Q: If I no longer use iCloud will I lose all of my photos stored in the Cloud?

Question

RoCuo

Level 1 (0 points)

Q: If I no longer use iCloud will I lose all of my photos stored in the Cloud?

I am undecided if I want to upload all of my photos to iCloud Photo Library. I was told by others that if I ever chose to no longer use iCloud for my photo storage that I will lose those photos. Another thing I was told is that iCloud only store the photos for a certain period and then I will lose them. I am confused about all of this, but I like using my Apple devices!

I know many of you Apple lovers know how to use this program better than most, please offer any advice you may have!!

Thank you!!

iMac, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Jan 27, 2016 8:52 AM

I have this question too

Solved

léonie

Level 10 (106,946 points)

iLife

A:

I was told by others that if I ever chose to no longer use iCloud for my photo storage that I will lose those photos.

If you are using iCloud Photo Library, you have two options:

You can upload your Photos Library to iCloud, but keep all original photos on your Mac as well.
You can upload your Photos Library to iCloud and enable optimize storage. Then you can save storage on your Mac, but you will have to download the originals from iCloud, when you want to edit or export your photos. You can only edit, if you have an Internet connection.

Without optimize storage you can disable iCloud Photo Library anytime, because all photos are on your Mac. If you use "Optimize Storage", you will have to disable this option and to wait for your photos to download again, before you disable iCloud Photo Library. See this Help page: https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.0/?lang=en#/phtf5e48489c (the last paragraph).

Another thing I was told is that iCloud only store the photos for a certain period and then I will lose them.

This applies to "My Photo Stream", not iCloud Photo Library. iCloud has several services to be used with photos. My Photo Stream is a way to transfer photos between devices. It streams photos between devices and buffers your most recent photos for a limited time, so all devices can download the new photos. But it is not a photo library in iCloud, see: iCloud: Photo Stream FAQ

If you have a large Photos Library, you will need a paid iCloud subscription to upload the complete library.

iCloud Photo Library is useful, if you have several Macs or mobile devices and want to keep the libraries updated across all your devices. Or if you want to be able to access your photo library in iCloud from mobile devices, because you do not have enough storage on the device.

But it is not meant as a cloud backup of your photos. You will need to keep a local backup of your Photos Library as well.