The great thing about iCloud Photo Sharing is that photos and videos in shared albums don’t count against your iCloud storage limit. So you don’t need to worry about upgrading your iCloud storage plan.
Shared albums do not take up space on your iPhone. If you have iCloud Photos enabled, you have the option to optimize the storage on your iPhone to free up space on the device.
You can even share albums with friends and family who don’t use iCloud. Just open a shared album that you created, go to the People tab, and turn on Public Website. Your photos publish to a website that anyone can see in an up-to-date web browser.
Shared Album content isn’t automatically backed up. If you want to save a photo or video from a Shared Album, add it to your photo library before you back up your device.
Yes, because photos on a shared album are no longer stored on your device, so deleting them from the device will not change the shared album. You will have to go through the shared album again to remove the unwanted photos, but doing so will remove those photos for all users, not just you.
So shared albums do use space on the devices of the subscribers. You should be considerate and not let the albums get too large. Remove older photos, after the subscribers had enough time to download the photos they want to keep.
Share an iCloud storage plan with your family.
Your entire family can share a single iCloud storage plan large enough to store everyone’s photos, videos, and files. Each person’s files and documents remain private, but it’s easy to see how much storage everyone is using.
With Shared Albums in the Photos app , you can share photos and videos with just the people you choose. They can also add their own photos, videos, and comments. Shared Albums works with or without iCloud Photos and My Photo Stream.
* Learn more about iCloud+. When you share an iCloud+ subscription, everyone in the family group uses their own account. That way your photos, documents, and other information stay private, even though you’re sharing access to the service.
Disabling it turns off any photos you’ve shared in albums to other people, but it also deletes all shared images from other people that are on your iOS or macOS device. So disabling it won’t remove any images from your libraries or Camera Roll from your devices.
Yes. If you enable Public Website in the settings for your shared album, your photos will be published to a website that anyone can view in an up-to-date web browser. Learn more about inviting people to view your shared album.
How to accept a shared album invite
- Go to your Photos app.
- Tap the For You tab. The invite should appear at the top of the list.
- Tap Accept.