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Apple has announced that it is shutting down My Photo Stream, its photo storage service that backs up photos from your Apple devices. If you have any photos on My Photo Stream that aren’t also stored on your Apple device, you should save them soon. As in very soon…
About Apple Shutting Down My Photo Stream
Apple announced last month that it will end My Photo Steam photo storage service as of July 26, 2023. After that time, any photos stored on My Photo Stream will be deleted and you will not be able to access them.
On June 26, Apple stopped backing up photos from Apple devices to My Photo Stream, which was its first step in shuttering the service. Since then, Apple is no longer backing up photos from any iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches, or Mac computers to My Photo Stream.
Before July 26, you should check to see if you have any photos on Apple’s My Photo Stream and transfer them to an Apple device, if they aren’t on your device already.
How to Check Whether You Have Photos on My Photo Stream
Apple’s decision to shut down My Photo Stream doesn’t affect you if you have never owned an Apple device or have never taken photos using an Apple device. The announcement also doesn’t affect you if you use iCloud to back up your photos.
You can easily check to see whether you use My Photo Stream and whether you have any photos stored there that you need to transfer to an Apple device.
To see whether you have any photos in My Photo Stream using your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch:
- Open the Photos app
- Look in Albums for the My Photo Stream album
- In the album, you’ll see the photos saved to the service
To see photos you have in My Photo Stream using your Mac computer, open the Photos app, then look for My Photo Stream in the albums section. The photos stored in My Photo Stream will appear in that album.
How to Save Photos from My Photo Stream
If you have photos in My Photo Stream you want to keep, you can download them to your Apple device.
To save photos from My Photo Stream to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, tap the photo you want to save, tap Select, then tap the Share button (the square icon with an arrow pointing up) => Save image.
To save photos from My Photo Stream to your Mac computer, select the photos you want to keep in the My Photos Stream album. Then drag them into your Library.
Backing Up Your Photos
Regardless of whether you’ve been using My Photo Stream, you should back up your photos that are on your devices. By backing up your photos, you can be sure that if something happens to your device, you’ll still have access to your photos.
In the olden days of tech, services such as Flickr and Google Photos offered free unlimited photo storage. Unfortunately, those days are long gone. To be fair, server space isn’t free so companies aren’t being unfair by charging for photo storage.
If you’re an Amazon Prime customer, then your best option for backing up your photos could be Amazon Photos. With a Prime membership, you get unlimited photo storage.
You can use iCloud to back up your photos. Apple provides 5 GB of free storage, which isn’t a lot of storage. If you subscribe to Apple One, you get 2 TB of iCloud storage you can use to store photos. Or you can purchase iCloud storage at $0.99/month for 50 GB of storage, $2.99 for 200 GB, and $9.99 for 2 TB.
If you use Google Photos, you can purchase additional storage space on Google One if you exceed the free 15 GB limit. Pricing for Google One storage currently is:
- 100 GB for $1.99/month or $19.99/year
- 200 GB for $2.99/month or $29.99/year
- 2 TB for $9.99/month or $99.99/year
- 5 TB for $24.99/month or $249.99/year
- 10 TB for $49.99/month or $499.99/year
Flickr offers unlimited photo storage for $72/year.
Your Thoughts
Do you have photos stored in My Photo Stream that you need to save before July 26? Do you back up photos to the Cloud? Which photo storage service do you use?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
*iPhone taking picture image (edited) from Josh Power on Unsplash via Creative Commons
**iPhone apps photo (edited) from William Hook on Unsplash via Creative Commons
