The “end of an era” of the popular MyStream (My Photo Stream) service on iPhones may also prove to be the definitive end of an era for some of the photos of some users of these mobile phones, if they have not been careful Apple’s warnings.

Apple will permanently delete the My Photo Stream photo album from iPhone next month, but luckily there’s an easy way to save the content so it’s not lost forever.

The tech giant has announced it’s discontinuing the service, an album that automatically saves your snaps the last 30 days.

As part of the shutdown, My Photo Stream stopped allowing photo uploads on June 26. If you’re an iPhone user, you need to go to My Photo Stream – which is accessible through the Photos app – and save the contents to your device.

My Photo Stream has been offering free storage for over a decade, and is a cloud storage alternative iCloud Photos.

“My Photo Stream is ending on July 26, 2023. Learn more about this transition and how to use iCloud Photos to keep your photos up-to-date across all your devices” Apple explains on its online support page.

My Photo Stream has always been free, so it allowed users to store their latest photos in the cloud safely and at no cost (albeit with a 30-day grace period, after which they disappeared on the 31st).

The process as explained by Apple:

Save current photos to My Photo Stream
If your photos currently in My Photo Stream aren’t already in your library, you can save them to your device.

On iPhone, iPad or iPod touch

  1. Open Photos and tap Albums.
  2. Touch My Photo Stream > Select.
  3. Tap the photos you want to save, then tap the Share button > Save Image.

On a Mac

  1. Open the Photos app, then open the My Photo Stream album.
  2. Select any photos you want to save that aren’t already in your photo library.
  3. Drag photos from the My Photo Stream album to your Library.