Apple has discontinued a free cloud service that you may have used for as long as 12 years. In this article you can read what you need to know!
Cloud service from Apple has been stopped
No, this is not about the iCloud Photos service, but about My Photo Stream. Launched in 2011, this cloud service temporarily uploaded photos you took on one device so you could view them on any other device. Provided you had enabled ‘My Photo Stream’ of course. The photos then remained for 30 days, with a maximum of 1000 photos at a time. Then they were automatically deleted from iCloud.
![Note: Apple’s cloud service has stopped (no backup possible!) Note: Apple’s cloud service has stopped (no backup possible!)](https://www.iphoned.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/mijn-fotostream-620x344.jpeg)
My Photo Stream was permanently discontinued on July 26, 2023. New photo uploads from all your devices to My Photo Stream stopped one month earlier, on June 26, 2023. So all photos uploaded before that date were kept in iCloud for an additional 30 days, leaving My Photo Stream at 26 July 2023 was completely empty and could be safely stopped.
Use iCloud Photos cloud service
Whether or not you’ve used My Photo Stream, it’s very likely you’ve been using the iCloud Photos cloud service for quite some time. In that case, you don’t have to worry about photos being lost. You can check whether you use iCloud photos in the following way:
- On your iPhone or iPad, open the Settings app;
- Tap your name, then tap iCloud;
- Make sure ‘On’ is displayed next to ‘Photos’.
![cloud service](https://www.iphoned.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/fotos.png)
On your Mac, do the following:
- Open the System Settings app;
- Click on your name and then on ‘iCloud’;
- Make sure ‘On’ is displayed next to ‘Photos’.
![my photo stream](https://www.iphoned.nl/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/mac-fotos.png)
Configure iCloud Photos
You can enable iCloud Photos cloud service on all your Apple devices. That is, on any iPhone with iOS 8.3 or later, iPad with iPadOS 8.3 or later, or Mac with OS X Yosemite or later. Then use the Photos app on all your devices to view your photos and videos. Of iCloud for Windows it is even possible to synchronize all your photos and videos with a Windows PC.
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