Shared Albums offer a fantastic way to curate and share your precious photo and video memories with chosen individuals. This feature allows you to invite family and friends to view, contribute, and even comment on your albums, fostering a collaborative and engaging experience. Let’s explore how you can effectively utilize Shared Albums on your Apple devices.
Getting Started with Shared Albums
Before you can share a photo album, ensure Shared Albums is activated on your devices. If you are using older operating systems such as earlier iOS versions, iCloud for Windows, iPhoto, or Aperture, you can still access and manage Shared Albums. It’s worth noting that in older versions of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and iCloud for Windows, Shared Albums was previously known as iCloud Photo Sharing.
How to Share a Photo Album on Your iPhone or iPad
Creating a New Shared Album
- Launch the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Scroll down within the Photos interface to locate “Shared Albums”.
- Tap on “Shared Albums,” and then select “Create.”
- Assign a descriptive name to your new shared album.
- Select the photos and videos you wish to include in this album.
- Choose individuals to invite from your contacts, or manually enter email addresses or iMessage phone numbers.
- Tap “Done” to finalize the invitation process and then tap “Done” again to complete album creation.
Alt text: New Shared Album icon on iPhone Photos app, prompting users to create a collaborative photo collection.
For users on iOS 17 or earlier:
- Navigate to the “Albums” tab in the Photos app and tap the “Add” button, typically represented by a plus symbol.
- Select “New Shared Album”.
- Enter a name for your shared album and tap “Next”.
- Choose invitees from your contacts, or type in email addresses or phone numbers.
- Tap “Create” to finalize the shared album setup.
Deleting a Shared Album
- Open the specific shared album you wish to delete.
- Tap the “More” button, usually indicated by three dots. In iOS 17 or earlier, tap the “People” button.
- Select “Delete Album”.
Deleting a shared album is a permanent action. It immediately removes the album from your devices and all subscribers’ devices. If you have enabled the “Public Website” option, the album will also be removed from the web. Critically, deleting a shared album permanently erases all photos within it. Therefore, ensure you have saved any photos you wish to keep before proceeding.
Inviting More People to a Shared Album
- Choose a shared album you have created.
- Tap the “More” button.
- Tap “Shared Album Details”.
- Select “Invite,” and then enter the names of additional people you want to share the album with.
- Tap “Done” to send out the new invitations.
For iOS 17 or earlier users:
- In the “Albums” section, select a shared album you have created.
- Tap the “People” button.
- Tap “Invite People”.
- Enter the names of individuals you wish to invite.
- Tap “Add”.
To extend sharing beyond iCloud users, and make your album publicly accessible, open a shared album you created, tap “More”, then “Shared Album Details”. In iOS 17 or earlier, go to the “People” tab. Toggle “Public Website” to the “on” position. This publishes your photos to a website accessible to anyone with the link.
Removing a Subscriber from a Shared Album
- Open the shared album.
- Tap the “More” button, then “Shared Album Details”. In iOS 17 or earlier, tap the “People” button.
- Select the name of the subscriber you wish to remove.
- Tap “Remove Subscriber” at the bottom of the screen.
As the album creator, you retain full control over access and can remove subscribers at any point.
Adding Photos and Videos to a Shared Album
- From your Photo Library or any album, tap “Select” and choose the photos and videos for sharing.
- Tap the “Share” button, then “Add to Shared Album”.
- Choose the desired shared album and tap “Post”.
Alt text: iOS Share icon displayed, used to add selected photos and videos to a shared album from the Photos app.
Alternatively, if you have a shared album currently open, you can tap the “Add” button to directly select photos and videos to include.
To allow subscribers to contribute their own photos and videos, ensure “Subscribers Can Post” is enabled. Find this setting within “Shared Album Details” via the “More” button.
Deleting Photos and Videos from a Shared Album
- Open the shared album.
- Tap on the specific photo or video you want to delete.
- Tap the “Trash” button.
- Confirm by tapping “Delete Photo”.
As the shared album owner, you have the authority to delete any content, including photos, videos, and comments from any participant. Subscribers can only delete content they personally added. Deletion is synchronized across all devices of the album owner and subscribers.
Remember that any photos saved or downloaded from a shared album to an individual’s personal Photos library will remain even if the shared album is deleted or sharing is discontinued.
Saving Photos and Videos from a Shared Album
When someone shares photos and videos with you via a shared album, you can easily save these items to your own library.
- Tap on the photo or video.
- Tap the “Share” button.
- Choose “Save Image” or “Save Video”.
How to Share a Photo Album on Your Mac
Creating a New Shared Album on Mac
- In the Photos app sidebar, click the “Add” button located next to “Shared Albums”.
- Enter a name for the Shared Album and input email addresses of people you want to invite. Use the “Add” button to select contacts directly from iCloud.
- Click “Create” to finalize the album.
Deleting a Shared Album on Mac
- Open the shared album.
- Click the “People” button in the toolbar.
- Select “Delete Shared Album”.
Similar to deleting on iOS, deleting a shared album on Mac is permanent and removes it and all contained photos from all devices and the web if “Public Website” was enabled.
Inviting More People on Mac
- Select a shared album you created under “Shared” in the sidebar.
- Click the “People” button in the toolbar.
- In the “Invite People” field, click the “Add” button to access your Contacts and choose invitees.
You can also enable “Public Website” in the “People” settings to share your album with non-iCloud users via a web link.
Alt text: People icon in the toolbar of Mac Photos app, used to manage shared album subscribers and settings.
Removing a Subscriber on Mac
- Open the shared album.
- Click the “People” button in the toolbar.
- Select the subscriber to remove.
- Click the arrow next to their name, then “Remove Subscriber”.
Adding Photos and Videos on Mac
- Select photos and videos you want to share.
- Click the “Share” button in the toolbar, then “Shared Albums”.
- Choose the album to share to.
Alternatively, drag photos directly from your library into the shared album in the sidebar. To allow subscriber contributions, ensure “Subscribers Can Post” is enabled in the “People” settings.
Deleting Photos and Videos on Mac
- Open the shared album.
- Select a photo or video.
- Control-click, then “Delete from Shared Album”. Confirm with “Delete”.
You can also select a photo and press the Delete key to remove it from the shared album.
Saving Photos and Videos on Mac
- Select the photo and video to save.
- Control-click, then “Import”.
Supported File Types in Shared Albums
Shared Albums are versatile, supporting a range of image formats: HEIF, JPEG, RAW, PNG, GIF, and TIFF. Special formats like slo-mo, time-lapse, Live Photos, and Memory videos captured on iPhone are also compatible. Shared photos are resized to 2048 pixels on the long edge, except panoramas (up to 5400 pixels wide). GIFs up to 100MB are supported.
Video file types and formats supported include: HEVC, MP4, QuickTime, H.264, and MPEG-4. Videos can be up to fifteen minutes long and are delivered at up to 720p resolution. Note that RAW photos cannot be uploaded to Shared Albums from Windows PCs.
Shared Album Storage and Limits
A single shared album can accommodate up to 5000 photos and videos. If you reach this limit, deleting existing content is necessary before adding more. Shared content and associated comments/likes are stored in iCloud until manually deleted or the entire album is removed.
Crucially, photos and videos within Shared Albums do not count against your personal iCloud storage quota, making it an efficient way to share without impacting your storage limits.
Shared Albums provide a seamless and user-friendly method to share your visual stories with chosen individuals, ensuring your memories are enjoyed and potentially contributed to by those you care about, across all your Apple devices.
