Alternatives to My Photo Stream?

[Ethan1967]

Today, Apple announced that My Photo Stream will be shutting down in July, 2023. Apple recommends purchasing additional storage on iCloud Photos. Does anyone have recommendations for alternatives to My Photo Stream that do not involve iCloud Photos.

 

[gilby101]

I use PhotoSync to upload photos from iPhone to Mac. Whether that suits you, depends on your photo workflow. And you will need a one off purchase if you decide it to use it beyond a test.

Another way to avoid cloud storage cost is to use a p2p synchronisation tool - e.g. ResilioSync. You may need to get the paid upgrade.

And you can use Finder or Image Capture to take photos manually from iPhone to Mac. iMazing would be better, but costs.

 

[Ethan1967]

Thank you. On Reddit, I posted the same question and two people recommended PhotoSync. It looks like the Premium version will work for me. Although I may not be able to do it entirely automatically, it will offer more flexibility.

 

[kkclstuff]

Im trying/need help creating a Shortcut to 'auto-sync' (like the above paid apps). Anyone trying this? the best Ive come up with so far is a Shortcut to share via Airdrop... But thats the same as manually doing it in the Photo app (no benefit).

EDIT:

After spending some time trying to 'think through' this...

the best I can come up with is using the "share album" folder. I have iCloud photo sharing off on all devices. All your devices will need to be on same ID

1. create a shared folder (no need to add any contacts)
2. once you create an empty Shared Album it should appear (shortly) across all your  devices.
3. share selected photos to the NEW Shared Album. (They will appear across all your  devices)
4. on main device (for me—its my Mac), "import" photo(s) from the Shared Album to "Library" in Photo.app
5. If needed; you can now delete photo(s) from shared folder—Photo(s) will be deleted from ALL Shared Album devices.

**I'd like to find a way to Automate/Shortcuts steps 3-5, so once a photo is "shared" via a Shortcut, it will automatically move to main device/import to Library/then delete itself from Shared Album. I hope it will emulate a "My Photo Share experience".