Apple to close My Photo Stream in July; here's what you need to know

Apple posted a support page titled "Information about the My Photo Stream shutdown" which gives away the news that the free "My Photo Stream" service is closing down. This will take place July 26th and new photo uploads to My Photo Stream will end one month before on June 26th. That makes sense because the service uploads to iCloud up to 1,000 photos from the last 30 days allowing them to be viewed on an iPhone, an iPad, the iPod touch, a Mac, and a PC.

Apple says on the support page that going forward, users who want to make sure that their photos and videos are available across their devices and are safely stored in iCloud should start using iCloud Photos. My Photo Stream was available before iCloud Photos and has, for the most part, been replaced by it. And with My Photo Stream closing down, well, you have no choice but to move on. Funny how that happens, right?

As Apple notes, the photos and videos on My Photo Stream are already stored on one of your devices. As long as you still own the device where the originals are kept, you will not lose any photos or videos due to the My Photo Stream shutdown. But if a photo you want is not in the library on a particular iPhone, iPad, or Mac, make sure that you add it to the library on that device.

To save photos currently in My Photo Stream, go to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and follow these directions:

• Open Photos and tap Albums.
• Tap My Photo Stream > Select.
• Tap the photos that you want to save, then tap the Share button > Save Image.

On your Mac

• Open the Photos app, then open the My Photo Stream album.
• Select any photos you want to save that aren't currently in your photo library.
• Drag them from the My Photo Stream album to your Library.