iCloud Shared Photo Library Support Added in Latest iOS 16 and macOS Ventura Betas

[dcp10]

Currently, it is “move”. There is no “copy”

I think the term move is being used incorrectly here. Nothing actually ‘moves’. There is still only one library which is split into shared or personal.”and the photos are flagged as to which library to appear in. Move sounds confusing, perhaps designate would be better?

 

[cyanite]

I think the term move is being used incorrectly here. Nothing actually ‘moves’. There is still only one library which is split into shared or personal.”and the photos are flagged as to which library to appear in. Move sounds confusing, perhaps designate would be better?

To the end user, there is no difference. It moves in the sense that it’s no longer in your personal library.

Why would I let anyone mess with my photos?
I really don’t get the idea of everyone being able to edit or delete my photos.
Even if you trust them, you’re giving control out of your hands.
Seems to be a conceptual mistake if you ask me.

Then, I guess, don’t use the feature

 

[Lethen]

I think the term move is being used incorrectly here. Nothing actually ‘moves’. There is still only one library which is split into shared or personal.”and the photos are flagged as to which library to appear in. Move sounds confusing, perhaps designate would be better?

Disagree, you forget that the shared library actually lives in the library creators iCloud.

If I create the family shared library and my son records 100Mb video to his personal library, his iCloud storage goes up 100Mb. If he decides it belongs in the shared family library, and he MOVES the video, his iCloud storage goes down by 100Mb and mine goes up by 100Mb. I would call that move.

 

[W£S]

I think the term move is being used incorrectly here. Nothing actually ‘moves’. There is still only one library which is split into shared or personal.”and the photos are flagged as to which library to appear in. Move sounds confusing, perhaps designate would be better?

It is actually “move” and 2 separate libraries. I will illustrate.

Say your spouse started the library and shared with you on her iCloud account. Both you and your spouse will have access to the shared library.

But if one day she remove you and kick you out of the shared library, you will lose access to all photos in the shared library, even if they were contributed by you.

You will be left with only photos you never shared before in your personal library.

Quite clearly it is 2 separate libraries as explained by Apple.

 

[W£S]

Reviews are coming out. Apparently you can set notifications when your uploaded photos are deleted (presumably for you to undelete within 30 days). If so, it will address accidental deletes.

Also when you delete/exit the album, you get to choose whether you wish to recover all/just those you uploaded.

Seems good thus far!

 

[Lethen]

Reviews are coming out. Apparently you can set notifications when your uploaded photos are deleted (presumably for you to undelete within 30 days). If so, it will address accidental deletes.

Also when you delete/exit the album, you get to choose whether you wish to recover all/just those you uploaded.

Seems good thus far!

Links?

 

[W£S]

Links?

How to Use iCloud Shared Photo Library on iPhone

Imagine going out on a picnic with your friends and all of you clicked a ton of pictures on your…

nerdschalk.com

This is the most comprehensive one. The part I described are at the bottom.

Am happy with the process. Apple didn’t let me down. 🤭

 

[dcp10]

But if one day she remove you and kick you out of the shared library, you will lose access to all photos in the shared library, even if they were contributed by you.

You will be left with only photos you never shared before in your personal library.

That’s not how it works. When a person is removed from the shared library that person keeps everything that they shared as shown below. I can’t image anyone would share photos otherwise

 

[W£S]

That’s not how it works. When a person is removed from the shared library that person keeps everything that they shared as shown below. I can’t image anyone would share photos otherwise

You are right. I said that before I saw the review I shared before

The details can be seen in the link I attached.

 

[Mike Boreham]

How to Use iCloud Shared Photo Library on iPhone

Imagine going out on a picnic with your friends and all of you clicked a ton of pictures on your…

nerdschalk.com

This is the most comprehensive one. The part I described are at the bottom.

Am happy with the process. Apple didn’t let me down. 🤭

Good article. I can't see that it warns that older OS devices on the same Apple ID cannot see a Shared Library created on an iOS16/macOS13 device.

So if you move 1000 photos from your Personal Library to your Shared Library on an iOS16/macOS13 device they will no longer be visible on your iOS15/macOS12 or earlier devices (though some of them may stay cached for a while).

To avoid this you can duplicate photos and move the duplicates to the Shared Library (with more space usage of course).

The situation is reversible by moving them back from Shared to Personal if you want them back on your older OS devices.

 

[Vanarak19]

Tried it out by creating a Shared Library with my sons face as the photos that are auto-shared.

Of the 5k or so photos of him, it added about 3k other photos that have nothing to do with him, most of which don't even have people in them. These photos also do not appear in his face album, so it seems like this is not quite ready for prime time yet.

 

[W£S]

Tried it out by creating a Shared Library with my sons face as the photos that are auto-shared.

Of the 5k or so photos of him, it added about 3k other photos that have nothing to do with him, most of which don't even have people in them. These photos also do not appear in his face album, so it seems like this is not quite ready for prime time yet.

I am sharing manually so as to make sure only the photos that should be shared are shared. So far so good.

Only issue is that my Mac not running the beta OS cannot see the latest photos anymore. Not updating!

 

[Vanarak19]

I am sharing manually so as to make sure only the photos that should be shared are shared. So far so good.

Only issue is that my Mac not running the beta OS cannot see the latest photos anymore. Not updating!

I thought about that but then I don't want to go back 2 years and manually share with my wife Seeing as how its a beta I didn't expect the auto function to work well, and it didn't.

 

[W£S]

I thought about that but then I don't want to go back 2 years and manually share with my wife Seeing as how its a beta I didn't expect the auto function to work well, and it didn't.

even if it is out of beta, I wouldn’t trust it to auto share, at least not till I clear out all the rubbish.

Need to find time to clear away those unrelated photos from WhatsApp which auto downloads into the library. Yes I know I can prevent WhatsApp from doing so, but that also means that some photos shared with me wouldn’t get the right time stamp (which is already delayed as time is based on when I received, instead of when the photo is taken).

But because of that, there are rubbish which I do not want to accidentally go into the family library.

 

[DotCom2]

So if I have an older iMac that can't go higher than Big Sur does that mean I won't be able to see the Shared Photo Library on the Mac but will be able to on all my other devices running the latest OS?

 

[W£S]

So if I have an older iMac that can't go higher than Big Sur does that mean I won't be able to see the Shared Photo Library on the Mac but will be able to on all my other devices running the latest OS?

That’s correct.

 

[7Appleuser7]

It seems that all the articles for set up and conversations are from the person who sets up the library. Would someone please help me understand the following:

Once I have created a shared library and made it the default and my wife has joined the library, will they be able to move all all their photos into the shared library too, and all future photos go there by default - basically getting rid of the default/local library?

Or is the shared library starting point only from the person who creates the shared library?

many thanks in advance

 

[Lethen]

As far as I understand:
Everyone keep their personal (current) library. The shared one is additional.
All participants can move some or all of their photos from their personal library to the shared library.
All participants can define where new photos go (personal or shared)
Typically people will have some photos, screenshots etc. that are not relevant for others.
Main difference for the person initially creating the shared library is that they invite the others and they provide the iCloud storage for the shared library, so make sure you have enough.

 

[7Appleuser7]

As far as I understand:
Everyone keep their personal (current) library. The shared one is additional.
All participants can move some or all of their photos from their personal library to the shared library.
All participants can define where new photos go (personal or shared)
Typically people will have some photos, screenshots etc. that are not relevant for others.
Main difference for the person initially creating the shared library is that they invite the others and they provide the iCloud storage for the shared library, so make sure you have enough.

thank you.

this will solve everything for us (hopefully).

 

[Shaul]

As far as I understand:
Everyone keep their personal (current) library. The shared one is additional.
All participants can move some or all of their photos from their personal library to the shared library.
All participants can define where new photos go (personal or shared)
Typically people will have some photos, screenshots etc. that are not relevant for others.
Main difference for the person initially creating the shared library is that they invite the others and they provide the iCloud storage for the shared library, so make sure you have enough.

Assuming I am choosing the option to move all my photos to the shared library. Will all the albums, smart albums, keywords and faces move to the shared library as well?
I am maintaining a very large and complex library for many years. I would like this library to become, as a whole, the shard library.

 

[Mike Boreham]

I have just discovered that the new iCloud Shared Photos Library does not share the album structure I have created.

This is diabolical! I have lost all interest in Apple Shared Photos Library as a replacement for Lightroom Cloudy

Our Adobe Shared Cloudy library has 80K photos in 600 albums. I have this duplicated in my iCloud Photos Library, which I was hoping to share with my wife and dump Adobe. 80K photos with no organisation is useless on her devices.

I appreciate that if all photos are taken with EXIF dates that corresponds to the date of the photo this would be less of a problem, but our 80K photos have been acquired over 20 years in a variety of ways, many scanned, and photos of old photos. The EXIF date is meaningless. I suspect that many users with large libraries built up over many years are in the same situation. Our photos do not fit the perfect world where everything has correct EXIF data.

An example....I have an album of about 100 photos called "Family Groups"... the earliest was in 1883 and the most recent in 2022. Many are scans, or photos of old photos. In the Library shared with my wife these will be dotted throughout the 80K photos.....effectively lost.

Lightroom Cloudy synchronises all albums and folders across all devices.

Hoping this is a bug, not as designed, but not optimistic!

 

[Mike Boreham]

I have just discovered that the new iCloud Shared Photos Library does not share the album structure I have created.

This is diabolical! I have lost all interest in Apple Shared Photos Library as a replacement for Lightroom Cloudy

Our Adobe Shared Cloudy library has 80K photos in 600 albums. I have this duplicated in my iCloud Photos Library, which I was hoping to share with my wife and dump Adobe. 80K photos with no organisation is useless on her devices.

I appreciate that if all photos are taken with EXIF dates that corresponds to the date of the photo this would be less of a problem, but our 80K photos have been acquired over 20 years in a variety of ways, many scanned, and photos of old photos. The EXIF date is meaningless. I suspect that many users with large libraries built up over many years are in the same situation. Our photos do not fit the perfect world where everything has correct EXIF data.

An example....I have an album of about 100 photos called "Family Groups"... the earliest was in 1883 and the most recent in 2022. Many are scans, or photos of old photos. In the Library shared with my wife these will be dotted throughout the 80K photos.....effectively lost.

Lightroom Cloudy synchronises all albums and folders across all devices.

Hoping this is a bug, not as designed, but not optimistic!

Thinking more I am now convinced that not sharing the folders/albums is by design, not a bug.

The difference is all about the starting point.

1. Sharing a Library which starts with few or no photos, it makes sense not to include folders and albums. Let everyone create their own if they want to, don't impose an organisation.

2. Sharing an existing 80K library with 600 albums it makes total sense to include them.

If correct, this is bad news for couples like my wife and I who will inevitably be in the second category.

The best I can hope for is an option.

 

[darngooddesign]

What happens if you drag a album of photos to the shared library? Does it maintain the album? If not, is the solution to create an album in the shared library first and drag the photos there?

 

[Mike Boreham]

What happens if you drag a album of photos to the shared library? Does it maintain the album? If not, is the solution to create an album in the shared library first and drag the photos there?

No, the photos appear in the second (recipient) Library but not the album. Yes, the second Library can create an album and put the photos in it, which is how it will work for new Shared Libraries.

My issue is that I have an existing Library with 80K photos in 600 albums I want to share with my wife. Recreating the folder/album structure and moving all the photos into it is not feasible. Keywords and tags (which are shared) would help but still a huge task.

If the situation doesn't change we will carry on using the Adobe Lightroom Cloudy Library we currently share and which has the same photos and structure and has worked brilliantly for us for the last four years. I am hoping to use the new Shared Library to dump Adobe.

 

[darngooddesign]

I don't know why Apple cant figure out Albums. I mean, my Smart Albums don't even sync on iCloud Photos.