Until June 26, 2023, My Photo Stream uploads your most recent photos (except Live Photos) so that you can view and import them to all of your devices. Photos are stored in My Photo Stream for 30 days. In contrast, iCloud Photos uploads all of your photos and videos to iCloud and keeps them up to date across your devices.
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. 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.
Moving forward, iCloud Photos is the best way to keep the photos and videos you take up to date across all your devices and safely stored in iCloud.
How to save photos currently in 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 your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch:
1. Open Photos and tap Albums.
2. Tap My Photo Stream > Select.
3. Tap the photos that you want to save, then tap the Share button > Save Image.
On your Mac:
1. Open the Photos app, then open the My Photo Stream album.
2. Select any photos you want to save that aren’t currently in your photo library.
3. Drag them from the My Photo Stream album to your Library.
How to set up iCloud Photos:
You can turn on iCloud Photos on any iPhone with iOS 8.3 or later, iPad with iPadOS 8.3 or later, or Mac with OS X Yosemite or later. After that, you can view your photos and videos in the Photos app on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, iCloud.com, and even sync them to a Windows PC using iCloud for Windows.