Here is a look at the Advantages & Disadvantages of Photo Stream and the steps to Enable Photo Stream on iPhone or iPad.
Enable Photo Stream on iPhone and iPad
The Photo Stream feature on iPhone allows you to upload up to 1,000 photos to your Photo Stream on iCloud and view them on all your iCloud connected devices.
Once Photo Stream is enabled on iPhone, the Photos that you shoot on your device will be uploaded Automatically to My Photo Stream on iCloud.
This happens, whenever your device is connected to WiFi and you are not using the Camera App.
It is worth noting that uploading Photos to Photo Stream does not count against storage space in your iCloud Account.
However, you also need be aware that Photos uploaded to Photo Stream will only remain accessible for a period of 30 days, after which they get automatically deleted.
Advantages of Photo Stream
As already mentioned above, the main advantage of Photo Stream is that Photos stored on My Photo Stream do not count towards your iCloud Storage Limit.
This practically allows you to shoot and store up to 1,000 New Photos on iCloud and transfer them to your computer within 30 days.
Another feature of Photo Stream is its default tendency to automatically sync photos across all your devices.
This means that a Photo taken on iPhone can be accessed on your iPad, Mac and Windows computer.
1. Steps to Enable Photo Stream on iPhone and iPad
All that is required to Enable Photo Stream on iPhone is to toggle ON the option to Upload Photos to My Photo Stream.
1. Open Settings on your iPhone > scroll down and tap on Photos.
2. On the Photos screen, move the toggle next to Upload to My Photo Stream to ON position.
Now, any Photo that you take on iPhone will be automatically uploaded to My Photo Stream and can be accessed from any of your iCloud connected devices.
Disadvantages of Photo Stream
By default, Photo Stream downloads an optimized or compressed version of Photos from all iCloud enabled devices to iPhone.
This practically results in Photos from other devices flooding the Photos App on your iPhone.
Although, the downloaded Photos are optimized for storage, having a copy of Photos from other devices on iPhone can lead to lack of storage space on your device.
2. Disable Photo Stream on iPhone or iPad
If your iPhone has a low storage capacity, you may want to disable Photo Stream on your device to prevent your device from being flooded with Photos from other devices.
1. Go to Settings > Photos > disable Photo Stream by moving the toggle next to Upload to My Photo Stream to OFF position.
2. On the Confirmation pop-up, tap on Delete to confirm.
Turning OFF Photo Stream will remove Photo Stream Photos from your device, but the Photos will still be available in the original devices.
For example, Photo Stream Photos from iPad or Mac will still be available on those devices, even after they have been removed from your iPhone.