Have you ever wanted to share your pictures and videos with friends and family without the hassle of having to post them privately on social media? Well, that's where iCloud Photos comes in. I of its best features is Shared Albums, formerly called iCloud Photograph Sharing. Yous can share albums privately, allowing your friends and family to like, comment, or fifty-fifty upload their own photos and videos.

Keep reading to larn how you can share your pics with iCloud Photos and to encounter everything else you can do with this feature.

Starting with the release of iOS 12, Apple tree rebranded this characteristic as only Shared Albums. So depending on what iOS you're using, you may see Shared Albums or iCloud Photograph Sharing. Merely that aside, sharing photos couldn't be any easier. The only affair you need to do is make sure everyone you want to share with has this feature enabled on their devices.

How to set up iCloud Photo Sharing

Follow these unproblematic steps to start sharing with iCloud Photos:

  1. On your iPhone, open up the Settings app.
  2. Tap Photos.
  3. Turn on Shared Albums. Note: In iOS 11 or older, turn on iCloud Photo Sharing.

If you've already created a photo album but now want to share it, y'all'll have to re-create the photos to a new Shared Album. This might audio a piddling boring at first, merely I promise, it's pretty like shooting fish in a barrel. Just follow these steps to share your existing photo albums:

  1. Open the Photos app.
  2. Tap the album you want to share.
  3. Tap Select > Select All.
  4. Hit the Share icon in the bottom left.
  5. In the popup menu, tap Add together to Shared Album.
  6. Tap Shared Album > New Shared Album. Annotation: Y'all can too add together pictures to an existing Shared Album instead of creating a new anthology.
  7. Title your Shared Anthology and tap Next.
  8. Add people you want to share the album with.

How to create a shared anthology on iPhone

To create a new Shared Album direct on your iPhone, simply follow these steps:

  1. Open the Photos app.
  2. Tap Albums > + > New Shared Anthology.
  3. Give your new album a name and striking Adjacent.
  4. Add the friends and family members you lot want to share the album with, then tap Create.

How to accept a shared anthology invite

If someone else wants to share an anthology with you, you'll take to take the invitation earlier you start seeing their pictures and videos. To accept an invite:

  1. Go to your Photos app.
  2. Tap the For You tab. The invite should appear at the height of the list.
  3. Tap Accept.

How to access a shared album on iPhone

Like iCloud Photos, Shared Albums are integrated directly into the Photos app on your iPhone. To access Shared Albums, y'all just demand to:

  1. Open the Photos app.
  2. Tap the Albums tab.
  3. Scroll to the Shared Albums section.

If you're running into a problem while sharing an album with iCloud, here are a couple of other mutual issues and what you can do to fix them.

  • It's a private album. Y'all may have inadvertently created a private album instead of a shared 1. You can follow the instructions from earlier to share the album with friends.
  • Shared Albums aren't enabled. Follow the instructions higher up to make certain Shared Albums are turned on.
  • Check your Wi-Fi network. If your iPhone doesn't accept a great Wi-Fi connection, it won't be able to upload or share pictures with iCloud. Try changing networks or switching to cellular data.
  • Brand sure iCloud Photos is working. Y'all tin check Apple'south System Status page to see if iCloud is up.

Why can't I run across the photos in a shared album?

If you're having trouble viewing pictures in a Shared Anthology, here are some things that could exist causing that issue.

  • Your iPhone doesn't meet arrangement requirements. Shared Albums crave at least iOS 7 or college.
  • Cellular data is blocked for Photos. Allow Photos to use cellular data by going to Settings > Cellular and turning on Photos.
  • iCloud Photos is down. Use Apple'south System Status page to make sure iCloud Photos is upward.
  • The Wi-Fi connection is poor. Try connecting your iPhone to a dissimilar Wi-Fi network or using your cellular data.

If you're looking to share your photo library between all of your ain personal devices, rather than sharing with friends and family, then yous might desire to consider My Photo Stream. It automatically and wirelessly syncs your recent pictures beyond all of your devices.

What is My Photograph Stream, and how does it piece of work?

The peachy affair almost My Photo Stream is that information technology doesn't utilise whatever of your iCloud storage, so you lot don't have to worry about infinite when you're using information technology. The downside is that it only syncs your terminal ane,000 pictures for upwards to xxx days. So while your recent pictures will automatically show upwardly on all your devices, if you want to save them on a particular device, you lot'll have to manually relieve the photos.

The beginning step to sharing photos beyond your devices is to make certain you lot have My Photo Stream enabled on all of them. To turn My Photo Stream on:

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Tap Photos.
  3. Plow on Upload to My Photo Stream.

My Photo Stream volition then appear in your Photos app as its own album. When you want to salve a motion picture, simply discover it in the My Photo Stream album and tap the Share icon > Save Epitome.

Sharing photos with friends and family unit or fifty-fifty beyond your own devices is super uncomplicated thanks to all the dandy features of iCloud Photos and My Photo Stream. And when you're using those features on your iPhone, they're all conveniently integrated into the Photos app. Now you can share your pictures privately without worrying near them existence all over your social media accounts for everyone to meet.