iCloud Shared Photo Library: Everything You Need to Know

[ChromeAce]

No average user is going to figure out how to use this and understand what is going on. The idea a photo actually has to be “moved” from your own library into the shared library is ridiculous… a pointer should simply be used to the original. Even worse, anyone can delete your original content at that point and you wouldn’t have another copy.

 

[Grimace]

If the host deletes a shared album, and the personal pics have been moved there per the guidance above - then won’t the original images be deleted if the host deletes that shared album?

That could be an unwanted surprise if the host just wants to delete the shared album but keep the pics personally.

 

[rick987611]

Thanks for sharing Apple's documentation.

MAJOR issue:
Apple's photo library currently has alias' pointing to the actual photo in YOUR library.
Allowing others to delete from SHARED library without SPECIFICALLY being clear if deleted photo from someone else does NOT affect the original photo from YOUR library is a terrible oversight!

It’s pretty clear in the app. If you delete from the shared library it’s gone for everyone. If a picture you added is deleted it notifies you and you can opt to keep it in your personal library.

 

[rick987611]

If the host deletes a shared album, and the personal pics have been moved there per the guidance above - then won’t the original images be deleted if the host deletes that shared album?

That could be an unwanted surprise if the host just wants to delete the shared album but keep the pics personally.

No. If the shared library is deleted all photos you shared move back to your personal library.

 

[rick987611]

No average user is going to figure out how to use this and understand what is going on. The idea a photo actually has to be “moved” from your own library into the shared library is ridiculous… a pointer should simply be used to the original. Even worse, anyone can delete your original content at that point and you wouldn’t have another copy.

If someone deletes something you add it notifies you and it allows you to easily keep in the photo in your personal library.

 

[rick987611]

I know. They don’t get that either. They grew up with an explorer / finder and folders inside

Yea, I’ve been using this for a week or so. Took no time at all to figure out. You can still opt to pull all photos in your shared and personal library down to a computer and backup.

Our family went to Disney yesterday. It was so nice that we all had every photo taken without having to go through the old air drop ritual.

It also freed up storage from 34,000 duplicate photos we both had in our library.

 

[FelineTech]

No. If the shared library is deleted all photos you shared move back to your personal library.

Is this true for any photo that gets deleted from the Shared Library?

This is my biggest concern for this feature. You create a family album, another family member starts cleaning up photos and they start deleting a bunch of photos. Suddenly all of your memories are GONE.

This sounds like a great feature, but with some horrible potential unintended outcomes because of a careless user.

 

[gumbyhw]

The things in my Photos app make Siri blush. I'm not sharing anything, thanks.

Set Siri to Australian and she won‘t mind, mate!

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Thanks for sharing Apple's documentation.

MAJOR issue:
Apple's photo library currently has alias' pointing to the actual photo in YOUR library.
Allowing others to delete from SHARED library without SPECIFICALLY being clear if deleted photo from someone else does NOT affect the original photo from YOUR library is a terrible oversight!

Yeah, iCloud is a complete trash can mess of software. Only a naive fool would actually trust it.

 

[gumbyhw]

This sounds awesome until you break up. Or if sharing in a family, til one of your kids becomes a teen.

Who thinks up these absurd features?

 

[AdamJD]

QUESTION: This sounds like a great way to allow everyone to get the same photos in one place! Is there warning and window of time for when the designated host deletes the shared library (or screws something up) where other members can opt to download the shared album contents to their personal library?

 

[rick987611]

Is this true for any photo that gets deleted from the Shared Library?

This is my biggest concern for this feature. You create a family album, another family member starts cleaning up photos and they start deleting a bunch of photos. Suddenly all of your memories are GONE.

This sounds like a great feature, but with some horrible potential unintended outcomes because of a careless user.

It’s pretty clear when you delete from a shared. It says everyone will lose it.
When anyone deletes a photo YOU added as a shared photo you get a notification and can move it to your personal library.
You can also filter your deleted item and take any photo deleted from the shared library into your personal library.

I’m having a hard time figuring out what they could have done different. I suppose one user removing an item from the shared library could possibly leave it in other users. But that would remove the ability for someone to curate the library and clean it up for everyone. It could also lead to everyone having slightly different “shared” libraries.

 

[rick987611]

QUESTION: This sounds like a great way to allow everyone to get the same photos in one place! Is there warning and window of time for when the designated host deletes the shared library (or screws something up) where other members can opt to download the shared album contents to their personal library?

I’d be interested in this as well. It’s about the only question I can’t answer accurately. And I’m not going to kill the shared library we are using to find out.

 

[rick987611]

This sounds awesome until you break up. Or if sharing in a family, til one of your kids becomes a teen.

Who thinks up these absurd features?

Then they leave the shared library? This is an awesome feature for lots of people.

In our case we didn’t add our 11 year old. Don’t need all his random photos in my library. He can continue to share things he wants to the old fashioned way.

 

[rick987611]

I’d be interested in this as well. It’s about the only question I can’t answer accurately. And I’m not going to kill the shared library we are using to find out.

I actually just pressed the delete shared library button to see what it would say. Gives you the option to keep the stuff you out added or everything. Says all other users will get the same option.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

For what it’s worth this is saving me and my wife tons of space. 90% of our photos were duplicated. Shared library detects these and they only count against one users storage now.
Also, these are full quality. The old style shared albums severely degraded quality.

Tell me about it. I found out, the hard way, years later, that the only copy of some photos I have are like 2 megapixels or something. That's a really poor showing on Apple's part.

 

[TVreporter]

Yeah I'll stick with Shared Albums for a while - I'd be super hesitant to try this on launch. iCloud can be wonky sometimes.

 

[shamus99]

Yea, I’ve been using this for a week or so. Took no time at all to figure out. You can still opt to pull all photos in your shared and personal library down to a computer and backup.

Our family went to Disney yesterday. It was so nice that we all had every photo taken without having to go through the old air drop ritual.

It also freed up storage from 34,000 duplicate photos we both had in our library.

Great info… we back up my wifes icloud photos (and photos i send her) to a mac. WE can do the same with this? Can we just save the shared library and not all her photos?

 

[AppleFan1998]

Finally, a solution that might be easy to use. Some people keep sending bunches of photos in messages all the time taking up a lot of space there. When’s the iCloud limit going up, Apple knows they want more subscribers...2 TB is not enough.

 

[jimthing]

I suppose one good idea may be to:

1. Create a shared library, allow all members to add event/hol pics to it,
2. Then suggest everyone copy the whole shared library to their own library as a personal library album,
3. Then delete the shared library.
4. Everyone then has a copy of full quality pics that can't be deleted, but later edits will obviously then be up to each album owner to do themselves.

 

[SeeAroundCorner]

I think I’d rather use the existing feature of sharing iCloud links for 30 days.
Advantages over this new shared library:
- I’m not using up my iCloud storage with photos/videos my friends decide to share (assuming I am the “host”)
- I can have different groups of friends/family to share with, with more than just 5 other people

See https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT209035.

The new shared library feature does have some advantages, like it can be kept around indefinitely for the members to view. But the shared iCloud links feature gives them 30 days to download the images they want to their own libraries.

And the new shared library feature will only use up iCloud storage of the host. So it can save the other members’ storage costs.

But all in all, I think the existing feature (shared iCloud links) is more flexible and safer than the new shared libraries. And it preserves the full resolution and quality of everything, just like the new shared libraries.

 

[rick987611]

I think I’d rather use the existing feature of sharing iCloud links for 30 days.
Advantages over this new shared library:
- I’m not using up my iCloud storage with photos/videos my friends decide to share (assuming I am the “host”)
- I can have different groups of friends/family to share with, with more than just 5 other people

See https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT209035.

The new shared library feature does have some advantages, like it can be kept around indefinitely for the members to view. But the shared iCloud links feature gives them 30 days to download the images they want to their own libraries.

And the new shared library feature will only use up iCloud storage of the host. So it can save the other members’ storage costs.

But all in all, I think the existing feature (shared iCloud links) is more flexible and safer than the new shared libraries. And it preserves the full resolution and quality of everything, just like the new shared libraries.

I wouldn't use this feature with anyone besides my wife. It has been awesome for us, but I can't see using it with others.
The only adding photos when you are with other people is a nice feature. If they allowed you to join more than one shared library down the road that could be neat to setup mini libraries with family members. Like if we are all at Disney or something.

One other new feature is to pick people you want it to suggest to auto share with when you are together though. So that kind of takes care of that. I added all my close family and the other day when we left Epcot it asked me if I wanted to share the photos I took with the people who were there with me that I had told it to recommend sharing with.

 

[rick987611]

Does anyone know what the ruler and burst photo looking icons on the camera screenshot are? I've never seen those.

never mind. Figured it out.

 

[jimthing]

I think I’d rather use the existing feature of sharing iCloud links for 30 days.
Advantages over this new shared library:
- I’m not using up my iCloud storage with photos/videos my friends decide to share (assuming I am the “host”)
- I can have different groups of friends/family to share with, with more than just 5 other people

See https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT209035.

The new shared library feature does have some advantages, like it can be kept around indefinitely for the members to view. But the shared iCloud links feature gives them 30 days to download the images they want to their own libraries.

And the new shared library feature will only use up iCloud storage of the host. So it can save the other members’ storage costs.

But all in all, I think the existing feature (shared iCloud links) is more flexible and safer than the new shared libraries. And it preserves the full resolution and quality of everything, just like the new shared libraries.

Agree. Storage is relatively cheap these days, and hopefully Apple will finally increase tier sizes further sooner rather than later to help (especially for those of us with 8TB MBP's!).

So you may as well have full control over things yourself, rather than leaving it up to one host who may have different priorities sometime in future.

 

[jclo]

Does anyone know what the ruler and burst photo looking icons on the camera screenshot are? I've never seen those.

Exposure and Photographic Styles (an iPhone 13 feature).