iOS 16 iCloud Shared Photo Library: Everything You Need to Know

iOS 16 adds an iCloud Shared Photo Library to make sharing photos with your friends and family easier than ever. You can create a shared library and then invite any of your friends with an Apple product to view photos, contribute photos, and edit photos.


This guide covers all of the features that you need to know about to use ‌iCloud‌ Shared Photo Library when ‌iOS 16‌ launches in September.

Creating a Shared Photo Library

After updating to ‌iOS 16‌, you can set up a Shared Library either through the pop-up interface or through the Set-Up option in the Settings section of the Photos app.


Tap on "Add Participants" to select people to share with, inviting them through Messages or through a link.


You can choose the images that you want to add to the Shared Library from your own iCloud Photo Library. Options include sharing all photos and videos, photos and videos by person or date, or manually selected photos.


You can then preview the content that you've added to the Library before opting to share everything. If it all looks good, tapping on the "Continue" button will create the shared library.

iCloud Shared Photo Library Capabilities

Each person invited to participate in an ‌iCloud‌ Shared Photo Library can add, edit, caption, favorite, and delete photos, just as if it were their own photo library.

There are no limitations, and all participants have the same permissions.

You can opt to get a notification when someone deletes images from the shared library, with the toggle available in the Shared Library heading in the ‌Photos‌ section of the Settings app.

iCloud Shared Photo Library Limitations

You can share an ‌iCloud Photo Library‌ with up to five other people, so six people in total can use one library. The person who creates the ‌iCloud‌ Shared Photo Library will be the "host," and their ‌iCloud‌ storage space will be used for the shared photos.

It's worth noting that when you add your personal photos from your library to the shared library, the images are moved from the personal library to the shared library, so ‌iCloud‌ storage space/device storage space is not taken up twice and photos are not duplicated.

Sharing Photos From Camera

If you're at an event with someone who you share a library with, you can opt to share photos from the camera directly to the library, making all of your shots instantly available to all participants.


In the Camera app, you can tap the icon that looks like two people to swap between automatic uploading to the shared library and your personal library.

Sharing Options

Sharing can be enabled when participants are nearby using Bluetooth proximity, through the Camera app, or manually, with options available in the Settings app.


The iPhone will also suggest content to share in the For You section of the ‌Photos‌ app, but you can turn it off if you want.

With the Settings app, you can turn off Sharing from Camera altogether to get rid of the toggle, or you can opt in to Sharing Automatically, which will automatically add all photos you take to the shared library. The automatic feature uses Bluetooth to determine when someone you share a library with is nearby, and it only uploads when you're with that person.

There's also an opt-in "Share When at Home" feature that always adds photos and videos from the Camera even when other participants are not there.

If you want to upload every photo that you take to the shared library even when not at home or not with a person you share with, there does not appear to be an option for it.

Swapping Between Personal and Shared Library

To swap from your main ‌iCloud Photo Library‌ to your Shared ‌iCloud Photo Library‌, you can tap on the three-dot icon in the upper right of the Library view in the ‌Photos‌ app.


From there, you can elect to see your Personal Library, your Shared Library, or both at once.

Deleting a Shared Library

If you are the person who manages the Shared Library, you can opt to delete it in the Settings app. Just go to ‌Photos‌ > Shared Library > Delete Shared Library.

Shared Memories

‌Photos‌ from the shared library will show up in Memories, Featured ‌Photos‌, and the ‌Photos‌ widget.

Guide Feedback

Have questions about ‌iCloud‌ Shared Photo Library in ‌iOS 16‌, know of a feature we left out, or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

Related Roundups: iOS 16, iPadOS 16

This article, "iOS 16 iCloud Shared Photo Library: Everything You Need to Know" first appeared on MacRumors.com

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