My Photo Stream: A Comprehensive Guide for iPhone and iPad Users

Photostream on your devices is an important feature and does more than just keeping your memories saved. Let us review how it works and what features you can use for your benefit.

Updated Oct 26,2016 | by Niko

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An apple device is known for being user-friendly and problem-free. But it never hurts how to learn more about your device and how to use it for its maximum efficiency. Photostream on your devices is an important feature and does more than just keeping your memories saved.

You don’t have to refer to a million pages for any information regarding this feature, this page should suffice as a thorough enough guide. Let us review how it works and what features you can use for your benefit.

What is my photo stream?

In the simplest of words, photo stream is a feature available to apple users who also use iCloud. It automatically syncs images you take, with all your devices. This means that you can take a photo with your iPhone at the mall or the beach and the image will automatically be saved on iPad. This process requires no wires, cords or manual syncing. As soon as you take a photo on one device, it will be viewable on all your other devices connected to iCloud.

The difference between My Photo Stream and camera roll and iCloud photo library

To make this easier to understand we shall explain it in two parts. First, the difference between ‘My Photo Stream’ and ‘Camera Roll’ and second, the difference between ‘My Photo Stream’ and ‘iCloud library’.

When you snap a photo and it gets saved in two separate albums i.e. the camera roll and photo stream, it is confusing. Sometimes, if you delete one, both get deleted. What is this about?

The Camera Roll is actually a part of your device whereas My Photo Stream is inside the cloud and syncs all your photos with all your other devices. My Photo Stream only works when enabled manually. The camera roll, on the other hand, is pretty basic like any other phone.

It is an album that consists of all the photos taken and stored on your device. The images stored on it can also be the ones you receive via messages, emails or websites etc. If you take a photo on your iPhone or iPad, it immediately gets saved to your Camera Roll and is visible only on your iPhone. However, if you’ve enabled photo stream them it will visible on all your devices.

Now, what’s the difference between photo stream and iCloud?

The iCloud Photo Library is primarily animproved version of My Photo Stream, but it uses your iCloud storage for storing your photos. This means that you will have to purchase extra storage since you only get 5 GB free storage with your iCloud. The iCloud Photo Library is highly useful in recovering data when you lose or damage your phone and keeping everything up to date on all of your devices that have it switched on. It supports a variety of formats, stores photos in full resolution and uploads both videos and photos.

Before iCloud, My Photo Stream was used as the tool for uploading and syncing photos. However, unlike iCloud Photo Library, it doesn’t make use of your iCloud storage. It only stores and syncs your last 1000 photos, once you pass the 1000 photo limit, the oldest photos will be removed. Since it stores web-optimized photos only, the quality of the photos can drop. It does not store videos.

How to enable and disable my photo stream? Can we turn off “My Photo Stream” to save space?

How to enable and disable My Photo Stream:

• IOS devices: Go to Settings > iCloud > Photos ("Photo Stream" in iOS 6), and tap the "My Photo Stream" button to turn on the feature.

• Mac: Go to System Preferences > iCloud, and check the box for Photos (or "Photo Stream"). Click Options and see if My Photo Stream is checked. You can also check to see if applications such as iPhoto or Aperture have "My Photo Stream" turned on.

• PC: Open the iCloud Control Panel and click the box for Photos ("Photo Stream" in iCloud Control Panel 2.x). Click Options to see if "My Photo Stream" is turned on, and click "Apply."

You can simply turn it off just the way you turned it on in the settings. Since the photo stream does not make use of your iCloud storage in the first place, keeping it on or off has no effect on the amount of storage you have. But do keep in mind that if you are disabling Photo Stream, the photos present in your Photo Stream will be deleted from that specific device.

This option is ideal if you do not wish your photos to be shared with any device that is linked to your iCloud account. Also remember, disabling the Photo Stream will not disable the iCloud Photo Library.

How to delete photos from Photo Stream on iPhone/iPad?

iCloud Photo Library disabled

1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap on My Photo Stream under the Albums tab.

3. Tap Select in the upper right-hand corner.

4. Tap on the photos you'd like to delete in order to select them and then tap on the trash can in the lower right-hand corner.

5. Tap on Delete Photos in the popup menu to confirm the delete.

iCloud Photo Library enabled

1. Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.

2. Tap on All Photos under the Albums tab.

3. Tap on the photos you'd like to delete in order to select them and then tap on the trash can in the lower right-hand corner.

4. Tap on Delete Photos in the popup menu to confirm the delete.

Now that you know all about photo stream, you can keep your photos in a more organized manner while saving tons of space. Many people often get confused between the camera roll and iCloud photos. Well, you wouldn’t be one of them now. Will you keep your photo stream on or off now? If you have any questions you can always drop us a comment in the comment section below.

Free iPhone Photo Manager to easily transfer and organize photos on iPhone/iPad.