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User profile for user: Steve Porritt
Steve Porritt Author
User level: Level 2
317 points

How can I share ALL of my photos (58,000) in the Photos app (iCloud) with family members?

I have over 58,000 photos dating back 30 years in my Photos app. Lots of individual albums, some of which are shared. My son just asked if he could view all of the photos on his Apple devices. I thought that I could do that via Family Sharing, but alas, it is not that simple. Apparently, I have to select each photo (!!!!) and share in a Family album. That is going to take more years than I have left in my life—and I don't plan on kicking off anytime soon.


Surely there is a simpler and faster way to select (i.e., all) and share large numbers of photos with family members? I suppose that I could give him the Photos data file, but last time I looked, it was over 250 GB in size. And it wouldn't update with new photos.


Any ideas?

Posted on Apr 28, 2020 3:11 AM

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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,779 points

Posted on Apr 28, 2020 4:45 AM

The only way to share the complete Photos Library is by giving a copy of the photos Library to the family members. Copy the Photos Library to an external volume (prepared as described here):

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

It is important to set the "Ignore Ownership on this volume" flag to prevent errors with the file ownership. Then your family members can open this library in turn from their user accounts and copy the photos they want to use.

If you have the paid version of Power Photos, you can occasionally move new albums into the shared library.



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User profile for user: léonie
léonie
User level: Level 10
197,779 points

Apr 28, 2020 4:45 AM in response to Steve Porritt

The only way to share the complete Photos Library is by giving a copy of the photos Library to the family members. Copy the Photos Library to an external volume (prepared as described here):

Move your Photos library to save space on your Mac - Apple Support

It is important to set the "Ignore Ownership on this volume" flag to prevent errors with the file ownership. Then your family members can open this library in turn from their user accounts and copy the photos they want to use.

If you have the paid version of Power Photos, you can occasionally move new albums into the shared library.



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How can I share ALL of my photos (58,000) in the Photos app (iCloud) with family members?

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