Popular iPhone Service Now Shut Down for Good: Here’s What You Should Do

Apple’s My Photo Stream service is shutting down Wednesday, meaning that consumers who are still using that app will have to convert to iCloud Photos before then.

According to Apple, the last photo uploads via My Photo Stream ended 30 days ago. But as of Wednesday, those photos are off Apple’s servers.

Originally unveiled in 2011, the free photo service temporarily uploaded up to 1,000 photos to iCloud, making them accessible via several Apple devices and available to import to your library on any device. The photos had remained on My Photo Stream for 30 days before they were automatically deleted.

“By July 26, 2023, there will be no photos remaining in My Photo Stream, and the service will be shut down,” Apple says. “My Photo Stream is a separate service from iCloud Photos. Moving forward, 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. If you already have iCloud Photos enabled on all of your devices, you don’t need to do anything else—your photos are already uploaded and stored in iCloud.”

The Cupertino, California-based tech giant did not provide a reason for the shuttering of the service that was launched in 2011.

‌Photos‌ in My Photo Stream are stored on at least one of your Apple devices in their original format. If you still have that device, you won’t actually lose any photos as the service ends. What will happen is that you will lose the capacity to access those photos on any other device.

“The photos in My Photo Stream are already stored on at least one of your devices, so as long as you have the device with your originals, you won’t lose any photos as part of this process. If a photo you want isn’t already in your library on a particular iPhone or iPad, make sure that you save it to your library on that device. Or, you can set up iCloud Photos,” according to Apple’s notice.

One option to recover those photos is to turn on iCloud Photos, although that the service requires a paid iCloud subscription to go beyond the 5GB free iCloud limit. It’s also only available on devices running iOS 8.3 or Macs that run OS X Yosemite.

Apple’s iCloud costs 99 cents for 50 gigabytes of storage, $2.99 for 200 gigabytes, and $9.99 for 2 terabytes, the company’s website says. If you have decided on purchasing iCloud storage space, go to Settings, click on your user name or name, then tap iCloud, tap Photos, and turn on iCloud Photos on each of your devices.

To save photos on My Photo Stream, open the Photos app on an iPhone or iPad and tap Albums. Go to My Photo Stream then tap Select before tapping the photos that you want to save. Then, tap the Share button and Save Image.

Apple says that My Photo Stream photos will automatically import to a user’s Mac computer. It means that anyone who may want to still access those photos should check their Macs if they have one that was connected to the service.

And, “If you already have iCloud Photos enabled on all of your devices, you don’t need to do anything else—your photos are already uploaded and stored in iCloud,” Apple also said.

Recent Updates

On Monday, Apple issued updates to its iOS and MacOS operating systems that fix multiple security vulnerabilities and bugs. According to a bulletin, iOS and iPadOS 16.6 and MacOS 13.5 were released to fix a range of “actively exploited” security bugs, along with a number of other security fixes for problems that have been reported to Apple.

As usual, Apple said it would not disclose or discuss the nature of the security flaws that are being fixed.

“For our customers’ protection, Apple doesn’t disclose, discuss, or confirm security issues until an investigation has occurred and patches or releases are available. Recent releases are listed on the Apple security updates page,” it said in its release notes Monday.

Boris Larin, a security researcher with antivirus software maker Kaspersky, urged users on Monday to update their devices after the Apple fix was issued. One of the bugs “is another kernel vulnerability that was used in the 0-click exploit chain. … Update all your Apple devices!” he wrote on Twitter.

To update your iPhone or iPad, go to the device’s Settings app before going to General and tapping Software Update. It will then prompt the user to install the latest update, which is iOS or iPad 16.6.

To install the update on a Mac, click on System Settings, then click Software Update, and Download and Install. Users will have to follow the prompts before restarting their computer.