Almost everyone has been guilty, at one point or another, of forgetting to send a photo or video to friends and family. The good news is that iOS 16 now lets you create a shared iCloud Photo Library to make it easier to share memories with your loved ones on iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
iCloud Shared Photo Library is exactly what it sounds like: It allows up to six people to contribute photos and videos to a single group. Anyone with access to the shared library can add, edit, or delete content. You can also choose to either upload photos to the shared library manually or automatically when your phone detects that you are near other members. For example, if you invite Mom and Dad to a shared library, you can set it up so that any photos taken when they visit are added automatically.
However, you should know that creating a shared library comes with its own quirks. The person who creates the library, the “host,” is the person who provides all of your iCloud storage. Other members can access the library freely, but it won’t count toward their iCloud storage. If the host runs out of storage, no one can add any other photos. Also, the photo preference will not be synced or edited. You may want to keep this in mind as you think about who to invite. The last thing you want is Uncle Bob eating up your limited iCloud storage with 50 photos per meal.
You can delete photos as well, but be careful — deleted content is moved to the Recently Deleted folder, and only the contributor to that photo or video can delete it entirely from there. So if your annoying brother adds an unflattering picture of you to the library and you delete it, he can still haunt you from the Recently Deleted folder because it’s his picture, and they can just get rid of it completely.
Finally, you can only participate in one shared library at a time, so be aware of which library you’re joining.
With that in mind, here’s how to get started.
First things first, make sure your devices have iOS 16.1, iPadOS 16.1, or macOS Ventura or later. On iPhone and iPad, you can check if you’re up to date by going to Settings > General > Software Update. On Macs, head to System Settings > General > Software Update.
Thats all about it. And while you should be mindful of what you share and who you invite, don’t worry too much about the little things. You can always transfer photos and videos from the shared library to your personal library.