Apple “My photo stream”

[Legend]

I got an email from Apple. Immediately suspicious as there have been a number of Spam ones , but this one appears legit . It states that “my photo stream” will be shut down 26/7 . 
 

I’m not sure what this actually means . 
 

I use my phone to take lots of pics . I also download pics , mainly from Facebook for trains , planes etc . I pay a subscription per month to Apple for iCloud storage , so I’m thinking that this will continue  as iCloud Photos and I don’t need to be concerned. . But has anyone else got this email and knows what it means? 

[JJGraphics]

The e-mail is legitimate.

My Photo Stream is a legacy service provided by Apple which is being closed down as it has relatively few users and is nowhere near as capable as iCloud. You (as most people do) are using iCloud which is unaffected so you have nothing to be concerned about.

If anyone has images stored in the My Photo Stream service it is important to remove them before 26/7.

John

[woodenhead]

This was the old method of sharing your own photos between devices i.e. IPhone and Ipad, I used it for a time.

 

It was separate to iCloud and would transfer photos without using any iCloud storage.

 

https://mashable.com/article/apple-ending-my-photo-stream-july-26

[Kris]

As you say that you are using iCloud photos you do not need to be worried, all your photos will remain.

[ColinK]

This caught me by surprise too.  I use photo stream to see recent photos on my mac, ipad and iphone but do not use iCloud photos.  I do synchronise all my devices regularly and keep all photos on my iMac along with a back up disc.  I’ve got 28,000 digital photos (99% are my own pics) and the number increases all the time

 

So what do people recommend?  I’m not opposed to using iCloud photos, but I also want all my photos in a photo library on my iMac.

[JJGraphics]

2 hours ago, ColinK said:

This caught me by surprise too.  I use photo stream to see recent photos on my mac, ipad and iphone but do not use iCloud photos.  I do synchronise all my devices regularly and keep all photos on my iMac along with a back up disc.  I’ve got 28,000 digital photos (99% are my own pics) and the number increases all the time

 

So what do people recommend?  I’m not opposed to using iCloud photos, but I also want all my photos in a photo library on my iMac.

 

You don't have to use iCloud or iPhoto if you don't want to. Coming from a digital graphics background, I manually manage my photo library (about 22,000 images) in folders, each containing 250 images, on my Mac. I allocate a number to each image and keep notes on each one in a Numbers spreadsheet.

I use Growly Photo to visually locate an image and I think that even on its own, that application would suffice for many people.

I burn batches of the image folders to DVD-R disks when enough have accumulated to fill a disk. Those are kept at my daughter's house for extra security.

I back up my Mac using Time Machine to two separate external storage devices which I rotate to provide extra security.

If you are interested in data security, you might care to read the information in the file below. I wrote it for Mac users, but the general principles are the same for other platforms.

John

Data Security.pdf

Edited June 4, 2023 by JJGraphics
Add afterthoughts

[ColinK]

Many thanks John, that is really helpful , especially the data security attachment.

 

I’m thinking of not using iCloud photos, particulary because I also have many hours of video, in finished projects  as well as the individual clips, the latest being in 4K, so massive files that may slow down editing if they are stored in iCloud.

 

I’m going to adopt your recommended approch with two time machine backups.  Once I’ve finished scanning my slides I’ll do an extra copy on give it too a friend for safe keeping.

 

Your comments about disconnecting discs are so true.  Very recently I couldn’t get my iMac to start; it would start up then say there was a problem and shut down.  By using ‘safe mode’ I tracked down the problem, an external disc had been knocked and was no longer connected to a USB hub.  The accident has damaged the external disc, while I can read and extract data off it, new data cannot be written to it.  The disc is the backup of my scanned slides.  Perhaps I should only attach external discs to the computer when I’m using them (except of course Time Machine).

[JJGraphics]

If you can safely extract the files from that disk it would probably be a good idea to re-format it with Disk Utility and then test it several times before re-using it. It is probably only the file system which has become corrupted unless it took a good knock.

An acquaintance of many years is a storage device engineer and one of his favourite sayings is, "It's not if a hard disk will fail, but how soon."  How true that is! Over the years, despite giving dire warnings to people, I have seen vital data lost simply because they did make the effort to back-up.

John