How to Use My Photo Stream on Your iPhone and iPad

Apple’s My Photo Stream may predate iCloud Photo Library, but it continues to be available and provides a lot of the value you can get from iCloud Photo Library without costing a penny. My Photo Stream stores your last 30 days of photos (up to a total of 1,000 images) in the cloud. The downside is that there’s no support for video; this is a photo-only affair.

Enabling My Photo Stream

Activating My Photo Stream requires just a few taps. To start, open the Settings app and tap the “Photos” option.

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Next, switch on the “My Photo Stream” toggle.

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My Photo Stream is now activated. You may notice your device getting warm and using up a bit more battery while it uploads your photos. That’s perfectly normal and will end once the initial upload is complete.

Accessing Photos Stored in My Photo Stream

Once My Photo Stream is activated, viewing your photos is easy. To get started, open the Photos app and tap the “Albums” button at the bottom of the screen.

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You’ll find the last 30-days’ worth of photos, up to 1,000, right here.

It’s important to note that if you have iCloud Photo Library enabled, all new photos will appear in the All Photos area within the Photos app. In this scenario, you will not see an album called “My Photo Streams.” In fact, with iCloud Photo Library enabled, My Photo Streams is no longer required at all.