Apple's 'My Photo Stream' Service Shutting Down in July 2023

[David Knowles]

This has never worked right for me on my iPhone since my 12 pro.

I’ve actually had a ticket open for years with Apple.

I liked this system since I want to see only some photos on some devices. It was very simple to use.

This is disappointing but not surprising

 

[John099]

Apple's "My Photo Stream" service is set to shut down on July 26, 2023, which means customers who are still using that feature will need to transition to using iCloud Photos prior to that date.

My Photo Stream is a free service that uploads the last 30 days of images (up to 1,000) to iCloud, making them accessible on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. It predates iCloud Photos and has largely been replaced by the iCloud Photos service at this point.

Going forward, Apple plans to have all customers use iCloud Photos instead of My Photo Stream. New photo uploads to My Photo Stream will stop on June 26, 2023, and images will remain in iCloud as usual for 30 days until the shutdown point.

Because all of the images in My Photo Stream are stored in their original format on at least one Apple device, there isn't a danger of photos being lost as part of the shutdown process. Apple recommends that users who want to have their images on a particular device save them to the Photo Library on that device prior to July 26.

Images in My Photo Stream can be saved to the Photos app on the iPhone by opening up Photos, going to the My Photo Stream album, selecting individual photos, and using the Share button to save them to the Library. The process is the same on the Mac, but you will need to drag images from My Photo Stream to the Library.

Apple suggests that iPhone, iPad, and Mac users turn on iCloud Photos to view their photos and videos across their devices. iCloud Photos is available on iPhones and iPads running iOS 8.3 or later and Macs running OS X Yosemite or later.

Article Link: Apple's 'My Photo Stream' Service Shutting Down in July 2023

Apple's "My Photo Stream" service is set to shut down on July 26, 2023, which means customers who are still using that feature will need to transition to using iCloud Photos prior to that date.

My Photo Stream is a free service that uploads the last 30 days of images (up to 1,000) to iCloud, making them accessible on the iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. It predates iCloud Photos and has largely been replaced by the iCloud Photos service at this point.

Going forward, Apple plans to have all customers use iCloud Photos instead of My Photo Stream. New photo uploads to My Photo Stream will stop on June 26, 2023, and images will remain in iCloud as usual for 30 days until the shutdown point.

Because all of the images in My Photo Stream are stored in their original format on at least one Apple device, there isn't a danger of photos being lost as part of the shutdown process. Apple recommends that users who want to have their images on a particular device save them to the Photo Library on that device prior to July 26.

Images in My Photo Stream can be saved to the Photos app on the iPhone by opening up Photos, going to the My Photo Stream album, selecting individual photos, and using the Share button to save them to the Library. The process is the same on the Mac, but you will need to drag images from My Photo Stream to the Library.

Apple suggests that iPhone, iPad, and Mac users turn on iCloud Photos to view their photos and videos across their devices. iCloud Photos is available on iPhones and iPads running iOS 8.3 or later and Macs running OS X Yosemite or later.

Article Link: Apple's 'My Photo Stream' Service Shutting Down in July 2023

Apple, slowly milking people's money.

 

[John099]

I really hope this is a sign more iCloud storage is coming soon. In 2023, 2TB is not enough.

View attachment 2208076

Ouch! How do you plan on getting off that sub? Or do you plan to pay for your own photos/videos for the rest of your life? The apple model is great for apple only.

 

[John099]

This was a cool feature before iCloud Photo Library came along; I loved seeing all my photos on my Mac automatically without having to transfer them.

However, iCloud Photo Library really does make the feature a bit redundant. The only issue I can see is some very old devices losing access to the latest photos you've taken.

iCloud makes Apple more money is what you meant to say.

 

[BB1970]

This was a good feature because it didn’t upload videos. I do these long form videos and don’t want them to auto sync. Oh well.

 

[MysticCow]

I'm still waiting on my "for life" services that .mac/mobileme/icloud promised users. I mean, it said "FOR LIFE" unless I am not remembering something...

 

[boast]

Now people will have to enable iCloud photo and quickly fill up their free 5GB and pay for more to get a similar experience to the older free feature. How nice

 

[ouruniverse06131986]

Wish there was a 5TB option I would sign up for that RIGHT AWAY and leave “the other” g… service.

 

[AppleTO]

I don’t ever recall using this, mind you, I’ve always had iCloud Photos turned on, so I guess it’s never been enabled. I don’t even remember what I did before iCloud Photos. Probably just manual sync. Hmm

 

[tripsync]

It might have been useless to some people, but I personally liked the fact that when I took a photo on my phone, it showed up on my computer - WITHOUT having to pay for the privilege of having all 18,000 photos in my library stored in the cloud.

im sure there are thousands of you who need this feature but apple needs to focus on majority and i suspect apple shortcuts provides a solution for you

 

[tripsync]

In the announcement, Apple says "Moving forward, iCloud Photos is the best way to keep the photos and videos you take up to date across all your devices and safely stored in iCloud. "

And then when you click on the iCloud Photos link in the support document, it says this-

"If you need more iCloud storage
When you sign up for iCloud, you automatically get 5GB of free storage. If you need more space, and access to premium features, you can upgrade to iCloud+."

I mean come on, they want people to buy more storage.

sorry but were you under the impression that apple doesn't like upselling services?

apple killed off photostream because it became redundant a long time ago. majority of the social media comments, while anecdotal, shows most people dont know or dont care for this service.

 

[Apple Fan 2008]

Well, this is stupid

 

[75Batt]

In the announcement, Apple says "Moving forward, iCloud Photos is the best way to keep the photos and videos you take up to date across all your devices and safely stored in iCloud. "

And then when you click on the iCloud Photos link in the support document, it says this-

"If you need more iCloud storage
When you sign up for iCloud, you automatically get 5GB of free storage. If you need more space, and access to premium features, you can upgrade to iCloud+."

I mean come on, they want people to buy more storage.

And what? It’s not even the the most prominent part of the document and not exactly like it’s rammed in your face. It’s provided as an option like the rest of the information.

 

[jayducharme]

I’m very disappointed by this. Photo Stream has been a really good backup when I go on trips. I always know that I won’t lose anything. The problem with iCloud Photos is that they just keep piling up, whereas Photo Stream would simply replace the oldest one when you exceeded 1000 photos. I thought it was a good implementation for backup purposes. I have over 1.8 tb of Photos on my Mac. I absolutely don’t want those syncing to iCloud (and could never afford that much storage).

I hope Apple doesn’t continue a crusade of removing useful features.

 

[makitango]

I’m very disappointed by this. Photo Stream has been a really good backup when I go on trips. I always know that I won’t lose anything. The problem with iCloud Photos is that they just keep piling up, whereas Photo Stream would simply replace the oldest one when you exceeded 1000 photos. I thought it was a good implementation for backup purposes. I have over 35 gb of Photos on my Mac. I absolutely don’t want those syncing to iCloud (and could never afford that much storage).

I hope Apple doesn’t continue a crusade of removing useful features.

Apple these days is the same as Google, killing off good services which do not directly push sales.

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

Called it

anyway my account was made too late for that (only accounts created before 2018 have that feature iirc)

and don't expect them to raise the measle 5gb base....gotta get some icloud+ money

apple has become an absolute cash grab since cook

 

[Dj64Mk7]

I seem to remember back in, I think, 2014 or 2015, during the transition from iPhoto to Apple Photos, and likewise, a change from Photo Stream to iCloud Photo Library (as well as some equivalent change from iCloud Documents and Data to iCloud Drive, I think?) being extremely confused as to what features were a part of which service.

If I recall correctly, they were both checkboxes in the preferences menu during the original transition, and it was abhorrently confusing to me. But I also remember being extremely confused by the difference between Continuity and Handoff, so perhaps it was just me.

Then again, I also very clearly remember iCloud as a whole just not working very well at all for synching anything for many, many, many years...

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

iCloud should be 15 GB and base iPhones/iPads should be 128GB.

they can afford to give 5gb cloud and 64gb storage . why wouldnt they? people buy it anyway, there is no real alternative to apple

 

[Love-hate 🍏 relationship]

I'm still waiting on my "for life" services that .mac/mobileme/icloud promised users. I mean, it said "FOR LIFE" unless I am not remembering something...

for life ? mind explaining your mind here ?

 

[FreakinEurekan]

Good riddance. iCloud Photo Library kicks butt compared to Photo Stream.

That said, I agree that iCloud base storage is pretty stingy these days.

 

[page3]

Oh, great. Not only do I now have to upgrade my iCloud storage to 2TB to be able to store *all* my photos (since I can't tell it to only do a subset, as far as I know), but my internet data cap will be *killed* as my computer tries to upload everything at once.

Talk about an expensive change

You think you’ve got problems. I’ve 5TB of photos and broadband is only 4G.

Photo Stream works perfectly. iCloud photo storage is a half-arsed partially implemented mess.

 

[Ctrlos]

If you still have one knocking around this actually still works on the iPhone 4!

 

[Runaway Train]

Have this far gotten by this far with Photo Stream and 200G iCloud. Now between this development and a 256G iPhone that is nearly full (mostly photos) and can no longer be backed up, the writing is on the wall. Pony up for more storage.

 

[antiprotest]

Shared photo albums, which also don’t use storage, are probably next on the chopping block

Impossible. It serves a valuable and irreplaceable function that ties people to the ecosystem.

In addition, every photo takes up some storage on every device of every member of that shared album.

So Apple is not cheating themselves with this feature.

 

[castlema]

You think you’ve got problems. I’ve 5TB of photos and broadband is only 4G.

Photo Stream works perfectly. iCloud photo storage is a half-arsed partially implemented mess.

My photo library is just under 6 TB so I won't be enabling iCloud Photos.