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andi*pandi · May 29, 2023, 01:22 PM

I was very surprised to get this email and thought it was a scam at first. I rely on photostream so much and it's been a part of the reliability of picture-taking... I have 20 years of photos and not sure how icloud will work, and surely it will cost a lot of money to back up all that to icloud?

My Photo Stream is scheduled to be shut down on July 26, 2023.

As part of this transition, new photo uploads to My Photo Stream from your devices will be stopped on June 26. 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, there will be no photos remaining in iCloud, and the service will be shut down.

The photos in My Photo Stream are already stored on at least one of your devices, so as long as you have the device with your originals, you won’t lose any photos as part of this process. If a photo you want is not already in your library on a particular iPhone, iPad, or Mac, make sure you save it to your library on that device. For more information on this transition and instructions on how to download photos from My Photo Stream, read Information about the My Photo Stream shutdown. https://support.apple.com/kb/HT210705

Moving forward, iCloud Photos https://support.apple.com/kb/HT204264 is the best way to keep the photos and videos you take up to date across all your devices and safely stored in iCloud. iCloud Photos can be enabled on iOS 8.3 or later, iPadOS 8.3 or later, and macOS 10 Yosemite or later. Once set up, you can view your photos and videos in the Photos app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, iCloud.com, and even sync them to a Windows PC using iCloud for Windows.

For more information about My Photo Stream visit this support article. https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201317

Spheric Harlot · May 29, 2023, 02:00 PM

A colleague I was on tour with last month asked me for support, as his Photo Stream had stopped working. I couldn't help, but Apple Support officially told him that it was no longer supported and pushed him into increasing their Services revenue — which is where this is headed, clearly.

The timing is interesting, because it's exactly three weeks after WWDC.

Maybe we'll FINALLY see new iCloud storage tiers next week.

shifuimam · May 29, 2023, 08:18 PM

FWIW, OneDrive and Dropbox both support automatically syncing photos and videos, provided you don't exceed your storage limit. Might be worth looking into so you can continue using seamless sync between your devices without paying for a monthy subscription.

andi*pandi · May 30, 2023, 10:42 AM

I have dropbox free but even with all my extra storage from referrals (13gb) I don't think it would hold my entire library of photos. Plus there's the things I actually keep in there. So pay for dropbox or icloud... I just upped my icloud storage to the 2.99/mo plan.

shifuimam · May 30, 2023, 01:23 PM

If you end up needing more than the $3/mo iCloud+ plan, OneDrive is a better deal - Office 365 for either $70 (personal) or $100 (family) is a better deal, because you get a full terabyte of storage (plus the Office suite, if you need/want it).

I remember when it was 5TB...and when Microsoft tried to do unlimited storage. Those were the days.

All that being said: don't rely on cloud storage as the definitive storage location for your cherished photos and memories. It's useful as a backup, but not as a primary repository.

subego · May 30, 2023, 02:38 PM

The ideal is local plus something like Time Machine plus cloud.

Someone named it 3-2-1…

Three copies
Two different formats (i.e., HDD and DVD, or HDD and cloud)
One is offsite

andi*pandi · May 30, 2023, 03:09 PM

Hmm... better to pay money for a whole machine backup service, or onedrive/dropbox/icloud... I have onedrive/office via work and don't feel the need to buy it personally. My backup method right now is very ... manual.

Brien · Jun 2, 2023, 02:42 AM

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot

A colleague I was on tour with last month asked me for support, as his Photo Stream had stopped working. I couldn't help, but Apple Support officially told him that it was no longer supported and pushed him into increasing their Services revenue — which is where this is headed, clearly.

The timing is interesting, because it's exactly three weeks after WWDC.

Maybe we'll FINALLY see new iCloud storage tiers next week.

I hope so. 2TB is not enough with all these 4K videos.

andi*pandi · Jul 2, 2023, 10:33 PM

So fine, I say. My photostream has already stopped updating. Bunch of new photos since it stopped, some good fireworks.

So like a luddite, I connect my phone to my computer with a WIRE, click trust, and find the new images to import.

Take that, apple.

Laminar · Jul 3, 2023, 07:07 AM

I used to have to do that every few months - I'd run out of phone space so I'd have to back up to my computer and wipe all but the last month of photos.

I replaced my 64GB iPhone X with a 256GB 13 Pro 16 months ago and I haven't had to do a backup yet, it's still showing 120GB free.