Apple's Photo Stream Ending Tomorrow. Here's How To Ensure Access To Pics

Apple's Photo Stream feature, which automatically stores pictures taken in the last 30 days, is shutting down on July 26 (Wednesday). After the transition comes into effect, people's important memories could be removed from their devices. As per an announcement from Apple, the photo stream has already stopped uploading pictures on June 26. However, any pics uploaded to My Photo Stream before this date will be available on iCloud for users to save. So, those who have iCloud sync on will still be able to access their photos.

What is photo stream?

It is a service launched by Apple in 2011. It temporarily uploads the photos users take on one device so they can view them on any other device with My Photo Stream enabled, and import them to library on that device.

Asper Apple, photos remain in My Photo Stream for 30 days - up to 1,000 photos at any given time - and are then automatically deleted from iCloud.

The discontinuation of this service will impact the users' ability to access their pics on any Apple devices unless their iCloud is set up to that particular iPhone, iPad and Mac.

iCloud to replace photo stream

Apple has suggested that My Photo Stream will be replaced by iCloud Photos, which is free up to 5GB of storage. The service, however, requires a premium subscription plan anything beyond that.

In a release on its support page, Apple said iCloud is the "best way to keep the photos and videos you take up to date across all your devices".

"If you already have iCloud Photos enabled on all of your devices, you don't need to do anything else - your photos already sync to iCloud," Apple further said in the June 6 article.

What users need to do?

To access their photos on all the Apple devices, users will have to allow iCloud Photos sync on all devices.

To do that, users need to follow these steps. On iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > user/owner name > iCloud. Make sure that it says "On" next to Photos on each of the Apple devices. 

On Mac, choose Apple menu > System Settings, click on the name, then click iCloud. Make sure that it says "On" next to Photos on each of your devices.