Confusion regarding My Photo Stream on my Mac?

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Level 1

11 points

Confusion regarding My Photo Stream on my Mac?

After 30 days when photos in My Photo Stream are removed from iCloud are they also removed from Photos library on my Mac ... like the way deleting a photo from My Photo Stream works on the Mac?

Posted on Sep 21, 2021 12:06 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

TonyCollinet

Level 7

24,050 points

Sep 22, 2021 1:33 PM in response to Piewacket

It doesn't work like that.

the photostream album on the sending devices are just a list of items that have been sent to photostream in the cloud.

On the recieving devices, when they are removed from photostream in the cloud, they will be removed from the photostream folder - you need to import them from photostream to your library before that happens. They are never removed from a library automatically.

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Answer 2

Erin_B11

Community Specialist

Sep 22, 2021 10:37 AM in response to Piewacket

Hello Piewacket,

Thank you for posting in the Apple Support Communities. Keeping your photos updated across your devices is important, and we'd like to share some information with you.

If photos were taken more than 30 days ago, they shouldn't be removed from iCloud Photos, and should remain in the Photos app on your Mac. However, if you manually delete a photo (whether it's within or beyond 30 days), then the photo is deleted from My Photo Stream and iCloud Photos. Also, if you sign out of iCloud or turn off My Photo Stream on an iOS device, all of the photos in the My Photo Stream album are removed from that device.

Check out the sections "How My Photo Stream works with iCloud Photos" and "Frequently asked questions about My Photo Stream" in this Apple Support article to learn more about how My Photo Stream works:

My Photo Stream

We hope this information is useful. Kind regards.

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Answer 3

Piewacket Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 22, 2021 2:08 PM in response to TonyCollinet

Thanks Tony. I thought exactly the same as you are saying however, it's not working that way. I don't use iCloud for Photos on any of my devices. I only turned on My Photo Stream on my Mac then imported 172 pics from a memory card into my photo library on my Mac. iPhone & iPad are not involved here ... just my Mac. The pics showed up in my Photo Library, Recents, Imports, and a new folder named My Photo Stream on my Mac. So now I am assuming that somewhere in the cloud the 30 day count down has begun for the pics in this MPS album/folder. Now if I delete a photo from this new folder it deletes it from my main photo library as well. So what happens when the 30 day counter runs down and the pics are removed form the cloud? I expect that the MPS folder on my Mac would be empty. Wouldn't that then also remove those pics from my main library as well? It's doing that now when I manually deleted from this folder ... even though I had initially imported this pics to my photo library.

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Answer 4

Piewacket Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 22, 2021 1:33 PM in response to Piewacket

I should also state that I don't have iCloud turned on for photos on any of my devices ... I only turned on My Photo Stream on my Mac.

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Answer 5

Piewacket Author

Level 1

11 points

Sep 22, 2021 12:56 PM in response to Erin_B11

Thank you Erin for the explanation but my question arises from that same article after I read it. Perhaps I should better explain it. I was checking out My Photo Stream for the first time and turned it on on my Mac(MacBook Pro - Catalina 10.15.7) then I imported some pictures from an SD card. These pictures showed up in both my Library and a new folder named My Photo Stream. I organized them into different albums. Then I read in the article that if I delete a picture in My Photo Stream it will delete it everywhere. I experimented with one picture and sure enough it deleted it from my photo library as well. So now my question is if iCloud removes the My Photo Stream pictures after 30 days do I loose them from my photo library as well? What if I turn off My Photo Stream on my Mac now do those pictures get deleted everywhere as well? This doesn't sound very good at all if it does that.

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Confusion regarding My Photo Stream on my Mac?

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