Set up or join an iCloud Shared Photo Library in Photos on iPad

With iCloud Shared Photo Library in the Photos app , you can set up or join a shared library to share photos and videos with up to five other friends or family members. You and those close to you can collaborate on the photo collection and enjoy more complete memories, all in one place. You can belong to one shared library at a time.

When you join a shared library, the photos and videos that you contribute move from your personal library to the shared library, and all members of the library can view, edit, and delete them. Shared library photos and videos are integrated seamlessly in the Photos app alongside your personal content, but you can also use a filter to quickly switch between your personal and shared libraries.

Note: iOS 16.1, iPadOS 16.1, macOS 13, or later are required to use iCloud Shared Photo Library. Photos and videos added to a shared library won’t be available on devices with earlier versions of the software.

Before you begin

Before you set up or join an iCloud Shared Photo Library, make sure you have iCloud Photos turned on.

Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos, then make sure Sync this iPad is on.

Note: You don’t need Family Sharing turned on to set up a shared library.

Set up an iCloud Shared Photo Library

The person who sets up an iCloud Shared Photo Library is the organizer.

Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos, tap Shared Library, then follow the instructions onscreen to add participants and move photos and videos into the shared library.

During setup, you can add existing photos and videos from your personal library to the shared library in these ways:

All My Photos and Videos: Add all of the photos and videos in your personal library to the shared library.
By People or Date: Add photos and videos that include specific people or were taken when those people were nearby. Or, tap Skip, then select a date on the calendar (such as an anniversary or other meaningful day) to automatically add all photos and videos that were taken after that date.
Manually: Select the specific photos and videos that you want to add to the shared library.

Note: Photos and videos you add to the shared library don’t appear in your personal library; see Switch between viewing your iCloud Shared Photo Library and personal library.

You can preview the photos and videos you add to the shared library and make changes before sending the invitation to participants using Messages or a web link.

Join an iCloud Shared Photo Library

To join an iCloud Shared Photo Library, tap the invitation sent from the organizer, tap Get Started, then follow the onscreen instructions. During setup, you can add photos and videos to the shared library the same way as the organizer (see Set up iCloud Shared Photo Library, above).

After you join a shared library, you can add photos and videos to the shared library in several ways, and access the same content within the shared library as the organizer and other participants. See Add content to an iCloud Shared Photo Library.

Add participants to an iCloud Shared Photo Library

The person who sets up an iCloud Shared Photo Library (the organizer) can add new participants to the shared library. Go to Settings > Photos > Shared Library, then tap Add Participants.

Note: A shared library can include up six participants including the organizer; you can belong to one shared library at a time.

Leave an iCloud Shared Photo Library

To leave an iCloud Shared Photo Library, go to Settings > Photos > Shared Library, then tap Leave Shared Library.

When you leave the shared library, you can copy everything from the shared library into your Personal Library, or just the content that you contributed.

Delete an iCloud Shared Photo Library

Only the organizer can delete an iCloud Shared Photo Library.

Go to Settings > Photos > Shared Library, then tap Delete Shared Library.

When a shared library is deleted, participants who have been members of the shared library for over 7 days can copy everything from the shared library into their own libraries and participants who have been members for less than 7 days can copy the content they contributed.

All content added to a shared library counts toward the iCloud storage space of the library organizer. See Add storage space to your iCloud Shared Photo Library.

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