iCloud Shared Libraries - Understanding what they are and how they work!

Learn how to setup iCloud Photos to create Shared Photo Libraries. Different than shared albums, Shared Photo Libraries allows iCloud users to have one location in iCloud to share all pictures and videos collectively.

Learn how to toggle between your personal library and the shared library to keep your private memories still private, but also have your family memories shared.

No more texting, Airdropping or emailing photos to your immediate family. Share the library instead so that all members can see and share the same memories. This is an excellent option for your spouse and kids!

Devices used in this tutorial:
macOS 14 Sonoma
iOS 17 & iPadOS 17

00:00 | Welcome Back!
01:11 | Benefits of iCloud Shared Library
03:00 | Creating Shared Library on a Mac in Apple Photos
05:20 | Requirements for iCloud Shared Libraries
13:41 | How to setup iCloud Shared Library on iPhone
18:13 | How to toggle between personal and shared library
21:52 | Shared Library Indicator on iPhone and Mac
26:27 | How to move or remove a photo from a Shared Library
27:26 | Equal permissions for everyone using Shared Library
30:01 | What happens when you delete a photo from Shared Library
31:12 | Recover deleted photo in Recently Deleted Shared Library
33:27 | Deleting and Leaving a iCloud Shared Library
39:49 | A look at my personal Shared Library
41:25 | Albums and Keywords in Shared Libraries
46:17 | Duplicates in Shared Libraries

How to use iCloud Shared Photo Library

Leave iCloud Shared Photo Library

iCloud Photo SHARED ALBUMS - GET STARTED with sharing photos with ANYONE on ANY DEVICE!

If you have a video suggestion, let's chat!

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[ajitomatix]

Fantastic in-depth coverage of the iCloud shared library feature. This should be in Apple's documentation! 🙂

[Jay-Murph]

This is by far the best tutorial I've found on this topic. I've watched it multiple times. Keep up the great work!

[nazarster]

Great and deep explanation. Thanks! Probably was worth mentioning some key advantages and disadvantages of Library vs Shared albums

[sud-ong]

I wouldn’t have discovered this new feature if not for this video. You just earned a new subscriber, good sir.

[CAMTechChris]

Glad to see another video from you Joel. Always top shelf content!

[bhattcs]

Well explained. Thanks for helping out with shared library

[sylvainalain]

Hi Joel, your video was 🔥. At last someone explained how it works really :) I had to setup the shared library a while ago for my wife and 2 kids. On a side note, subscribing to the 200 GB iCloud+ to share the storage but using an individual Apple Music subscription is not easy at all. With the Apple one that is really expensive, buying what I needed was a challenge. Apple One individual gives only 50 GB, I wanted 200 GB for the whole family.

[andreasmuller]

This was absolutely helpful. So much questions are clear to me now. Thank you for your efforts!

[nyratiwari]

I have 400k photos on my iPhone and if I want to make a shared library with my wife and me, does this mean that iCloud will make a new shared library with the whole 400k photos? Asking this to know how the iCloud space will be affected.

[mrlaney]

Thanks! I just increased my iCloud capacity, uploaded all my backed up photos from my PC, and set up shared libraries. I was hoping to be able to have my wife pull photos from the shared library and move them to her personal library. From your explanation, it looks like that is not possible since I set up the library and contributed all the photos. Thanks for the explanation. I wasn’t hearing or seeing that so clearly in other references.

[imranchaudhry]

Amazing walk-through - definitely a sub!

[robertmalenich]

Is there a way to backup only the shared library from one account (when using multiple accounts on the same mac) or will each account need to backup the entire set of both libraries (rather than just the personal library) using Time Machine?

[TomDarci]

Joel, this is the content I was looking for before turning on a Shared Library. I have questions about backups: you mentioned backing up your photos a couple times. What method do you use for this? I'm guessing you tell Mac Photos to keep originals of the entire library, and then you back that up? When you have a shared library (and are the owner), will all the originals from that stay on the Mac as well? Any insight much appreciated. Thanks

[kayjava]

Question: The photos on my iPad and iPhone do not have anything called “keywords” in the info tab. How do you work with that?

[VLSPgo]

What happens to the shared library photos when you switch apple id on your iPhone and keep all photos on the device? Will they stay on the device together with the personal library photos?

[paulchavezyyz]

Great video Joel. I’m considering moving me and my wife’s libraries from Google Photos into iCloud Photos. We’ve each got 50, 000 photos, mostly of our kids, and likely a large majority of them are duplicates that we’ve been sharing back and forth with each other over the years. I’d love to get you explanation of how iCloud treats duplicates in Shared Libraries, and any best practices for making the switch from Google Photos to iCloud Photos shared libraries.

[ASITL]

1. how to add multiple pics to shared lib after they have been clicked.
2. if member A wants to exit shared lib but member B want to transfer pics shared by A to their personal lib. is there a work around?

[kenyamagami]

I have a question, not shared library related but related to I cloud photos. When you choose to use i cloud it sent the video or pic to the cloud and only leaving a thumbnail on your photos app in your phone, is there s way to exclude certain videos or photos from being offloaded, since sometimes i have videos I want to be able without internet

[anthonysiguenza]

How do i check what ive shared with people on iphone, i accidentally shared some personal photos with randoms trying to delet it how do i check who im sharing with on iphone

[superhero]

Hi, Joel great video. I have a doubt. Can we have shared library with members from different country. I am planning on starting one with my family but next year i will be moving to a different country, what will happen to the shared library when I change my region in my Apple ID? In fact I was planning on sharing my iCloud storage as well with my family. Will I be able to continue to share my iCloud even after moving to a different country?
Also related to this I am an Apple Music subscriber, what will happen to my Library and playlist once I change my region?
Thanks.