How to use Shared Albums in Photos on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Shared Albums let you share photos and videos with just the people you choose — and they can add their own photos, videos, and comments.

Before you begin

Use Shared Albums on your iPhone or iPad

Use Shared Albums on your Mac

File types that you can use in Shared Albums

Shared Album storage limits

Before you begin

  1. Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to the latest iOS or iPadOS, your Mac to the latest macOS, and your Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD to the latest tvOS. If you have a Windows PC, update to Windows 10 or later and download iCloud for Windows.

  2. Set up iCloud on all of your devices.

  3. Make sure that you’re signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on all of your devices that you want to use with Shared Albums.

Turn on Shared Albums

  • On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos, then turn on Shared Albums.

  • On your Mac, open the Photos app. From the menu bar at the top of the screen, choose Photos > Settings. In macOS Monterey or earlier, choose Photos > Preferences. Click the iCloud tab, then select Shared Albums.

  • On your Apple TV, go to Settings > Users and Accounts > iCloud and turn on Shared Albums.

  • On your Windows PC, open iCloud for Windows and select Photos. Click the Options button to verify that Shared Albums is on, then click Apply. Learn more about sharing albums with iCloud for Windows.

If you're using earlier versions of iOS, iCloud for Windows, iPhoto, or Aperture, you can still create and see Shared Albums. In earlier versions of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and iCloud for Windows, Shared Albums was called iCloud Photo Sharing.

Use Shared Albums on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch

Create a new shared album

  1. Go to the Albums tab and tap the Add buttonAdd button .

  2. Tap New Shared AlbumShared Album .

  3. Give the shared album a name, then tap Next.

  4. Choose people to invite from your contacts, or type an email address or iMessage phone number.

  5. Tap Create.

Delete a shared album

  1. Open the shared album.

  2. Tap the People buttonPeople button .

  3. Tap Delete Shared Album.

If you're looking at your list of shared albums, you can also tap Edit, then tap the Delete buttonDelete button to delete a shared album.

When you delete a shared album, it's automatically removed from all of your devices and the devices of your subscribers. If you turned on Public Website, the shared album is removed from the web, too. Deleting a shared album permanently deletes all of its photos. Before continuing, make sure that you save any photos that you want to keep.

Invite more people

  1. In Albums, select a shared album that you created.

  2. Tap the People buttonPeople button .

  3. Tap Invite People.

  4. Enter the names of people that you want to share this album with.

  5. Tap Add.

To share an album with friends or family who don't use iCloud, open a shared album that you created, go to the People tab, and turn on Public Website. Your photos publish to a website that anyone can see in an up-to-date web browser.

Remove a subscriber

  1. Open the shared album.

  2. Tap the People buttonPeople button .

  3. Select the subscriber that you want to remove.

  4. Tap Remove Subscriber at the bottom of the screen.

As the creator of a shared album, you control who can access it. You can remove subscribers at any time.

Add photos and videos to a shared album

  1. In the Library tab or from within an album, tap Select and then select the photos and videos that you want to share.

  2. Tap the Share buttonShare button , then tap Add to Shared AlbumShared Album .

  3. Choose the album where you want to share your photos. Then tap Post.

If you have a shared album open, you can also tap the Add buttonAdd button to select photos and videos to add.

When you add new photos, the people that you share the album with are notified automatically. Make sure that Subscribers Can Post is turned on so that they can add photos and videos, too. Just tap the More buttonMore button then choose Shared Album DetailsAlbum Details .

Delete photos and videos from a shared album

  1. Open the shared album.

  2. Tap the photo or video.

  3. Tap the Trash buttonTrash button .

  4. Tap Delete Photo.

If you're the owner of a shared album, you can delete any photos, videos, or comments from anyone. Subscribers can delete anything that they personally added. Anything you delete is automatically deleted from the album on all your devices and the devices of subscribers.

Any photos that you saved or downloaded from a shared album to your Photos library stay in your library even if the shared album is deleted or the person who created it stops sharing it.

Save photos and videos from a shared album

When you share photos and videos with someone, they can save shared items to their own library.

  1. Tap the photo or video.

  2. Tap the Share buttonShare button .

  3. Tap Save Image or Save Video.

Use Shared Albums on your Mac

Create a new Shared Album

  1. In the sidebar, click the Add buttonAdd button next to Shared Albums.

  2. Type the email addresses of people you want to share the album with. Click the Add buttonAdd button to select contacts from iCloud.

  3. Click Create.

Delete a shared album

  1. Open the shared album.

  2. Click the People buttonPeople button in the toolbar.

  3. Click Delete Shared Album.

When you delete a shared album, it's automatically removed from all of your devices and the devices of your subscribers. If Public Website was enabled, the shared album is removed from the web too. Deleting a shared ablum permanently deletes all of its photos. Before continuing, make sure that you save any photos that you want to keep.

Invite more people

  1. Select a shared album that you created under Shared in the sidebar.

  2. Click the People buttonPeople button in the toolbar.

  3. In the Invite People field, click the Add buttonAdd button to open the Contacts panel, then choose people to invite from your contacts.

You can also share albums with friends and family who don't use iCloud. Just open a shared album that you created, click the People buttonPeople button in the toolbar, and turn on Public Website. Your photos publish to a website that anyone can see in an up-to-date web browser.

Remove a subscriber

  1. Open the shared album.

  2. Click the People buttonPeople button in the toolbar.

  3. Select the subscriber that you want to remove.

  4. Click the arrow next to their name, then Remove Subscriber.

As the creator of a shared album, you control who can access it. You can remove subscribers at any time.

Add photos and videos to a shared album

  1. Select the photos and videos that you want to share.

  2. Click the Share buttonShare button in the toolbar, then select Shared Albums.

  3. Choose the album where you want to share your photos.

If you have a shared album open, you can also click “Add photos and videos” to select photos and videos to add. You can also simply drag photos from your library directly into the shared album in the sidebar.

When you add new photos, the people that you share the album with are notified automatically. Open the shared album, click the People buttonPeople button in the toolbar, and make sure that Subscribers Can Post is turned on so that they can add photos and videos too.

Delete photos and videos from a shared album

  1. Open the shared album.

  2. Select the photo or video.

  3. Control-click, then click Delete from Shared Album. Click Delete.

If you have a shared album open, you can also select a photo and press the Delete key to delete it from the shared album.

If you're the owner of a shared album, you can delete any photos, videos, or comments from anyone. Subscribers can delete anything that they personally added. Anything you delete is automatically deleted from the album on all your devices and the devices of subscribers.

Any photos that you saved or downloaded from a shared album to your Photos library stay in your library even if the shared album is deleted or the person who created it stops sharing it.

Save photos and videos from a shared album

When you share photos and videos with someone, they can save the shared items to their own library.

  1. Select the photo and video that you want to save.

  2. Control-click, then click Import.

File types that you can use in Shared Albums

Shared Albums support these image formats:

  • HEIF

  • JPEG

  • RAW*

  • PNG

  • GIF

  • TIFF

Shared Albums also support special formats that you capture with your iPhone, like slo-mo, time-lapse, Live Photos, and Memory videos. When shared, photos are reduced to 2048 pixels on the long edge, except panoramic photos, which can be up to 5400 pixels wide. You can share GIFs that are 100MB or smaller.

Shared Albums support these video file types and formats:

  • HEVC

  • MP4

  • QuickTime

  • H.264

  • MPEG-4

Videos can be up to fifteen minutes in length and are delivered at up to 720p resolution.

* You can't upload RAW photos to Shared Albums on your Windows PC.

Shared Albums upload a copy of your data. Downloaded content may not contain the same information as the original.

Shared Album storage limits

A shared album can hold up to 5000 photos and videos. If you reach your Shared Album limit, you need to delete some photos or videos before adding new ones. The photos and videos you share (and the comments or likes associated with those photos) stay in iCloud until you or the contributor delete them manually, or until you delete the shared album completely.

The photos and videos in your Shared Albums are kept in iCloud, but they don't count against your iCloud storage limit.

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