Photostream missing photos

[BentTable123]

Recently I upgraded my macbook from Yosemite to El Capitan. I noticed in iphoto photostream, it had to rebuild the entire library. I currently have 290 photos in photostream which I can see in my iphone, but on the mac, iphoto downloaded only the newest 250 photos. Is there any way to force iphoto to download the oldest 40 photos? If not, is there a simple way to download these 40 photos to my mac? They are not in the camera roll or an album on the phone.

Thanks.

 

[KALLT]

Photo Stream keeps photos on the server for 30 days only. Within that time they must be loaded onto your devices. You should either make duplicates or import them to your Mac via USB.

 

[BentTable123]

Thanks, but I've had photos on my photostream (both mac and iphone) for many years. If I create a shared album with myself, could I keep photos on there indefinitely?

Photo Stream keeps photos on the server for 30 days only. Within that time they must be loaded onto your devices. You should either make duplicates or import them to your Mac via USB.

 

[KALLT]

Thanks, but I've had photos on my photostream (both mac and iphone) for many years. If I create a shared album with myself, could I keep photos on there indefinitely?

I don't think you can do this, unless you have separate Apple IDs on both devices. Photo Stream is not meant for backups. Photos you downloaded to your device will stay there when you make a backup with iCloud or iTunes, but they will eventually be removed from the server. You need to use iCloud Photo Library or a third-party service for permanent storage.

 

[BentTable123]

Thanks, I figured out who to restore the old photos.