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All of a sudden the almost 1000 photos in my Photo Stream went down to exactly 100. I have no idea where they went, and did not change any settings. Thought that maybe the storage limits got changed, but that's not the case. At this point the staream seem to back up select photos, past 100, but I'd like to know where the rest of them disappeared to. Thanks.
iPhone 4S, iOS 7.0.3
Hello Hueyrab
That all depends on how long they have been on your Photo Stream. Your Photo Stream will only hold your photos for 30 days; you would need to back them up with either creating a Shared Photo Stream or copying them to your computer.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4486
Does using My Photo Stream substitute for using iCloud Backup or iTunes to back up the photos in my Camera Roll ?
No. Photos in My Photo Stream are saved on the iCloud server for 30 days. To save or back up these photos, you must copy them from My Photo Stream to your Camera Roll on your iOS device. You can then back up your Camera Roll using iCloud or iTunes.
Regards,
-Norm G.
I Appreciate you explaining it so well. I've had all the apple products and honestly I can't believe I never fully understood how photo stream works. I always back my camera roll up to my pc but it didn't dawn on me as to why they disappeared over night on my daughters phone. I already had some backup software and was able to go in and extract information that was missing.
Thanks again.
All of this is BS! I had to replace my busted iphone, with help from the genius bar. They confirmed all was backed up, copied "all" my stuff to the replacement iphone, then wiped the old broken iphone. Discovered a day later that photos were not backed up, and permanently lost. Some genius!!
My photos were saved to my camera roll and were backed up to iCloud (which I pay for extra storage). I had actually looked at some of the lost photos in my iCloud account, online, on my laptop and then several hours later I went back to show the photos to someone else and they were gone. None of the answers that have been provided have answered how this could happen. The photos are no longer on my phone, in my iPhotos or in my iCloud. The whole point of paying for the extra storage in the cloud is to NOT lose my photos...guess that backfired.
Actually, the whole point of paying for extra storage is to use iCloud Photo Library, which is a sharing service, not an archival service.
If you are using iCloud Photo Library, you won't have a Camera Roll anymore. You would see "All Photos" instead.
So, lets back up and see if we can determine what the issue is.
When you say they were saved to your Camera Roll, when do you mean that this occurred? Is iCloud Photo Library turned on in Settings>Photos & Camera?
If iCloud Photo Library is turned on on the iPhone, did you at any point delete photos from the device?
What kind of laptop do you have? Where are you looking for those photos on the laptop?
Once the questions above are answered, then we can see if something can be done to retrieve your photos.
Cheers,
GB
Ok, let me see if I can communicate this all well. Yes, I now only see "all photos" and I honestly cannot recall when that changed.
Yes, iCloud Photo Library is turned on.
No, I did not delete the photos from my phone, but I did import them into my iPhotos at one point when I connected my phone to my Macbook, which answers your next question. My Macbook is the newest one and was just purchased in August.
When I was viewing the photos, I was viewing them in iCloud via Safari (the Apple website?) because I could not retrieve them from my iPhone or iPhotos.
Does all that make sense?
OK, can you specify what Mac you are using and what OS X you are running on the Mac?
Are you certain you imported the photos into iPhoto and not into Photos on the Mac? When you imported them to the app, did you see them there before now? If you are running OS X Yosemite or higher, then you have Photos and you also may still have iPhoto. So, if you have a new Mac, then it is probably running Yosemite or higher, and you should check the Photos app to make sure your photos on your Mac aren't showing up there. Photos is the icon with the multi-colored flower in a white circle.
Can you remember when you turned on iCloud Photo Library?
With iCloud Photo Library, all photos will upload to iCloud from any device or computer that is signed into iCloud with the same Apple ID and with iCloud Photo Library turned on. The upload can take several days to complete. Once iCloud Photo Library is turned on, any changes you make to photos on any of those devices or computers will be immediately updated to all of the others - this includes editing, adding, and deleting.
So, we need to establish the order of events as they occurred if possible.
Cheers,
GB
iCloud photos disappeared
