Move Photos from one Apple ID/iCloud to another

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Level 1

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Move Photos from one Apple ID/iCloud to another

My mother recently passed away. She had about 2000 photos from the last 10 years that she stored in the Photos app and backed up to her iCloud under her Apple ID. As I prepare to shutdown her iPhone and Apple account, I would like to move those photos to an album or library under my own Apple ID. In that way, I hope to then have a shared album or library that I can share with my sister, so we can go through all her photos on our own schedule.

I have already exported all the photos to a backup drive for safe keeping, but in doing so, there turned out to be multiple duplicate file names that were overwritten or skipped. Hence, I would really like to be able to copy/move her library as is within Apple's ecosystem to Photos / iCloud under my account.

Thanks for any help.

Posted on Apr 28, 2023 4:25 PM

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Answer 1

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jonadodds

Level 1

80 points

Apr 28, 2023 4:43 PM in response to peknapp

So, it might be possible to do that by using a “Shared iCloud Photo Library”

If your mum’s phone is running, or is capable of running, iOS 16.1 or later then all her photos can be shared directly to both you and your sister, provided you are both also running iOS 16.1 and later.

Instructions for doing so, and all the options in usage can be found here:

How to use iCloud Shared Photo Library - Apple Support

I hope that might help.

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Answer 2

May 3, 2023 3:41 AM in response to peknapp

So when you mom’s shared photo library is finally deleted you will have the option to keep all the photos in your own personal library, as will your sister.

But please note you will have had to have joined her library for a minimum of seven days before you can do so.

Don’t delete her library or Apple ID immediately after you have joined the shared library and downloaded all the photos because the options for what you can do with those photos will be different. You will not be able to save them all.

The technicalities and options behind that are explained on this page:

Leave iCloud Shared Photo Library

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Answer 3

peknapp Author

Level 1

8 points

May 1, 2023 6:47 PM in response to jonadodds

My concern here is that I wish to ultimately delete her Apple ID and account. If her account is sharing a library, does it go away when her account is deleted?

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Answer 4

peknapp Author

Level 1

8 points

May 3, 2023 1:35 PM in response to jonadodds

I’ll give that a shot. Thanks for your help.

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Move Photos from one Apple ID/iCloud to another

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