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Apple’s ‘My Photo Stream’ service shuts down on Wednesday, here’s what to do

Posted by hostabdoIn Last Modified

Apple last month launched its “My Photo Stream” service. In the year In the year In the year In the year Read on to find out what it means for you and what you should do.

icloud photos

What is My Photo Stream?

First launched in 2011, My Photo Stream is a free service that temporarily uploads photos (up to 1,000 at any one time) to iCloud and makes them accessible on your Apple devices and can be added to your library on any device. Photos stay in My Photo Stream for 30 days and are then automatically deleted from iCloud.

My Photo Stream was later replaced by iCloud Photo Library (now ‌iCloud Photos‌) and Apple is now shutting down the My Photo Stream service on Wednesday, July 26, 2023.

macos mojave photos my photo stream
In preparation for the shutdown, Apple stopped photo uploads to My Photo Stream on June 26, 2023, so images uploaded to the service before that date will remain in iCloud for the normal 30 days up until the point of shutdown.

What should I do?

If you already use iCloud Photos, you don’t need to do anything – your photos are already uploaded and stored in iCloud. However, if you’re not sure, you can make sure iCloud Photos is enabled on all your devices.

On iPhone and iPad

  1. Open the Settings app and tap your Apple ID at the top of the menu.
  2. Tap iCloud.
  3. Make sure it says “On” next to it Photos.

settings

On the Mac

  1. Click the Apple icon () in your Mac’s menu bar and select System settings.
  2. Click your Apple ID name at the top of the sidebar.
  3. Click iCloud.
  4. Make sure it says “On” next to it Photos.

settings

What to do if you don’t use iCloud photos

Photos in My Photo Stream are stored in their original format on at least one of your devices, so as long as you have the device, you won’t lose any photos when the service closes.

However, what you’re missing is the ability to access these images on any device. If the photos you want aren’t in your library on a particular iPhone or iPad, one option is to flash iCloud photos using the steps above.

Note that iCloud Photos requires a paid iCloud subscription to go beyond the free 5GB ‌iCloud‌ storage limit and is available on iPhones and iPads running iOS 8.3 or later and Macs running OS X Yosemite or later.

Alternatively, you can save photos to your library on a specific device in My Photo Stream as long as you do so before July 26.

Saving “My Photo Stream” photos to your photo library

  1. Open the Photos app and tap Albums.
  2. Tap My photo streamThen tap Choose.
  3. Tap the photos you want to save, then tap Share Button (pointing to the square arrow).
  4. Choose Save image.

If you own a Mac, you don’t have to do anything – My Photo Stream automatically imports photos into your library.

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