Users of a once-popular iCloud feature should prepare for it to be turned off soon. As announced by Apple in a newly released support document, the “My Photo Stream” feature will shut down on 27 July. Users should use iCloud Photos instead, but the alternative also has some disadvantages.
What photo stream was able to do and soon won’t be able to do again
“My Photo Stream” was from Apple already introduced in 2011. This allows you to automatically upload your photos to the cloud for viewing at home and on the go. It works on Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Windows PC as well as Apple TV devices of the HD generation. However, in reality only images and not videos are supported: JPEG, PNG, TIFF and “most” RAW formats, as Apple writes. Uploading always takes place when there is an Internet connection and the battery is sufficiently charged.
However, what went wrong: If you edited an image, the changes didn’t sync. However, “My Photo Stream” had the advantage of not costing iCloud storage, so it could also be used with the free 5GB of storage that every Apple ID account gets – tiny by today’s standards. But there were only up to 1000 pictures from the last 30 days. Also, the recordings only transferred to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch in lower resolution, but ended up in “Full Resolution” on the Mac.
Backup costs and tips
When switching to iCloud Photos, it should now be noted that iCloud storage is being used. It means: most likely you will have to go to one Paid iCloud+ subscription Jack. In the eurozone you pay for this 1 euro for 50 GB, 3 euro for 200 GB and 10 euro for 2 TB per month – whereby this is done with the total subscription service apple one can combine. You can then save as many images, not just the last 30 days, as you have available storage space. The original size is compared and archived (although a lower resolution can also be specified), and the images are also accessible via the iCloud.com portal access.
Starting July 27, uploads to My Photo Stream will no longer happen automatically—there’s no direct way to upgrade to iCloud Photos. That’s why you should definitely back up your most recent data if you don’t just want it on the device it was created on. Apple has how it works in another supporting document described. To do this, open the “My Photo Stream” album on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch and select the recordings you want to back up. A click on the share button allows for local saving. On Mac, also select the images you want to save in the “My Photo Stream” album and then drag them to the photo library.
(bsc)
