How to share albums in Photos app on your Mac

You can use the shared album function in the Photos app on your Mac to share your photos and videos with others.

On this page, I will explain in detail how to use the shared album function using screenshots.

Conditions for using the shared albums in Photos app

Item	Description
macOS versions	10.9 Mavericks or later However, depending on the version of macOS, the name of the app will be different as follows. 10.10.3 Yosemite or later: Photos app 10.10.2 Yosemite or former: iPhoto app
iCloud account	Need to login
Shared album option	Need to be enabled

Advantages and disadvantages of the two sharing targets

If you use the album sharing function in the Photos app on your Mac, you can set the following two types of sharing range.

• a) Share with specific persons (Only iCloud users)
• b) Share with unspecified persons (Not only iCloud users)

The following is a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Target	Advantage	Disadvantage
a) Specific persons	High security as sharing is limited to the owner of the iCloud account Sharers can also comment Sharers can also add photos and videos	The person you share with must also have an iCloud account
b) Unspecific persons	The person you share with doesn’t need to have an iCloud account You can publish the album to the whole world	You need to be more careful when handling private photos. Share partners can’t add comments Share partners can’t add photos NG

① How to enable shared albums function

▶ In Finder, launch the “Photos” app in the “Applications” folder.

▶ When the “Photos” app starts, select “Photos” -> “Preferences…” from the menu bar.

▶ When the “Preferences” screen is displayed, click the tab “iCloud” at the top of the screen and check “Shared Albums” to enable it.

② How to create a shared album

The method introduced here is to create an empty shared album.

If you create a shared album this way, it doesn’t contain any photos or videos at first, so you’ll need to register them later.

• ④ How to add photos / movies to the shared albums

Apart from that, please refer to the following items for how to create a shared album from the existing album.

• ③ How to create a shared album from the existing album

Here’s how to create a new empty shared album.

▶ Launch the “Photos” app and click the + button to the right of the “Shared Albums” folder / name in the left column.

▶ When the album setting screen opens as shown, set each item.

▶ After setting each item, click the “Create” button at the bottom right.

▶ If setting “Invite People…”, the invited persons will receive an email as shown in the figure below.

Click the “Join” button in the body of the email to display the shared album in your web browser.

▶ The shared album is displayed in the web browser as shown.

However, at the moment, no photos or videos are added, so nothing is displayed.

To add the photos and videos you want to display, proceed to the following items.

• ④ How to add / remove photos / movies in shared albums

③ How to create a shared album from the existing album

▶ Launch the “Photos” app and click the album for which you want to create a shared album from the “My Albums” list in the left column.

In the figure below, “macOS Desktop Pictures” is clicked as a sample.

▶ To create a shared album from an existing selected album, do one of the following:

• a) In the menu bar, select “File” -> “Share” -> “Shared Albums”
• b) In the toolbar, select the “Share” icon -> “Shared Albums”

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▶ When the “Add to Shared album” screen is displayed as shown in the figure, set each item.

▶ If you select “New Shared Album”, the setting method is the same as the following items, so please refer to that.

• ② How to create a shared album

▶ On the other hand, if you click “Existing Shared Albums”, photos and videos will be added to the existing shared albums immediately.

④ How to add / remove photos / movies in shared albums

Please refer to the following items for how to add the entire contents of an existing album to the shared album.

• ③ How to create a shared album from the existing album

Here’s how to add individual photos and videos to your shared albums.

▶ In the Photos app, select the photos / videos you want to add to your shared album.

The selected photos / videos will change the color of the borders of them.

There are the following types of selection methods:

Method	How to operate
Select only one	Click the photos / movies with the mouse or trackpad
Select multiple consecutive	Below are the steps: ① Hold down shift key on your keyboard ② Click and hold the margin near the start point with your mouse / trackpad ③ Drag the mouse / trackpad to the end point ④ Take your finger off the keyboard and mouse / trackpad
Select multiple non-consecutive	Below are the steps: ① Hold down command ⌘ key on your keyboard ② Click the photos / movies with the mouse or trackpad ③ Take your finger off the keyboard and mouse / trackpad
Select all	Press command ⌘ + A keys on your keyboard
Deselect all	Click on an empty margin

▶ After selecting the addition targets, do one of the following operations.

• a) In the menu bar, select “File” -> “Share” -> “Shared Albums”
• b) In the toolbar, select the “Share” icon -> “Shared Albums”
• c) In the right-click menu, select “Share” -> “Shared Albums”
• d) Using drag and drop, add to the album list in the left column of the “Photos” app

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⑤ How to delete photos / videos from shared albums

Deleting photos / videos from shared albums don’t remove them from the Photos app.

Therefore, all you have to do is select the targets you want to delete in “Shared Albums” and delete them.

The following is an explanation of the actual operation method.

▶ In the Photos app, select the photos / videos you want to remove from the shared albums.

The selected photos / videos will change the color of the border of them.

There are the following types of selection methods:

Method	How to operate
Select only one	Click the photos / movies with the mouse or trackpad
Select multiple consecutive	Below are the steps: ① Hold down shift key on your keyboard ② Click and hold the margin near the start point with your mouse / trackpad ③ Drag the mouse / trackpad to the end point ④ Take your finger off the keyboard and mouse / trackpad
Select multiple non-consecutive	Below are the steps: ① Hold down command ⌘ key on your keyboard ② Click the photos / movies with the mouse or trackpad ③ Take your finger off the keyboard and mouse / trackpad
Select all	Press command ⌘ + A keys on your keyboard
Deselect all	Click on an empty margin

▶ After selecting the delete targets, do one of the following operations.

• a) In the menu bar, select “Image” -> “Share” -> “Delete from Shared Album”
• b) In the right-click menu, select “Share” -> “Delete from Shared Album”
• d) On your keyboard, press delete ⌫ key

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▶ When the deletion confirmation screen is displayed as shown in the figure, click the “Delete” button.

▶ When they are removed from the shared album, that’s done.

⑥ How to change the targets (and other settings) for the shared albums

The method of changing the sharing targets (and other settings) when creating a shared album is explained in the following items.

• ② How to create a shared album
• ③ How to create a shared album from the existing album

This section describes how to change the sharing targets (and other settings) for the shared albums that has already been created.

▶ In the “Photos” app, select the shared album for which you want to change the settings.

▶ From the toolbar on the top right, click the human-shaped “Member” icon.

▶ When the sharing setting screen is displayed as shown in the figure, set each item.

After completing the settings, click an appropriate location that is not within the settings screen to save the settings and close the settings screen.

⑦ How to delete shared albums

▶ In the “Photos” app, select the shared album for which you want to delete.

▶ After selecting it, do one of the following operations.

• a) In the right-click menu, select “Delete Shared Album”
• b) On your keyboard, press delete ⌫ key
• c) In the toolbar, select “Member” -> “Delete Shared Album”

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▶ When the deletion confirmation screen is displayed as shown in the figure, click the “Delete” button.

▶ When the shared album is deleted from the shared albums, that’s done.

Reference information