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How can I view older photos that are stored in iCloud on my mac?

I am trying to view photos I took in 2007 that are stored in iCloud and am unable to access them from my Mac Air 2011. How do I view photos in iCloud?

MacBook Air, iOS 11.2.6

Posted on Mar 11, 2018 1:31 PM

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9 replies

Mar 12, 2018 7:38 AM in response to Plumhayes

Photos you synced with MobileMe are no longer available, because Apple does no longer support the iDisk. It has been discontinued in June 30, 2012, after iCloud came out.

  • If you used My Photo Stream, the photos will be gone as well. My Photo Stream is just a temporary buffer, that is keeping the new photos for 30 days, before they will be purged.
  • If you stored the older photos in iCloud Photo Library after it has been released in 2015, you will be seeing all photos that are currently stored in iCloud, when you sign into iCloud Photo Library. Have you perhaps been using a different AppleID, when you first uploaded the photos to iCloud?

Mar 11, 2018 1:46 PM in response to Plumhayes

If you Photos are in iCloud Photo Library, open a web browser and go to the web page www.icloud.com


Sign in with your iCloud AppleID and launch the Photos.app on this page. Now you can browse the iCloud Photo Library. Are your Photos there?



If the operating system on your MacBook Air is MacOS 10.10.3 Yosemite or a newer system, you should all be able to use the Photos.app an your Mac, to see the iCloud Photos, if you enable iCloud Photo Library in The Photo > Preferences > General.

Mar 11, 2018 1:47 PM in response to Plumhayes

What version of the OS do you have?


And photos are not "stored" in iCloud, it is a syncing service and when you use iCloud Photo Library everyone of your photos is on every connected device (either the full resolution photo or an optimized photo depending on your personal settings)


You can view photos on iCloud by using Safari and logging into iCLoud.com with your Apple ID and clicking on Photos


LN

Mar 11, 2018 1:54 PM in response to Plumhayes

I am using a different computer now but I had saved everything to iCloud and now I can find them.

Which iCloud service did you use at that time?

In 2007 there was no iCloud, only Mobile Me.


If you used iCloud to save your photos (after iCloud had replaced Mobile Me), we need to know the iCloud service you used - My Photo Stream, iCloud Drive, Shared albums, iCloud Photo Library. iCloud Photo Library is not an archival storage. It syncs and updates across all devices. If you deleted photos from your iCloud Photo Library on one device, they will be gone everywhere.

How can I view older photos that are stored in iCloud on my mac?

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