Apple users be warned – My Photo Stream is being shut down next month, meaning some people are at risk of losing treasured memories.

The service, launched in 2011, was a forerunner to the iCloud Photo Library, allowing users to upload photos and videos taken on one device to be downloaded on another without using their iCloud storage allowance.

However, iCloud Photo Library has largely replaced it, allowing all photos and videos to be easily synched across devices.

As a result, Apple is retiring My Photo Stream on July 26 – meaning any photos or videos not backed up elsewhere will be deleted.

Writing in a blog post, the company said: ‘New photo uploads to My Photo Stream from your devices will stop one month before, on June 26, 2023. Any photos uploaded to the service before that date will remain in iCloud for 30 days from the date of upload and will be available to any of your devices where My Photo Stream is currently enabled. 

‘By July 26, 2023, there will be no photos remaining in My Photo Stream, and the service will be shut down.’

This means a photo uploaded on June 15, for example, will be deleted on July 15.

Users that still have the device they used to capture the images or videos have the original, but given the 13-year lifespan of My Photo Stream, it’s likely many will have upgraded since first adding photos.

‘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,’ the company adds.

‘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. If you already have iCloud Photos enabled on all of your devices, you don’t need to do anything else — your photos already sync to iCloud.

‘To check, on your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > your name > iCloud. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click your name, then click iCloud. Make sure that it says “On” next to Photos on each of your devices.’ 

How to save photos from My Photo Stream

If you have images saved only in My Photo Stream, you can save them to your device, which will then automatically save them to iCloud – if set up for automatic syncing (see above).

On iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

• Open Photos and tap Albums
• Tap My Photo Stream > Select
• Tap any photos you want to save, then tap the Share button > Save Image

On a Mac

• Open the Photos app, then open the My Photo Stream album 
• Select the photos you want to save that aren’t already in the Photos Library
• Drag them from the My Photo Stream album to your library 

Source: Read Full Article