Set up 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 a photo collection, so you can enjoy more complete memories, all in one place. You can belong to one Shared Library at a time.
When you set up or join a Shared Library, the photos and videos you contribute move from your Personal Library to the Shared Library, and all members of the Shared Library can view, edit and delete them.
What you need to use iCloud Shared Photo Library
You can invite family members or friends who have a Mac with macOS 13 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 years must be part of the organiser’s iCloud Family Sharing group.
Participants can access the Shared Library from their Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or PC, and on iCloud.com. To learn more about installation and software requirements for your devices, see the Apple Support articles How to use iCloud Shared Photo Library and If you are missing photos after joining an iCloud Shared Photo Library.
Set up 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 on-screen 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. Click Skip to add photos by date. Follow the on-screen 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 on-screen 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.
Add or remove Shared Library participants
If you’re the organiser of a Shared Library, you can add and remove participants.
In the Photos app
on your Mac, choose Photos > Settings, then click Shared Library. Do any of the following:
Add participants: Click Add Participants, type the name of a family member or friend with an Apple ID, click the name to select it, then click Add.
People you add receive an email inviting them to join the Shared Library. You can repeat this step to add up to five people. To resend an invitation, click the More button
next to someone you’ve added, then choose Resend Invitation.
Remove participants: Click the More button
next to the person you want to remove, choose Remove, then click Remove from Shared Library.People you remove receive a notification and can copy all the items in the Shared Library to their Personal Library. (If you remove someone who has been a member of the Shared Library for less than seven days, they can only retrieve the items they contributed.)
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 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.
All content added to the Shared Library counts towards the iCloud storage space of the Shared Library organiser. See Manage iCloud storage in the macOS User Guide.