Photo stream discontinuation…

Hi. How do I get my photos automatically from my iPhone to my Mac now that Photostream has stopped?

My Photos library is very large. Does that stop me using iCloud Photos?

iMac (M1, 2021)

Posted on Jun 27, 2023 10:14 AM

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Posted on Jun 27, 2023 10:27 AM

The only automatic way is to enable iCloud Photos on both devices. You'll have to purchase iCloud space from Apple to hold the library. The first time you enable iCloud Library it can take zip to a week or more for the upload and syncing to finish. During that time you should leave Photos open and in the background on your Mac while you're using it and also all night (turn off sleep and use only the screensaver).


The other, non-automatic way is to connect the iPhone to your Mac with its USB charging cable and user either Photos or Image Capture to download the photos and videos to your library or to a folder on the Deskto.


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Jun 27, 2023 10:27 AM in response to mboursnell

The only automatic way is to enable iCloud Photos on both devices. You'll have to purchase iCloud space from Apple to hold the library. The first time you enable iCloud Library it can take zip to a week or more for the upload and syncing to finish. During that time you should leave Photos open and in the background on your Mac while you're using it and also all night (turn off sleep and use only the screensaver).


The other, non-automatic way is to connect the iPhone to your Mac with its USB charging cable and user either Photos or Image Capture to download the photos and videos to your library or to a folder on the Deskto.


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Jun 27, 2023 11:20 AM in response to Old Toad

Ok, thanks for that.


My Photos library is 300GB so that seems to mean I’ll have to pay £8.99 a month just to transfer my iPhone photos automatically.


(I’m not worried about syncing my whole Photos library to all my devices…)


Is that really the only way? I can’t afford £8.99 a month by the way.

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Photo stream discontinuation…

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