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Shared Albums not showing up in Photos for Mac but fine on iOS devices

Hope everyone is well,


Would appreciate some help on a Photos for Mac issue I'm having.


I have a MacBook Pro 16 running the latest OS (Catalina 10.15.5), an iPhone XR (iOS 13.5.1) and iPad Pro (iOS 13.5.1). All up to date. All signed in to my iCloud account. iCloud Photo Library is on for all devices. Shared Albums is toggled on on all devices.


I am trying to create shared albums so that my wife can see our family photos on her iPad and iPhone - both of which are also running the latest OS, signed in to her iCloud account and with iCloud Photo Library and Shared Albums toggled on.


I can create a shared album, invite my wife and add photos to it when doing so on my iPhone Photo app. The shared album shows up as it should on her iPhone and iPad and my iPhone and iPad. However:

  • The shared album created on my iPhone does NOT show up in Photo for Mac on my MacBook Pro.
  • If I try to create a shared album in Photos for Mac on the MacBook Pro it either does not send the invite to her at all OR it sends an invite which she can accept, but subsequently any photos I add to the album do not appear on her devices. In these scenarios the shared album also does NOT show up on my iPhone and iPad.


Now, I suppose I could keep creating shared albums on my iPhone as that seems to work in terms of my wife being able to see the shared albums. But I would rather create, view and manage these shared albums in Photos for Mac. Seem bizarre to me that I can not see them at all despite them being visible on my iOS devices.


I've tried toggling Shared Albums on and off several times on all devices, as per Apple support guidelines. Made no difference.


So any guidance appreciated.

Posted on Jun 9, 2020 9:44 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 9, 2020 12:12 PM

Try toggling the Shared Albums checkbox on and off a couple of times ending up with it checked.


If that fails to let you see the Shared Albums boot into Safe Mode (How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support) by booting with the Shift key held down and toggle the same checkbox again. Reboot normally and check to see if the problem persists.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 


4 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 9, 2020 12:12 PM in response to interbear

Try toggling the Shared Albums checkbox on and off a couple of times ending up with it checked.


If that fails to let you see the Shared Albums boot into Safe Mode (How to use safe mode on your Mac - Apple Support) by booting with the Shift key held down and toggle the same checkbox again. Reboot normally and check to see if the problem persists.

NOTE: Safe Mode boot can take up to 10 minutes as it's doing some system cache cleaning, volume verifying and directory repairing. 


Jun 10, 2020 5:26 AM in response to Old Toad

You are a star Old Toad - did as you suggested with safe mode, and my Shared Albums are now appearing in Photos for Mac. Invites working as they should etc. I should have clicked Solved on your post but did it on my earlier post by error, sorry. For anyone else reading this, Old Toad's advice above on restarting in safe mode did the trick.

Shared Albums not showing up in Photos for Mac but fine on iOS devices

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