Photos not going to photo stream IOS 15.4

Thank you for this TIP. I too just changed the format and it is working fine so far. Apple Support took a lot of logs off of my iMac as well as my iPhone. I guess I thought it was a problem with the streaming.......now they think it may be the software was switched off that steamed the HEIFF format, that part of the software was overlooked. I did give due to those who deserved the dues when I talked to Apple support. I was told (but I don't believe everything I am told) that the engineres would be working on the problem.

Thanks to whomever found this.

This happened to me too.

I stupidly Googled for "normal fixes" for Photo Stream problems so didn't see this thread before taking more severe options.

I did the usual "turn off and turn on Photo Stream", and "turn on and off iCloud" (goodbye huge existing Photo Stream) - and lots more.

Fortunately I have my photos synced to my Mac - because that's the only way I know to sync smart folders (which I use a lot with keywords - even though I know that seems to be a dead end in the Apple world) - so I haven't lost all my photos.

Because the next option I tried was the traditional (and fortunately not something I've had to do for years) reset phone.

I restored from a backup (note to self - don't rely on the "Back up your most important data..." option - go back to "all") and then, when my Photo Stream still didn't work, I set up my iPhone from new (admittedly - there's still all the iCloud stuff that downloads with most of my "life" in).

This STILL didn't work - so don't bother with that.

THEN I found this thread - darn it all.

Valuable tip if you've been using your phone "just the way you want it" for a long time (and always upgrade phones based on backups) - make a Note in Notes with the layout of your phone in. I have one in text form (row by row, contents of folders, etc) but if your layout isn't complex, screenshots would work too. This means if you ever have to rebuild your phone, your muscle memory still works - you can put everything back where it's supposed to go.

Ironically, there also seems to be a bug in iOS that saves screenshots to your Photo Stream when you don't save (you take a screenshot, copy it to paste somewhere, then click delete) - the screenshot doesn't go to your Recent Photos but it does go to your Photo Stream - and THAT still happens - so the only part of my photos that goes to my Photo Stream is the bug 🤦🏻‍♂️

I have tried the change format - but that didn't work - so hopefully this bug gets fixed soon.

Good luck everyone!

To all: I just got off the phone with a senior advisor who "took control" of my case. The case was "escalated" to the engineering techs. their advice had three options for the time being and they are as follows:

1) keep the settings on you camera app. to "most compatible"

2) pay for more storage in I cloud and use it.

3) keep up-to-date with the updates.

I was told that the first 2 will solve the problem as for number 3 ..... the problem is being looked at and the proper fix may be in one of the updates.

I get tired of Apple putting out all these new updates with all these "new" features that you may or may not use.... and not fixing the ones they already have. I wish they would just make a REALLY stable IOS and then add on ONLY and I mean ONLY if that new feature or IOS update will NOT create any new issues........They are suppose to be smart phones! Only as smart as you program them.

Spoke to a Senior Advisor in creative media today. While the changing settings to "most compatible" is the short term answer, he said they are no longer updating Photo stream and the move is to iCloud photo (ugh). But useful info imo: if you use airdrop to transfer photos to another device, be sure to use the options pull down on the airdrop page when sending to get all metadata to the new device. Otherwise, you might lose some formatting - like iPhone 13 cinematic data- as well. Good luck, all!

Of course they aren't. They haven't figured out a way to monetize like iCloud! There was an automatic conversion being done in Release 15.3.x and previous that they PURPOSELY removed in 15.4. Do the math, if you now can gain 300M users now buying iCloud storage at a minimum of $12/year, that 3.6B per year of added revenus with nominal cost

I have the same problem with brand new iPhone SE. Returned the phone because after 2 hours on the phone with Apple no one could solve the problem. Of course Photo Stream doesn't work on the new phone either. Amazing that Apple's advisors and Genius Bar aren't told the truth: iOS 15.4 disabled Photo Stream.

I believe that iOS 15.4.1 introduced a bug with the automatic conversion to JEPG for Photos and H.264 for videos when you have selected HEIC for your camera format. Prior to 15.4.1, you could capture images and video in 'high efficiency' modes and the OS would convert to JPEG / H.264 prior to photo stream upload. That appears to be broken but selecting 'most compatible' restores that upload format and any photos taken AFTER you select most compatible will transfer to Photo Stream. The only downside is all the images and video you capture on your phone will not be in the HEIC format so import with a cable or air drop to Photos will not have the high dynamic range images/videos. BTW - the reason I 'believe' this is a bug is because if Photo Stream was depreciated, as you stated, then it would have been removed as an option but HEIC is still selectable when Phtoto Stream is on.

Yep, join the club. 15.4 broke the flow. Pre 15.4, when your format was set to heif, (high efficiency), iOS would auto convert from 12mp heif to 3mp jpeg and ship it on up to Photo Stream. No longer, as others have posted you have to switch camera format to "most compatible". Hopefully the next release will restore the auto convert process, as the jpeg files (most compatible) are 2-3 times larger than the heif format.

Just wanted to chime in and say I'm having this problem also. I noticed when trying to save some pictures from some text messages that friends sent me - they were going to the "Recents" album on my iPhone, but not the Photo Stream album. Same for pictures taken directly from my iPhone camera. Like some others have noted, I did notice pictures saved from a website, or screen shots, were actually making it to the Photo Stream.

Did the usual process of getting Photo Stream going again: Switched off My Photo Stream on my iMac and iPhone, signed out of iCloud on both, rebooted both, signed back in, switched everything back on - and same issue. Oh boy...

Very annoying. As others have mentioned, My Photo Stream has been getting worse and worse over the last couple/few years. I'm with those that believe they are letting it die a painful death to push us all to iCloud Photos and the associated extra storage costs.

I'm not against using iCloud Photos in theory, but I don't like being forced from something that worked great for me to something I don't really need - and being made to pay for it to boot.

I realize I could change the format in my camera options (and maybe have that fix it for who knows how long), but I'm tempted to just switch off Photo Stream altogether and use Air Drop or even the flippin' lightning cable to manually sync my photos every so often.

Just spoke to Apple via telephone support - as far as they know, this is a bug with 15.4 (i.e. not converting HEIC to JPEG before upload to My Photo Stream) which will be rectified with 15.5.

I hope this is true, as although I know that Apple is gradually deprecating MPS, to restrict it in such an underhand fashion and deliberately cause confusion would be unacceptable.

Same issue here on iPhone 13 - Photostream is not working even after switching to “Most Compatible.” Spent an hour on the phone with Apple, eventually with a senior advisor. He said they’re working on a solution, and that could be either a future iOS update or a fix in their system, in which case it would just start working again.

Photos and screenshots from my 2017 iPad Pro do sync to the Photos app my Mac Studio.

Yes, of,course. I was working with a senior advisor, and we were both very thorough.

For anyone who doesn’t know, photo stream doesn’t work during an active call (according to the advisor), so two or three times he called me back so I could test new photos after changing settings.

At least your senior advisor knew what was happening with iOS15. I spent hours on the phone with Apple Support and the last advice was to return the phone to factory settings and start again. Nope. Folks at the Genius Bar didn't know about it either, and the conclusion drawn was that Apple has eliminated Photo Stream, which I could definitely see happening, but isn't the case at the moment. Long story short - I bought a new iPhone because I thought my 8 was dying. Turns out the only thing wrong with it was iOS15, as I have all the same problems on the brand new SE 3rd gen.

rainbowcat5 wrote:

At least your senior advisor knew what was happening with iOS15.

I hope so! I’m lucky that the first guy didn’t spend too much time before escalating it. I convinced him pretty quickly that I knew what I was doing.

Sorry to hear about your experience, though. I wish Apple would spend less on TV shows and movies and more on making the software solid and training the support team.

I’m glad to see in this thread that others use Photo Stream the same way - to get photos to the main library on my Mac. I imagine the writing is on the wall, it’s time to find alternate methods.

Updating now. Seems like Apple did not intend to break it. That's good news. OK, all updated. Discovered that only new HEIF photos go up. Did not go back to the time it stopped/broke, which was back mid April for me. BUT, very happy it now works as before. 12 MP HEIF photos get sent up to my photo stream as 3MP JPGs.

Show up on my iPad and my MacMini. Delete the pics from the phone camera roll, and they get deleted out of PS.

Yea team.....