Set up or join an iCloud Shared Photo Library on Mac
iCloud Shared Photo Library lets you and up to five family members or friends collaborate on a photo collection, so you can enjoy more complete memories, all in one place. You can belong to one shared library at a time.
When you set up or join a shared library, the photos and videos you contribute move from your personal library to the shared library, and all members of the shared library can view, edit, and delete them.
Before you begin
Before you set up or join an iCloud Shared Photo Library, make sure you have iCloud Photos turned on.
Go to the Photos app
on your Mac.Choose Photos > Settings, click iCloud, then make sure iCloud Photos is selected.
Note: You don’t need Family Sharing turned on to set up a shared library.
Set up a shared library
Go to the Photos app
on your Mac.Choose Photos > Settings, click Shared Library, then click Get Started.
Follow the onscreen instructions.
Your new shared library appears in the Photos window. The Library pop-up menu appears in the toolbar and lets you choose between viewing the shared library, your personal library, or both libraries at once.
Note: You can invite up to five participants to your shared library. You can invite family members or friends who have a device with macOS 13, iOS 16, iPadOS 16, or later, or visionOS. Participants must have an Apple Account and have iCloud Photos turned on. Children under 13 must be part of the organizer’s iCloud Family Sharing group.
Join a shared library
In the invitation email or text message sent from the organizer, click Shared Library Invitation, then follow the onscreen instructions.
After you accept an invitation to join a shared library, you can view, edit, add, favorite, caption, and delete items in the shared library.
Add or remove shared library participants
If you’re the organizer of an iCloud Shared Photo Library, you can add and remove participants.
Go to the Photos app
on your Mac.Choose Photos > Settings, then click Shared Library.
Do any of the following:
Add participants: Click Add Participants, type the name of a family member or friend with an Apple Account, click the name to select it, then click Add.
People you add receive an email inviting them to join the shared library. You can repeat this step to add up to five people. To resend an invitation, click
next to someone you’ve added, then choose Resend Invitation.
Remove participants: Click
next to the person you want to remove, choose Remove, then click Remove from Shared Library.
Important: If you plan to remove a participant from a shared library, It’s a good idea to let them know in case they want to save any photos or videos from the shared library. When you remove the participant, they no longer have access to items they didn’t upload to the shared library.
Leave or delete a shared library
Participants can leave a shared library at any time. If you’re the organizer of a shared library, you can delete it.
When a shared library is deleted, participants who have been members of the shared library for more than 7 days can copy everything from the shared library into their own libraries. Participants who have been members for less than 7 days can copy only the content they contributed.
Go to the Photos app
on your Mac.Choose Photos > Settings, then click Shared Library.
Click Leave Shared Library (if you’re a participant) or Delete Shared Library (if you’re the organizer).
Select one of the following options:
Keep everything: Add all the photos in the shared library to your personal library.
Keep only what I contributed: Add only photos that you contributed to your personal library.
Click Delete Shared Library, then click Delete Shared Library to confirm.
All content added to the shared library counts toward the iCloud storage space of the shared library organizer. See Manage iCloud storage.