Now add in the fun of “I manage multiple Apple accounts for relatively non-technical entities who I have to poke periodically to sign the new terms”.
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.
Apple is committing extortion: 'accept these terms if you want your pictures back'. Due to their wealth, their obviously are above the law, but it'd be neat if they could somehow be held accountable. I'm not saying Luigi the CEO, but a class action suit or an organised protest may raise awareness.
To be fair, people can get phones and install a FOSS OS on it, that's pretty easy, it's sad that Apple does this, but I would expect the same thing on Windows or practically any commercial provider, nothing is really surprising here.
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.
Indeed, that's why it's important to vote with your wallet. Buy a phone from a manufacturer/program like Sony's Open Devices (<https://opendevices.sony.net/>) rather than, say, Apple.
Wow my timing for buying a NAS and strong-arming my family to upload all of their stuff there was perfect it seems! I literally bought it a couple months ago, exactly because I was expecting to get locked out of either my account or my photos at some point
This is the dark pattern of "upload everything and delete the local copies" laid bare.
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).
You can just read the TOS if it is that big of a deal to you. They aren’t that long. Probably twenty minutes of reading.
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.
I moved my photos to self hosting so I’m in control. I’ve seen enough stories to worry about losing them with Apple. Google and Amazon are using them however they please.
Apple has a fix for that. Background uploads from apps like Immich are tied to how often you open the app. So if you’re not constantly opening the app you rely on for sync, it’ll silently fail and you won’t notice. So 3rd party apps feel unreliable when compared to Apple’s solution.
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!!
accept all cookies. Yesss! download the app! I would love to hear about your new feature. Yes, I'd love to ask your new AI assistant <weird-unique-name> for help!
> 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.
Anyone dealing with notarization will also recognize the classic "Apple Is Holding My CI Pipeline Hostage Until I Accept Their New Terms of Service".
Now add in the fun of “I manage multiple Apple accounts for relatively non-technical entities who I have to poke periodically to sign the new terms”.
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.
Apple is committing extortion: 'accept these terms if you want your pictures back'. Due to their wealth, their obviously are above the law, but it'd be neat if they could somehow be held accountable. I'm not saying Luigi the CEO, but a class action suit or an organised protest may raise awareness.
To be fair, people can get phones and install a FOSS OS on it, that's pretty easy, it's sad that Apple does this, but I would expect the same thing on Windows or practically any commercial provider, nothing is really surprising here.
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.
You can't install FOSS on most phones.
Indeed, that's why it's important to vote with your wallet. Buy a phone from a manufacturer/program like Sony's Open Devices (<https://opendevices.sony.net/>) rather than, say, Apple.
Wow my timing for buying a NAS and strong-arming my family to upload all of their stuff there was perfect it seems! I literally bought it a couple months ago, exactly because I was expecting to get locked out of either my account or my photos at some point
> there was perfect it seems! I literally bought it a couple months ago
I am sorry to tell you but the perfect timing was 8 - 12 months ago before the price of components shot up.
As someone with 8 empty bays in a NAS I bought a month ago, I feel this in my bones.
This is the dark pattern of "upload everything and delete the local copies" laid bare.
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).
My phone came with 256 gigabyte of storage.
One also has to wonder if people actually regularly go through thousands of pictures...
You can just read the TOS if it is that big of a deal to you. They aren’t that long. Probably twenty minutes of reading.
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.
This is actually a good use of an LLM, get it to scan the legalese for you and look for anything unusual.
File a GDPR request to have a download provided to you? Seems pretty simple fwiw.
Not that I agree with the practice of rug-pulling, but "hostage" is a strong term.
I moved my photos to self hosting so I’m in control. I’ve seen enough stories to worry about losing them with Apple. Google and Amazon are using them however they please.
Apple has a fix for that. Background uploads from apps like Immich are tied to how often you open the app. So if you’re not constantly opening the app you rely on for sync, it’ll silently fail and you won’t notice. So 3rd party apps feel unreliable when compared to Apple’s solution.
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!!
So accept the terms?
accept all cookies. Yesss! download the app! I would love to hear about your new feature. Yes, I'd love to ask your new AI assistant <weird-unique-name> for help!
> 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.
Why are you being weird?
> 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?
> 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?
So it is uncool that Apple provides a service for backing up your photos even if they are providing 5GB for free.
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.
I strongly prefer not to have my personal data stored on other people’s computers.
What are you on about? Why is this trigging such weird hatred in you?
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.
You are weird
Does it constitute acceptance to do something because your data was held hostage?
Saying your 'data is being held hostage' is very overdramatic.
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.