Create or join an iCloud Shared Photo Library in Photos on Mac
iCloud Shared Photo Library lets you and up to five family members or friends collaborate on and enjoy a photo collection. When you create a Shared Library, you can choose to contribute photos and videos to the Shared Library during the setup process. Items you contribute move from your Personal Library to the Shared Library and all participants can view and edit them.
All items in the Shared Library, no matter who contributed them, count against the iCloud storage space of the Shared Library organiser. If the Shared Library content exceeds the organiser’s available storage space, the organiser can upgrade to iCloud+ or add additional storage to their existing iCloud+ subscription.
What you need to use iCloud Shared Photo Library
You can invite family members or friends who have a Mac with macOS Ventura or later, or an iPhone or iPad with a version of iOS 16 or iPadOS 16 that supports iCloud Shared Photo Library. Participants must have an Apple ID and have turned on iCloud Photos on their Mac or other devices. Children under 13 must be part of the organiser’s iCloud Family Sharing group.
Participants can access the Shared Library from their Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, PC and iCloud.com. To learn more about installation and software requirements for your devices, see the Apple Support articles for How to use iCloud Shared Photo Library and If you are missing photos after joining an iCloud Shared Photo Library.
Create a Shared Library
In the Photos app
on your Mac, choose Photos > Settings, click Shared Library, then click Get Started. Click Add Participants
, enter the name of a family member or friend that you want to invite to join the Shared Library, click the name to select it, then click Add.You can repeat this step to invite up to five participants.
Click Continue.
To move photos to the Shared Library, click an option:
All My Photos and Videos: Move all your existing photos and videos to the Shared Library. Click Next, then follow the onscreen instructions.
Note: Screenshots, screen recordings and hidden items are not moved to the Shared Library.
Choose by People or Date: Move photos and videos that include specific people or that were taken after a certain date. Click Next, click Add Other People
, select people, then click Add. Follow the onscreen instructions to set a starting date for photos you want included.Tip: When you select a specific person, you can choose to add them to your contacts. This lets Photos create sharing suggestions for future photos you take of that person. See Add photos and videos to your Shared Library.
Choose Manually: Select the photos and videos you want to move to the Shared Library.
If you don’t want to add items to the Shared Library at this time, click Move Photos Later, then click Next.
Click Preview Shared Library to preview the contents of the Shared Library or click Skip.
After previewing the Shared Library, click Continue.
Click Invite via Messages to send text invitations to participants or click Copy Link and paste the link into emails that you can send to participants.
Click Done.
Your new Shared Library appears in the Photos window. The Library pop-up menu appears in the toolbar and lets you choose between viewing the Shared Library, your Personal Library or both libraries at once.
Join a Shared Library
After you accept an invitation to join a Shared Library, you can view, edit, add, favourite, caption and delete items in the Shared Library.
In the invitation email or text message, click Shared Library Invitation, then follow the onscreen instructions.
When you accept the invitation, you can add your own photos to the Shared Library. To view items in the Shared Library, see View an iCloud Shared Photo Library.
Leave or delete a Shared Library
Participants can choose to leave a Shared Library at any time. If you’re the organiser of a Shared Library, you can delete it. When you delete the Shared Library, all participants receive a notification and can choose to keep all of the items in the Shared Library in their Personal Library.
If you leave a Shared Library less than 7 days after joining, you can only keep the items you contributed.
In the Photos app
on your Mac, choose Photos > Settings, then click Shared Library. Click Leave Shared Library (if you’re a participant) or Delete Shared Library (if you’re the organiser).
Select one of the following options:
Keep everything: Add all the photos in the Shared Library to your Personal Library.
Keep only what I contributed: Add only photos that you contributed to the Shared Library to your Personal Library.
Click Delete Shared Library.
Click Delete Shared Library again to confirm the deletion.
When you join a Shared Library, iCloud captures a one-time status of your photo library database and metadata and stores it for up to 90 days. This helps with a smooth transition to iCloud Shared Photo Library. Any photos that were in your library at the time of the snapshot that are subsequently deleted are stored for up to 90 days.