Sharing iCloud Shared Album photos, with correct metadata

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Sharing iCloud Shared Album photos, with correct metadata

I am assembling an iCloud shared album of older family photos. The date they were taken, where they were taken, and details I have added such as names in the caption are important.

I find it quite irritating that these data cannot be added, edited, corrected within the shared album (is that correct?).

Moreover, the location and captions are stripped out when posted (is that correct?).

And finally, while the date the photo was taken is usually retained (that's good), occasionally it is altered by a day or two. (This is not a problem of the date changing to the posted date, but to some other date close to the capture date but not quite.)

What am I doing wrong, and what is the best workaround?

iPad Air

Posted on Jan 9, 2026 4:52 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

léonie

Level 10

200,813 points

Jan 10, 2026 1:08 AM in response to RickAnderson55

Don't use shared albums for sharing photos, if you want to transfer photos with all metadata applied. Shared albums are meant for showing photos to each other, but avoiding to give away sensitive information or dumping too many data on the devices of unsuspecting subscribers. So the photos will automatically be optimized for sharing - metadata stripped, the photos downsized. I am adding the metadata back by adding a comment manually to each shared photo, when I share them in a shared album.

To transfer photos at the full resolution, with all metadata, you could share selected photos by Air Drop.

If you are using iCloud Photos you can share selected albums by sharing an iCloud link(Share photos and videos with an iCloud Link on iCloud.com - Apple Support) or invite selected people to a Shared iCloud Photos Library (Set up or view an iCloud Shared Photo Library on all your devices - Apple Support). Both methods will share the photos at the full resolution with the metadata embedded in the exif tags.

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Sharing iCloud Shared Album photos, with correct metadata

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