plan to get functioning wireless transfer. 

    The timing is interesting, though — I wonder whether we'll FINALLY see updated iCloud plans at WWDC. 
    brianm
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