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

While you can easily share one photo at a time, if you want to share multiple photos in an album with friends or family, Apple’s Shared Albums feature (earlier called iCloud Photo Sharing) is for you.

Shared Albums are ideal for sharing vacation photos with family, honeymoon photos with your spouse, or a night on the town photos with pals. Every shared album can have up to 5,000 photos and videos. Plus, you don’t need to use iCloud Photos for this, nor do the shared photos count against your allocated iCloud storage limit!

We’ll show you how to work with Shared Albums in the Photos app to make it all a bit easier.

Shared Albums on iPhone and iPad

Enable Shared Albums

Turn on the Shared Albums option on your iPhone or iPad by doing the following:

1. Open the Settings app and select Photos.
2. Turn on the toggle for Shared Albums.

Create a blank Shared Album

To create the Shared Album first and add photos later, follow these steps on your iOS device:

1. Open Photos and select the Albums tab to see all your photo albums.
2. At the top, tap the plus sign and select New Shared Album.
3. Name your album and tap Next.
4. Tap the plus sign to invite people and tap Create.

Create a Shared Album from a photo

Follow these steps if you have one or more photos in your photo library that you want to create a Shared Album from:

1. With the photo(s) selected, tap the Share button.
2. Choose Add to Shared Album.
3. Tap Shared Album at the bottom of the pop-up and pick New Shared Album.
4. Follow the same steps as above to name your album and invite people.

Add photos to a Shared Album

You have a couple of ways to add photos to a Shared Album.

• Tap and hold the photo, select Share, choose Add to Shared Album, pick the album, and tap Post.
• Open the photo, tap the Share button, choose Add to Shared Album, pick the album, and tap Post.
• Open the shared album from the Albums tab, tap the plus sign, select the photos, tap Add, and then Post.

Invite more people, receive notifications, or delete a Shared Album

You can add participants (subscribers) to collaborate, remove subscriber, make the album public, enable others to add photos to the shared photo album, and receive notifications. You can also delete a Shared Album if you need to. And you can do any of these things from one place on iPhone or iPad.

Open the shared album from the Albums tab. Tap the People icon, and you’ll see all of these options.

Like and comment on Shared Album photos

To like or comment on a photo that’s in a Shared Album, tap to open the photo. At the bottom of the picture, tap Like or Add a Comment.

Delete photos from a Shared Album

To remove a photo from a Shared Album, open the photo in the album, tap Delete (trash can icon), and confirm by tapping Delete Photo.

Remember, deleting a photo from a Shared Album only removes the photo from the album. It does not delete the photo from your library.

Plus, if you delete a photo, it’s deleted from that Shared Album on all your Apple devices as well as from the subscriber’s devices. However, if they choose to save image or download a video from the Shared Album to their device, then that isn’t removed when you delete a photo.

Besides that, please note that added people/subscribers can only delete those photos that they added. They can’t delete photos in the shared library posted by someone else.

Shared Albums on your Mac

Enable Shared Albums

Make sure that you enable the Shared Albums option on your Mac:

1. Open Photos and click Photos > Settings or Preferences from the menu bar.
2. Select the iCloud tab.
3. At the bottom, check the box for Shared Albums.

Create a blank Shared Album

If you want to start by creating the album and then add the photos to it later, follow these steps:

1. Click the plus sign next to Shared Albums.
2. In the pop-up that appears, give your album a name, optionally add a comment, and click the plus sign in the Invite People section to invite contacts.
3. Click Create.

Now your Shared Album is ready and waiting for some photos!

Create a Shared Album from a photo

If you have a photo that you want to create a Shared Album from, follow these steps:

1. Click the Share button in the toolbar, File > Share from the menu bar, or right-click the photo and go to Share. Select Shared Albums.
2. Click New Shared Album.
3. Complete the album name, optional comment, and add contacts to share with.
4. Click Create.

That photo will pop into your new album, and from there, you can add more pictures.

Add photos to a Shared Album

You have a few handy ways to add photos to a Shared Album that you create:

• Select a photo, and then click the Share button in the toolbar, File > Share from the menu bar, or right-click the photo and go to Share. Choose Shared Albums and pick the album from the list.
• Drag and drop photos and videos from the Photos window into the album in the sidebar.
• Open the album by selecting it in the sidebar on the left. At the top, click Add photos and videos. Select the ones you want to add and click Add when you finish.

Invite more people, receive notifications, or delete a Shared Album

You can invite more people to your Shared Album, remove them, or make it public so anyone can view it. You can also enable others to add photos to the album and receive notifications when they do. And, of course, you can delete a Shared Album if you need to. All of this can be done in one spot in Photos on Mac.

Open the album by selecting it in the sidebar and clicking the People button in the toolbar.

You’ll see all of these options in one convenient spot. While there, you can also change the name of the album if you like.

Like and comment on Shared Album photos

You and others you invite can click to Like or make a Comment on a photo that’s in a Shared Album. To do this yourself, open the album and double-click on a photo.

At the bottom of the picture, you’ll see a speech bubble. Go ahead and click it.

Next, click Like to like it or Add a Comment to type a note.

Delete photos from a Shared Album

To remove a photo from a Shared Album, simply right-click and pick Delete from Shared Album. You’ll then need to confirm this action by clicking Delete.

Deleting a photo from a Shared Album only removes the photo from the album. It does not delete the photo completely.

Related tips:

• How to turn an existing album into a shared album in Photos
• How to turn a photo album into a public website on iPhone, iPad, and Mac for free
• How to quickly share iPhone photos with a link