Apple's my Photo Stream service shuts down today and has been running for 12 years.

CTOnews.com, July 26 (Xinhua)-- Apple's my Photo streaming (My Photo Stream) service is officially closed today, and users need to switch to the iCloud photo service.

The "my Photo Stream" service, launched in 2011 by Steve Jobs as part of iCloud, automatically uploads photos and videos from one device to another without having to synchronize manually. This feature does not take up free 5GB iCloud storage space, but can only store 1000 files, and does not support full resolution synchronization.

CTOnews.com noted that Apple later launched iCloud Photo Library (now known as iCloud Photos) as a full-featured photo and video synchronization service. ICloud Photos needs to pay to subscribe to iCloud to use more storage space than free 5GB iCloud.

Apple said that from June 26, new photos will stop uploading to my Photo Stream from the device, and photos uploaded to the service before that date will be kept in iCloud for 30 days (from the upload date) and can be viewed on all devices with my Photo Stream enabled. After July 26, no photos will be retained in iCloud, and the service will be shut down.

Apple advises users to use iCloud Photos and provides instructions on how to save photos from "My Photo Stream":

On iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch

Open the photo and click on the album

Click my Photo Stream > Select

Click the photo you want to save, and then click the share button > Save the picture.

On Mac

Open the photo app, and then open my photo stream album

Select any photos you want to save but are not currently in your photo gallery

Drag them from my photo stream album to your library.