Comment by realityfactchex

It is no fun to have old iCloud photos deleted unexpectedly. Apple has provided plenty of footguns, even if they really are user errors. For examples: (1) during device restores and (2) premium subscription management fumbles.

Product idea: Apple should offer a paid service to restore the "old backups" of photos that are no longer accessible via iCloud UI/API, which were soft-removed for missing the subscription quota or whatever, if Apple happens to have that data tucked away in cold storage somewhere.

Case in point, I had some c. 2016 era photos in iMessages that I thought I handled right to not lose from iCloud, but they are apparently nowhere to be found in iCloud API based on recent checks. More than mildly irritating.

I should have used an iCloud photos backup tool like this much sooner.

Print what you want to keep onto archival paper with archival dyes. Everything else will atrophy.