Photo Stream

[rainbowcat]

Well, we were right - Photo Stream is dead as of July 2023; just got the email from Apple. This really bugs me as the only reason I'm willing to spend a ridiculous amount of money on an iPhone is so that my photos transfer to my Mac, iPad and MBA without my doing anything. I don't want to store my photos in iCloud, and if I now have to Air Drop photos from one device to the next, I might as well have a cheap Droid phone. Sigh. Other thoughts from folks?

 

[Rod]

My view is, as annoying as the "passing" of Photo Stream might be the are a heck of a lot of great features on an iPhone that you won't get on a "a cheap Droid phone".
Photo Stream has been intermittently problematic for me over the last few years so I'm not surprised Apple is scrapping it.
I just wirelessly sync my iPhone nowadays but even using a USB cable is usually faster than Photo Stream anyway. Try setting Photos to open when iPhone connects and Import New.

 

[rainbowcat]

My view is, as annoying as the "passing" of Photo Stream might be the are a heck of a lot of great features on an iPhone that you won't get on a "a cheap Droid phone".
Photo Stream has been intermittently problematic for me over the last few years so I'm not surprised Apple is scrapping it.
I just wirelessly sync my iPhone nowadays but even using a USB cable is usually faster than Photo Stream anyway. Try setting Photos to open when iPhone connects and Import New.

Photo Stream hasn't worked properly for me in about 3 years. I just don't want my photos ending up in iCloud because Apple grabbed them before I could get them into a folder!

 

[IWT]

"My Photo Stream", to give it it's full title, is now a legacy app - that is to say that if you had it on a previous iPhone and used it and had a BU of that device, that app was "passed on" to your new iPhone, up to and including iPhone 13; but possibly not to iPhone 14 onwards, as far as I can see.

Moreover, if, for example, you had an iPhone 13 or earlier with an active "My Photo Stream", then wiped it clean and gave that device to another person, then "My Photo Stream" would be absent.

I still use it on my own iPhone 13 Pro and it works fine. As I'm sure everyone who used this facility knows, the automatic transfer of photographs to your Mac does NOT include videos. These have to be transferred by USB cable to the Mac.

Transfer of pics from iPhone to Mac can be achieved in other ways of course:

1. By cable.

2. By turning on "iCloud Photos" on your iPhone (Settings > Photos > iCloud Photos) and doing the same on your Mac (Open Photos app > Preferences > iCloud Photos).

NB this can gobble up your free 5GB of storage very quickly; so you might need to consider splashing out 79 pence/cents per month for 50GB or 2.49 GB Pounds/USD Dollars per month for 200GB of iCloud Storage.

Although I think the basic free 5GB is really mean of Apple, the layout of 79 pence/cents or even 2.49 Pounds/Dollars per month is hardly going to break the bank - compare these costs to a cup go coffee!

Just a few thoughts of my own.

Ian

 

[rainbowcat]

"My Photo Stream", to give it it's full title, is now a legacy app - that is to say that if you had it on a previous iPhone and used it and had a BU of that device, that app was "passed on" to your new iPhone, up to and including iPhone 13; but possibly not to iPhone 14 onwards, as far as I can see.

Moreover, if, for example, you had an iPhone 13 or earlier with an active "My Photo Stream", then wiped it clean and gave that device to another person, then "My Photo Stream" would be absent.

I still use it on my own iPhone 13 Pro and it works fine. As I'm sure everyone who used this facility knows, the automatic transfer of photographs to your Mac does NOT include videos. These have to be transferred by USB cable to the Mac.

Transfer of pics from iPhone to Mac can be achieved in other ways of course:

1. By cable.

2. By turning on "iCloud Photos" on your iPhone (Settings > Photos > iCloud Photos) and doing the same on your Mac (Open Photos app > Preferences > iCloud Photos).

NB this can gobble up your free 5GB of storage very quickly; so you might need to consider splashing out 79 pence/cents per month for 50GB or 2.49 GB Pounds/USD Dollars per month for 200GB of iCloud Storage.

Although I think the basic free 5GB is really mean of Apple, the layout of 79 pence/cents or even 2.49 Pounds/Dollars per month is hardly going to break the bank - compare these costs to a cup go coffee!

Just a few thoughts of my own.

Ian

It's $1/month here now, but I'm sure it will go up. It's the principal of the thing - Photo Stream was free, used to work just fine, and was super convenient. My 3rd gen SE came with Photo Stream, but it has never worked properly.

 

[Rod]

I have one question, given it's to be shut down on July 26th, that I already have enough paid for iCloud storage to accomodate my library if I turn on iCloud photo Library today should I simply turn off My Photo Stream on all my devices too?

 

[IWT]

By pure coincidence, I received an email from Apple this very morning (28 May 2023) about the cessation of My Photo Stream, which, I admit, came as a surprise to me.

This is what they said:



They concluded the above with a link:

Information about the My Photo Stream shutdown

My Photo Stream shut down on 26 July 2023. If you already have iCloud Photos enabled on all of your devices, you don’t need to do anything else – your photos will already be uploaded and stored in iCloud.

support.apple.com

They also included a further link, but this is much more about how to use My Photo Stream:

Apple is shuttering My Photo Stream. Here's how to ensure you don't lose your photos.

Follow these steps to store your photos onto your device before they disappear from Apple's free storage system on July 26.

www.cbsnews.com

They then provided a Link on how to use "iCloud Photos" instead.

Set up iCloud Photos on all your devices

Learn how to set up and access your iCloud Photos on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac, Apple TV and Windows computer, and on iCloud.com.

support.apple.com

Ian

 

[IWT]

Although my Post #4 is currently accurate, the post above (#7) spells out how this is going to change in June/July.

For me, the loss of My Photo Stream is annoying because my practice over many years was to have My Photo Stream activated on my iDevices (principally my iPhone) so that any pics taken on my iPhone went immediately to my iMac.

On the iMac, I have iCloud Photos turned On and therefore saved to iCloud from where I could recover all my pics & videos in case of loss or other catastrophe in relation to my iMac.

This stratagem means that I only keep a small selection of pics & videos on my iPhone, but have my entire Library on my iMac - and backed up to iCloud as stated above.

Although many folks do keep their entire library on their iPhone - possibly thousands of pics - that is the one thing I don't want.

So for me, at least, I shall NOT turn On "iCloud Photos" on on my iPhone; but keep it turned On on my iMac. In consequence, each new pic or video I take on my iPhone will now need to be added to my Photos Library on my iMac manually.

Finally, some members may find that (a) they don't have enough storage on their iPhone to hold their entire Photos Library and (b) they may need to upgrade their storage space in the Cloud at additional cost.

I imagine this is progress.

Ian

 

[Rod]

By pure coincidence, I received an email from Apple this very morning (28 May 2023) about the cessation of My Photo Stream

Yep, I got the same email. As per your second email I decided to increase my storage to the next tier; 200GB. Annie and I share storage via Family Sharing so it's only $4.50/month for the two of us. It's a shame there is no plan between 50 and 200GB.
I will just sync the photos on my phone via wireless or USB to my MBP which is what Annie has done for some time.

 

[Rod]

It's worth mentioning that so long as users have a reliable backup/s of their Mac there is no real need to turn on iCloud Photo Library or spend money on expanding their storage to accomodate it.
One could just sync any portable devices to the Photos App on their Mac, use general sync preferences to decide which photos they want to keep on their portable devices and maintain personal backups of their Mac.
This is how I used to do it years ago and I daresay many others.