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.

icloud photos
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 It predates ‌iCloud Photos‌ and has largely been replaced by the ‌iCloud Photos‌ service at this point.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.

macos mojave photos my photo stream
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.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Feature 1

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 8 New Features

Thursday January 9, 2025 5:45 am PST by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. iPhone 17 Pro concept based on rumors Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of January 2025: More aluminum: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models ...
HomePod mini and Apple TV

New Apple TV and HomePod Mini Launching This Year With One Thing in Common

Wednesday January 8, 2025 6:18 am PST by
It was recently reported that new Apple TV and new HomePod mini models will launch this year, and the devices are expected to have one thing in common. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman last month reported that the new Apple TV and the new HomePod mini will be equipped with Apple's own combined Wi-Fi and Bluetooth chip. Gurman said the chip supports Wi-Fi 6E, so that could end up being a key upgrade...
iPhone SE 4 Thumb 1

New iPhone SE and iPad 11 Launch Timing Allegedly Revealed by Leaker

Tuesday January 7, 2025 11:12 am PST by
A new iPhone SE and an iPad 11 might be coming very soon. In late December, a private account on X with a track record of leaking accurate iOS-related information said devices codenamed "V59" and "J481" will be released alongside iOS 18.3 and iPadOS 18.3. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has previously reported that "V59" is a new iPhone SE, and that "J481" is a new entry-level iPad. iOS 15.3, iOS ...
airpods pro 2 botw

Hearing a Mysterious Chime From Your AirPods Pro Case? It's a Feature

Thursday January 9, 2025 3:42 pm PST by
If you've been hearing a chiming sound from your AirPods Pro 2 case when the AirPods are charging, it's a feature that Apple added with the launch of Hearing Health last year. In a support guide, Apple says that the AirPods Pro may play a sound every so often while in the case to ensure the microphones and speakers are working as intended. From Apple: To help ensure that your AirPods...
M6 MacBook Pro Feature 1

5 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's MacBook Pro

Wednesday January 8, 2025 6:33 am PST by
Apple in October 2024 overhauled its 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models, adding M4, M4 Pro, and M4 Max chips, Thunderbolt 5 ports on higher-end models, display changes, and more. That's quite a lot of updates in one go, but if you think this means a further major refresh for the MacBook Pro is now several years away, think again. Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has said he expects only a small...
iOS 18

Apple Releases iOS 18.2.1 With Bug Fixes

Monday January 6, 2025 10:07 am PST by
Apple today released iOS 18.2.1 and iPadOS 18.2.1, minor updates to the iOS 18 and iPadOS 18 operating systems. iOS 18.2.1 and iPadOS 18.2.1 come almost a month after Apple released iOS 18.2 and iPadOS 18.2. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones and iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release notes, iOS 18.2.1...
airpods 4 blue

Apple's Student Offer With Free AirPods Returns in These Four Countries

Thursday January 9, 2025 7:18 am PST by
Apple's annual "Back to School" or "Back to Uni" promotion has returned this week in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, and South Korea. From January 8 through March 13, qualifying higher-education students and staff in these countries can receive free AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation with the purchase of any new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, or iMac, or a free Apple Pencil Pro or Apple...
iPhone 17 Pro Dual Tone Horizontal 1

iPhone 17 Pro Main Camera Sensor 'Smaller' Than iPhone 16 Pro Sensor

Friday January 10, 2025 3:14 am PST by
This year's iPhone 17 Pro models will feature a smaller main camera sensor than the one used in the Fusion camera currently found in iPhone 16 Pro models, according to Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station. The Chinese leaker claims that Apple will adopt a 1/1.3" sensor for the 48MP main camera in the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max, down from the 1/1.28" sensor used in the iPhone 16...

Top Rated Comments

ibrewster Avatar
21 months ago

It's obvious that it was a useless feature
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.
Score: 69 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Böhme417 Avatar
21 months ago
UGH. :mad:

I use photo stream all the time. I do not use iCloud Photos and don’t want to, but photo stream made it easy to show someone a picture on my iPad that I had recently taken on my phone without the need to have my entire flipping library synced.
Score: 50 Votes (Like | Disagree)
goonie4life9 Avatar
21 months ago
Gotta get those subscriptions numbers up!
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
21 months ago

?
This makes no sense.

It's obvious that it's a useless feature since it was developed before the entire photo library was moved to the cloud, not because it doesn't count against iCloud storage. Shared photo albums doesn't count against iCloud storage so you're saying Apple is going to axe that too?
In the announcement, Apple says "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. "

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.
Score: 32 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
21 months ago
Photo Stream doesn't count against iCloud storage. It's obvious why apple is doing this. That being said, very few people probably use it anymore.
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)
zorinlynx Avatar
21 months ago
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.
Score: 26 Votes (Like | Disagree)