How to set up and start using Photo Stream on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and PC

June 18, 2014

Everything you need to know about setting up and using Apple's iCloud picture backup and distribution service, Photo Stream

Photo Stream is the part of iCloud that seamlessly syncs your photos any time you're connected to a wifi network. Take a picture (or screen shot) on your iPhone or iPad and Photo Stream will store a copy of that picture on Apple's servers and push copies down to all your other iPhones, iPads, and Macs. Photo Stream will store up to 1000 photos, or 30 days of photos at at time. If you aren't yet familiar with Photo Stream, we can walk you through everything you need to get started.

How to enable Photo Stream on iPhone and iPad

Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
Tap on iCloud.
Tap on Photos.
Under the Photos section, make sure My Photo Stream is turned On.
You can also enable Photo Sharing at the bottom so you can create photo streams to share with others and so they can share them with you.

How to access Photo Stream on iPhone and iPad

Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.
Tap on Albums in the bottom navigation.
Tap on My Photo Stream. It should be located right underneath the Camera Roll.

How to enable Photo Stream on Mac

Launch iPhoto on your Mac.
In the top menu, click on iPhoto and then Preferences.
Click on iCloud in the top navigation bar.
Check the box for My Photo Stream.
Just like on iPhone and iPad, you can also enable photo stream sharing by checking the box for Photo Sharing too.

How to enable Photo Stream on Windows

If you've got a Windows PC, you can enable Photo Stream through the iCloud control panel.

Launch iCloud Control Panel. You can install it from the Apple website if you haven't already - Install now
Log in to the iCloud Control Panel if you aren't already.
Check the box next to Photos to enable Photo Stream.
Click Options next to Photos to customize Photo Stream settings further. This step is optional.

How to delete photos from Photo Stream on iPhone and iPad

Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.
Tap on the Albums tab in the bottom navigation.
Tap on My Photo Stream.
Find the photo you'd like to delete and select it. Alternatively, you can tap Edit and select multiple photos to delete if you'd like.
Tap on the Trash Can in the lower right hand corner.
Confirm you'd like to delete the photos by selecting the Delete option on the next screen.

How to delete photos from Photo Stream on Mac

Launch iPhoto on your Mac.
Click on iCloud in the left hand navigation pane.
Click on the Photo Stream you'd like to delete a photo from. Keep in mind if it's in a shared Photo Stream, you can't delete photos that aren't yours if you didn't create that stream.
Right click or control click on the photo you'd like to delete. Optionally you can select multiple photos at once to delete.
Click on Delete from My Photo Stream.