Apple Is Holding My Pictures Hostage Until I Accept Their New Terms of Service
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Just went through this yesterday. And often my main contact at a company is not the same as the person who can sign the agreement so there is yet another person I need to reach out to.
But heck, even at my company, I don’t control signing that agreement and so I have to bug someone higher up to do it. It’s such a PITA. I curse Apple every time my CI fails due to this.
The only thing I hate more is enterprise signing, literally landlines everywhere.
It actually surprise me how many Linux users that do care about their security & privacy just seem to apply poor judgement when it's about their mobile devices, sure, you might not get the LATEST phone but who cares? Why are people trading their values and expertise the moment they touch the latest Samsung or iPhone? What's so special about them anyway, there is literally alternatives (or just vibe code it) for most softwares on it.
I think it's one of the last remnants of "don't be evil" at Google -- the Pixel devices are quite friendly toward alternative installs, much more so than most manufacturers.
And, now that Motorola and Graphene OS have announced a partnership, future Motorola devices may be a good option as well.
It is unfortunate that Rapsberry Pi 5 got that expensive because I wanted a Keyboard 500+ just for running some Foss Android Distribution (not a phone replacement)
And you often miss out on (for some) essential features like WiFi calling
This is possible to override, of course. But it's not the default, so only the most tech-savvy users make use of the settings that keep your videos and photos local.
All in service of getting you to pay for iCloud storage when your phone starts to contain more data than they offer for free (5GB, which is laughable in 2026).
One also has to wonder if people actually regularly go through thousands of pictures...
For photos you need to upgrade.
I am sorry to tell you but the perfect timing was 8 - 12 months ago before the price of components shot up.
Many a celeb has been bitten by this one, Apple is 100% evil for doing it. I guess they just do it for lulz? Odd for one of the richest companies on earth
Maybe the issue is that it gets enabled by default if you haven’t had an account before?
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I was recently gifted a MacPro6,1 (2013-2016 RIP) [<$], perhaps among Apple's most elegant [computer?] product designs, ever.
It has replaced three other machines, and its "obsolete" 6-core Xeon is more than capable of being a fantastic local fileserver (and upgradable!). It's still able to run a ©20twenty-something operating system (2021? iirc), so even the latest macOS releases can screencast into and fileserve from it. It's native and not cobbled-together mess [0].
[<$] I have no official connection with them, but have been a very happy customer of <http://eshop.macsales.com> (et.al.) for decades – they sell this model for a few hundred dollars, with a short-term warranty (to determine stability) – don't get the D700s, they reputation is flakeyAF – if I hadn't been gifted this phenomenal & "obsolete" machine, I would now purchase one
[0] e.g. native USB3 support (via Thunderbolt2/3 adapter); no OCLP hackintoshing (neat_but_cobbled.gif)
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Of course having spinning HDDs isn't possible inside of this "trashcan" MacPro, but adding an external 4-bay Terramaster (hotswappable) has given me the 24TB fileserver I've always dreamed of... which allowed me to finally retire my MacPro5,1 [•] entirely from the macintosh ecosystem (now a Linux cryptominer/node, only when heating is otherwise on).
[•] The MacPro6,1 with an external hard disk is infinitely more usable than a MacPro5,1 – doesn't require any OCLP and is very very stable/interactive. In my usagecase, I have used four networked spinning platters to replace eight (and removed two other machines entirely from network). This is approximately a 250W continuous load removed from a residential environment, equivalent to your refrigerator running (all the time)
Apple, Google, and Microsoft act like ransomware gangs when it comes to photos. I hope we see the day where all 3 get split into a thousand different companies.
Edit: I just checked and my photos stopped syncing 14 days ago. Thanks for the garbage Apple!!
If I don’t do that, then it just won’t upload them.
Not that I agree with the practice of rug-pulling, but "hostage" is a strong term.
We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48074043 and marked it off topic.
> I never paid for Apple’s iCloud service so I am a little surprised that not only were my pictures uploaded, the local copy was deleted.
no worries, apple can do what microsoft did.
> I never paid for Apple’s iCloud service so I am a little surprised that not only were my pictures uploaded...
Yes?
Apple’s iCloud service provides 5GB for free?
That seems a lot like: "You're going to be using our service, whether you like it or not!"
Pretty uncool?
Got it.
Let's hope that your phone won't be part of the 70 million smartphones that get lost each year and your photos aren't backed up.
How does a normal person get the same service as iCloud for their personal device while syncing _all_ their photos, app data to it?
non-icloud reminds me of the jackling house
> In 1984 Steve Jobs purchased the Jackling House and estate, and resided there for a decade. After that, he leased it out for several years until 2000 when he stopped maintaining the house, allowing exposure to the weather to degrade it.
You can do some of it with image capture/files to read raw DCIM stuff, carddav/caldav, but that stuff may or may not work.
They literally deleted his personal photo's from his phone without his consent. They didn't even ask.
If he'd actually signed up for it, then sure, in that case they're offering a desired service. That's clearly not the situation though.
I am just saying what a normal person would do not a HN or tech user would do.
> They literally deleted his personal photo's from his phone without his consent. They didn't even ask. If he'd actually signed up for it, then sure, in that case they're offering a desired service. That's clearly not the situation though.
Except it is not 'deleted', it is on iCloud, it is your choice for this to be temporary or permanent.
Again, every Apple account has 5GB of iCloud for free, it has always been like this and even the author knows it.
The real problem is that the author accepted Apple's terms without even knowing or reading the terms like most people do. By using the iPhone he agrees to their ToS.
I know this because the terms of service shows up you setup the iPhone and when you update the iPhone OS.
But i'm sure you and him have read every line in most Terms of Service right?
It's literally the opposite of common sense. :(
Common sense is when your users use their device to take a photo, and have not explicitly signed up for your extra (off device) "backups", then you do not ___delete their files___ from their actual storage location.
It is common sense for normal people when using these devices.
Even the author doesn't want to move.
> Will this change my behavior in any way? I already don’t buy most apple products, precisely for the “walled garden” reason. I have this iPad and that’s it. I’ll try to not buy more.
So here is what is going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month and next year:
Nothing.
The author will continue to use the iPad and move on with his life.
> Common sense is when your users use their device to take a photo, and have not explicitly signed up for your extra (off device) "backups", then you do not ___delete their files___ from their actual storage location.
That is called a digital camera.
Again, I think you're very wrong.
It seems to be how you think, but not many others.
And I'm not even avoiding it because of data hostage fears, just because I don't understand it and thus I can't trust it.
If you don't like this, you can backup your device and move to Android or use a camera.
Does it say we will delete files from your device and move them to our “cloud storage” without involving by your choice or asking for confirmation” anywhere when you setup your iPhone?
Stop with the corporate worship please.
Yes.
> Does it say we will delete files from your device and move them to our “cloud storage” without involving by your choice or asking for confirmation” anywhere when you setup your iPhone?
You can find the answers in their terms of service, assuming you've read them all.
It is not corporate worship, it is their service that you're agreeing to.
I don't make the rules here.
The solution is to accept the terms, and move on.
If you don't like Apple, backup your photos and move to Android.
Come on.
So, you enable an option to not eat up all your storage and have the originals stored in iCloud, iCloud gets a new TOS, and you complain your originals are 'held hostage'? riiiiiight. I mean, it's doing what you told it to do.
People don’t do that because the terms basically say “you can use the service if you act normal. In the context of providing the service we may do any number of things a normal person would expect us to do.”
Reading them isn’t a good use of tim because most people using the service were going to act normal. But we collectively forced them to make the terms this long by suing companies when the terms weren’t clear and by deciding that the letter of the law matters more than what’s sensible. Accepting long terms of service is just the consequence of our collective decisions.