Before you begin
- Update your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to the latest iOS or iPadOS, your Mac to the latest macOS, and your Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD to the latest tvOS. If you have a Windows PC, update to Windows 7 or later and download iCloud for Windows.
- Set up iCloud on all of your devices.
- Make sure that you’re signed in to iCloud with the same Apple ID on all of your devices that you want to use with Shared Albums.
To set it up in Photos for Mac, double-click a shared album to open it or, if you have the sidebar turned (Option + Command + S), just click the album’s name in the Sharing section to select it. How to download a shared album and not only to download all the pictures from it to my library. 1 Recommended Answer 10 Replies 133 Upvotes I know how to download photos from shared album to my library but I want to download also the album itself to my albums so if the sharing is cancelled I'll still have the pictures nicely in the album not. The downloaded zip file will contain all the photos from the shared album. This way you can download shared album from Google Photos to the computer. Quick Tip to ensure your Photos never go missing. Photos are precious memories and all of us never want to.
Turn on Shared Albums
- On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos, then turn on Shared Albums.
- On your Mac, open the Photos app. From the menu bar at the top of the screen, choose Photos > Preferences. Click the iCloud tab, then select Shared Albums.
- On your Apple TV, go to Settings > Users and Accounts > iCloud and turn on Shared Albums.
- On your Windows PC, open iCloud for Windows and select Photos. Click the Options button to verify that Shared Albums is on, then click Apply. Learn more about sharing albums with iCloud for Windows.
If you're using earlier versions of iOS, iCloud for Windows, iPhoto, or Aperture, you can still create and see Shared Albums. In earlier versions of iOS, macOS, tvOS, and iCloud for Windows, Shared Albums was called iCloud Photo Sharing.
Use Shared Albums on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
Create a new shared album
- Go to the Albums tab and tap the Add button .
- Tap New Shared Album.
- Give the shared album a name, then tap Next.
- Choose people to invite from your contacts, or type an email address or iMessage phone number.
- Tap Create.
Delete a shared album
Google Photos Shared Album
- Open the shared album.
- Go to the People tab.
- Tap Delete Shared Album.
If you're looking at your list of shared albums, you can also tap Edit, then tap the Delete button to delete a shared album.
When you delete a shared album, it's automatically removed from all of your devices and the devices of your subscribers. If Public Website was enabled, the shared album is removed from the web too. Deleting a shared ablum permanently deletes all of its photos. Before continuing, make sure that you save any photos that you want to keep.
Invite more people
- In Albums, select a shared album that you created.
- Go to the People tab.
- Tap Invite People.
- Enter the names of people that you want to share this album with.
- Tap Add.
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.
Remove a subscriber
- Open the shared album.
- Go to the People tab.
- Select the subscriber that you want to remove.
- Tap Remove Subscriber at the bottom of the screen.
As the creator of a shared album, you control who can access it. You can remove subscribers or delete the album at any time.
Add photos and videos
- In the Photos tab or from within an album, tap Select and then select the photos and videos that you want to share.
- Tap the Share button , then tap Add to Shared Album .
- Choose the album where you want to share your photos. Then tap Post.
If you have a shared album open, you can also tap the Add button to select photos and videos to add.
When you add new photos, the people that you share the album with are notified automatically. Make sure that Subscribers Can Post is turned on so that they can add photos and videos too. Just go to the shared album's People tab.
Delete from a Shared Album
- Open the shared album.
- Tap the photo or video.
- Tap the Trash button .
- Tap Delete Photo.
If you're the owner of a shared album, you can delete any photos, videos, or comments from anyone. Subscribers can delete anything that they personally added. Anything you delete is automatically deleted from the album on all your devices and the devices of subscribers.
Any photos that you saved or downloaded from a shared album to your Photos library stay in your library even if the shared album is deleted or the person who created it stops sharing it.
Save photos and videos from a shared album
When you share photos and videos with someone, they can save shared items to their own library.
- Tap the photo or video.
- Tap the Share button .
- Tap Save Image or Save Video.
Use Shared Albums on your Mac
Create a new Shared Album
- In the sidebar, click the Add button next to Shared Albums.
- Type the email addresses of people you want to share the album with. Click the Add button to select contacts from iCloud.
- Click Create.
Delete a shared album
- Open the shared album.
- Click the People button in the toolbar.
- Click Delete Shared Album.
When you delete a shared album, it's automatically removed from all of your devices and the devices of your subscribers. If Public Website was enabled, the shared album is removed from the web too. Deleting a shared ablum permanently deletes all of its photos. Before continuing, make sure that you save any photos that you want to keep.
Invite more people
- Select a shared album that you created under Shared in the sidebar.
- Click the People button in the toolbar.
- In the Invite People field, type the email addresses of people that you want to share this album with. Click the Add button to choose people to invite from your contacts.
You can even share albums with friends and family who don't use iCloud. Just open a shared album that you created, click the People button in the toolbar, and turn on Public Website. Your photos publish to a website that anyone can see in an up-to-date web browser.
Remove a subscriber
- Open the shared album.
- Click the People button in the toolbar.
- Select the subscriber that you want to remove.
- Click Remove Subscriber.
As the creator of a shared album, you control who can access it. You can remove subscribers or delete the album at any time.
Add photos and videos
- Select the photos and videos that you want to share.
- Click the Share button in the toolbar, then select Shared Albums.
- Choose the album where you want to share your photos.
If you have a shared album open, you can also click “Add photos and videos” to select photos and videos to add. You can also simply drag photos from your library directly into the shared album in the sidebar.
When you add new photos, the people that you share the album with are notified automatically. Open the shared album, click the People button in the toolbar, and make sure that Subscribers Can Post is turned on so that they can add photos and videos too.
Delete from a shared album
- Open the shared album.
- Select the photo or video.
- Control-click, then click Delete Photo. Click Delete.
If you have a shared album open, you can also select a photo and press the Delete key to delete it from the shared album.
If you're the owner of a shared album, you can delete any photos, videos, or comments from anyone. Subscribers can delete anything that they personally added. Anything you delete is automatically deleted from the album on all your devices and the devices of subscribers.
Any photos that you saved or downloaded from a shared album to your Photos library stay in your library even if the shared album is deleted or the person who created it stops sharing it.
Save photos and videos from a shared album
When you share photos and videos with someone, they can save the shared items to their own library.
- Select the photo and video that you want to save.
- Control-click, then click Import.
File types that you can use in Shared Albums
Shared Albums support these image formats:
- HEIF
- JPEG
- RAW*
- PNG
- GIF
- TIFF
Shared Albums also support special formats that you capture with your iPhone, like slo-mo, time-lapse, Live Photos, and Memory videos. When shared, photos are reduced to 2048 pixels on the long edge, except panoramic photos, which can be up to 5400 pixels wide. You can share GIFs that are 100MB or smaller.
Shared Albums support these video file types and formats:
- HEVC
- MP4
- QuickTime
- H.264
- MPEG-4
Videos can be up to fifteen minutes in length and are delivered at up to 720p resolution.
* You can't upload RAW photos to Shared Albums on your Windows PC.
Shared Albums upload a copy of your data. Downloaded content may not contain the same information as the original.
Shared Album storage limits
A shared album can hold up to 5000 photos and videos. If you reach your Shared Album limit, you need to delete some photos or videos before adding new ones. The photos and videos you share (and the comments or likes associated with those photos) stay in iCloud until you or the contributor delete them manually, or until you delete the shared album completely.
The photos and videos in your Shared Albums are kept in iCloud, but they don't count against your iCloud storage limit.
Download Icloud Shared Photos Album
Google Photos is one of the best apps to backup and manage your photos and videos. It allows you to create shared albums for anyone to add photos and videos. Once you have created and shared the album, you can download it, delete, allow it to show in collections, collaborate or share it with others via a link. You can download an individual photo / video or an entire album on your computer. Following is the process how you can download a shared album from Google Photos to your computer:
Following are the steps to Download Shared Album from Google Photos to Computer:
Create Shared Photo Album
- Go to https://photos.google.com/ & sign in to your account.
- Click 'Main Menu i.e 3 horizontal lines' located at the top left the corner of the screen.
- Click 'Shared albums' tab.
- You will see all your photo and video shared albums.
- Browse and select the shared album that you want to download.
- Click '3 vertical dots i.e. More Options' icon located at the top-right corner of the screen.
- Select 'Download All' option.
- Your browser prompts you to save .zip file, then click 'Save' and specify a location to download. The downloaded zip file will contain all the photos from the shared album.
- This way you can download shared album from Google Photos to the computer.
Quick Tip to ensure your Photos never go missing
Apple Photos Create Shared Album
Photos are precious memories and all of us never want to ever lose them to hard disk crashes or missing drives. PicBackMan is the easiest and simplest way to keep your photos safely backed up in one or more online accounts. Simply download PicBackMan (it's free!), register your account, connect to your online store and tell PicBackMan where your photos are - PicBackMan does the rest, automatically. It bulk uploads all photos and keeps looking for new ones and uploads those too. You don't have to ever touch it.