Apple’s “My Photo Stream” is set to shut down on July 26, 2023, Apple announced on its support site on Friday.
iCloud Photos, which is available on iPhones and iPads running iOS 8.3 or later and Macs running OS X Yosemite or later, is My Photo Streams’ replacement.
As Macrumors notes, Apple plans for all My Photo Stream users to shift to iCloud Photos before July 26, with an Apple support page stating: “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.”
The transition to iCloud Photos begins a month earlier, on June 26, when new photo uploads to My Photo Stream from iOS devices will stop. They will remain on the service for 30 days before the service is completely shut down.
As every image and video uploaded to iCloud via My Photo Stream is stored in its original resolution and format on at least one Apple device, users will be pleased to know that they won’t lose cherished photos.
If, however, you want to access a photo uploaded to iCloud via My Photo Stream on a particular device, Apple recommends saving it to that device’s Photo Library prior to July 26. This is done by opening up the Photos app on an iPhone, going to the My Photo Stream album, picking individual photos, and using the Share button to save them to the Library.
My Photo Stream is currently available on iPads, or iPod touch with iOS 5.1 or later, Apple TV HD, or 2nd or 3rd generation Apple TVs with tvOS 5.0 or later, and PC with Windows 7 and iCloud for Windows.
