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Facebook will delete your synced photos unless you download its Moments app

Facebook users are receiving an email from the social network asking them to download another of the company's apps if they wish to continue using a service that syncs their photos.

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Mike Sorrentino is a Senior Editor for Mobile, covering phones, texting apps and smartwatches -- obsessing about how we can make the most of them. Mike also keeps an eye out on the movie and toy industry, and outside of work enjoys biking and pizza making.
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The Facebook Moments app will reportedly be required for those hoping to have the social network privately upload photos from their smartphone.

You'll need to spend a few Moments downloading another Facebook app if you want to keep all your photos inside the social network's world.

Facebook users with a synced photo album are receiving an email from the social network that says they'll have to install and log in to the company's Moments app by July 7, or else have all their photos inside that album deleted.

The app, released last year, allows for private uploads of photos for sharing with friends without actually putting them onto the social network. Before Moments, Facebook put into its main app a similar feature called Photo Sync, back in 2012, which, when turned on, automatically uploaded photos from a smartphone into a private "Synced from phone" album. That album will be going away after July 7, making Moments the way Facebook wants its users to automatically upload photos privately.

Rather not deal with Moments? There's another option for rescuing your synched photos, says Facebook.

If you "don't want to download Moments, [you] will also be able to download a zip file of your synced photos from your Facebook profile on your computer before July 7th," the company said in an emailed statement.

Techcrunch reported the July deadline earlier.