The old adage, "the best camera is the one you have with you," applies to our ever-present smartphones. However, Apple has warned that some iPhone photos could be removed permanently on July 26th if not backed up properly.

Your digital photo archives are always at hand for showcasing or browsing. But due to certain changes announced by Apple, lack of preparation might lead to loss of your iPhone photos in a few weeks.

Apple plans to end its My Photo Stream feature on July 26th. Introduced in 2011 as a free image cloud storage feature for Apple devices, it enabled easy access across devices by storing up to 1000 images for 30 days. Despite there being time left before this change takes effect, Apple started phasing out this service from June 26th and ceased uploading new images. Therefore anyone who hasn't stored their images elsewhere after deleting them from their iPhone could face issues.

Photos uploaded before June 26 will remain in iCloud for thirty days from upload date and accessible where My Photo Stream is enabled; however, no pictures will survive beyond July 26 when the service ends.

Nevertheless, these adjustments won't affect any photos saved on your phone or other device even if they're not backed up elsewhere.

“The photos in My Photo Stream are already stored on at least one of your devices, so as long as you have the device with your originals, you won’t lose any photos as part of this process,” Apple explains in its service notice. “If a photo you want isn’t already in your library on a particular iPhone, iPad, or Mac, make sure that you save it to your library on that device.”

To secure and save endangered photos within your stream open the Photos app and follow through: tap 'Albums' -> 'My Photo Stream' -> 'Select'. Choose which pictures need saving then press ‘Share’ followed by 'Save Image'.

Get full access to A+ Report at aplusreport.substack.com/subscribe