Did you get an email from Apple about the Photo Stream shutting down?
Is this a scam? Am I going to lose my photos? What is the Photo Stream anyways?
Well, in short, and respective order; No, no and… good question.
The Photo Stream was Apple’s first attempt at photo synchronization, and not a very good one.
These days, most people have all their photos in the cloud with Apple’s iCloud Photos feature. Having your photos in the cloud means that all your photos are accessible on all your devices. When you take a photo on your iPhone, it shows up automatically on your iPad and/or computer. When you delete a photo on one device, it disappears on the other devices. This is exactly how syncing has always worked for other types of data; contacts, calendars, notes, etc. I create a contact here, and it shows up over there. The same thing is true when deleting. Photos however, have not always synchronized in this manner, namely due to their size. Contacts are tiny, and there has always been plenty of room to store contacts in the cloud. Photos are not tiny, and the cloud was limited in its’ ability to store too many.
The first model of cloud synchronization for photos, was called Photo Stream. Since cloud space was limited back in the day, you couldn’t just store all your photos in the cloud and sync them to all your devices. Rather, you just sent your photos through the cloud back to your computer for storage and safe-keeping. This means that as I take photos with my iPhone, a copy of the photo stays on the phone, and another copy goes into the Photo Stream. The Photo Stream carries 30 days worth of photos through the cloud and deposits them on my computer. After photos have safely been dropped off at the computer, the photos in the Photo Stream automatically delete. The word ‘delete’ sounds scary, but don’t forget that the photos in the Photo Stream are duplicates. The copy on your iPhone is still there.
In the iCloud Photos model, your iPhone, iPad, and computer can all share the same photo library via cloud storage. In the Photo Stream model, the iPhone and the computer have separate photo libraries. The Photo Stream bridges the two libraries, but the two libraries are not syncing. So when I delete a photo on my computer, nothing happens to the same photo on my iPhone, and vice versa. When I add photos to my library on my computer, in similar fashion, nothing happens on my iPhone. Those new photos added to the computer do not sync to my iPhone. The Photo Stream was meant to be a one-way bridge; from iPhone to computer.
Geek speak aside, what should you do about that scary message from Apple? Probably nothing. If you would, please take a look at your Settings app; Tap Settings > Your Name > iCloud > Photos. If ‘Sync this iPhone’ is enabled, then iCloud Photos is making sure that your photos are all safely stored in the cloud. It’s possible you may have both iCloud Photos and the Photo Stream enabled, and in that case, these services are competing. iCloud Photos is doing a better job at the same task as the Photo Stream, so you can let the Photo Stream quietly disappear when the timer is up. You may have Photo Stream disabled, which means you’re already not using it, so there is nothing to worry about. You may not even have a Photo Stream setting on the screen described above, which means you really have nothing to worry about. You may have iCloud Photos disabled and Photo Stream enabled. In that case, when Apple’s timer is up, the copy of the photo in the Stream will disappear. The copy in your Photo Library will stay put. Here again, nothing to worry about.
The Photo Stream is an old feature that not too many people are using, at least not intentionally. Some people have Photo Stream enabled, but are not sure how or why, and don’t want to mess with a feature they’re not sure they understand. Seriously, don’t worry. You don’t have to turn it Off, Apple will do it for you in the coming weeks, and you won’t lose any photos.
Are you still nervous? Let’s do a test. Close the Settings and open your Photos app. Tap Library and find a recent photo that you don’t need to keep, but don’t delete it. Now tap Albums at the bottom, and look for an album near the top labeled Photo Stream. You may need to glide up or down, or right and left to locate it. If you don’t see a Photo Stream album, then you probably already have it turned Off in the Settings. If you do see a Photo Stream album, tap it to open it, and locate the same photo you just saw in your Library. Delete the photo here from the Photo Stream album. Wait 24 hours and then go back to your Photos app and tap Library at the bottom. Now look for the photo you deleted from the Photo Stream the day before… it should still be in the Library. It’s there because what you deleted from the Photo Stream is a copy of the photo in the Library. This demonstrates that even though you see the same photo in both places, that one is a copy, or duplicate, of the other. I wanted you to wait 24 hours to show that the Library and the Photo Stream do not sync with each other. The Library and the Photo Stream operate independently of each other.
The bottom line of the test above shows that when photos are removed from the Photo Stream, nothing happens to the same photo within the Library. So when Apple quietly makes your Photo Stream disappear in the coming weeks, there will be no impact on the photos in your Library. It’s all good. Rest easy.