Am I losing access to my photos?

My Photo Stream shut down on July 26, 2023. Only the copies of photos stored in the My Photo Stream folder in iCloud will be deleted. Photos in your Photos libraries on your devices are safe. Learn more about this transition and how to keep your photos up to date across all your devices and safely stored in iCloud by reading this support article —> Information about the My Photo Stream shutdown - Apple Support

"My Photo Stream" dates from 2011 and is an old precursor to iCloud Photos which replaced it in 2015*. Many people have never used it or have since transitioned to iCloud Photos. If you don't see a My Photo Stream folder/album in iCloud Photos then you don't use it and don't have to do anything.

1) Go to: Settings

2) Choose Your Name / AppleID

3) Go to iCloud

4) Go to Photos

5) See if you have My Photo Stream. If you do, read the support article about what to do.

* History summary here —> Is Apple doing away with Photo Stream ? - Apple Community

If you are using the older iPhoto (instead of Photos), read this post about what you need to do instead. -->

Nothing called "My Photo Stream" exists, … - Apple Community

Denise55y Said:

"Am I losing access to my photos?: how Can i keep my photos"

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Finding icloud-Stored Photos:

Download all of iCloud, and then search through the download using the search bar in the top-right corner of the Finder window. You'd type this filetype (extension), and see what pops up. Use my user tip: Getting a Quick and Direct "iCloud Drive-to-External Hard Drive" Download - User Tip

If you use iCloud Photos on your iPhone and Mac, all of the photos that you take with the iPhone will show up on the Mac. And iCloud Photos isn't going away.

I find it very unfortunate that Apple is shutting down a system that worked very well and was very simple and convenient to use. I have used My Photo Stream since I started taking pics with my iPhone more than 10 years ago. It was great, took photos , and when arriving home all the pics were in the Mac's photo library. I will certainly miss this.