Unable To Share Photo Stream With Anyone

Question

Level 1

137 points

Unable To Share Photo Stream With Anyone

ve been navigating the very unintuitive process to share photos on both the Photos App on the iPad as well as iPhoto on OS X. I understand the iPhone adds yet another different way to do the same thing, so we'll skip that for now as this has more to do with the actual service it seems since I cannot share photos with anyone else from either the iPad or the Mac.

In short: When I try to add a name to the list of shared persons, I enter the e-mail address in the field, and when I click away and click back on the Mac, the e-mail address is gone. I am the only person listed on the shared list of people. Similarly the iPad gives me the ability to add a name, but doesn't show me who is already subscribed ... at least it doesn't show me (the owner) as it does on the iPhoto App. When I enter an e-mail address there, it shows up under the "Subscribers" for an instant, then immediately dissapears. iPhoto on the Mac confirms that they were not added to the subscriber list.

OK, so what goes on here? I could understand it might be an upgrade related issue if it didn't happen on both my Mac and my iPad. So is this yet another Apple bug of a promoted feature of iOS 6? Or am I just not understanding how to do this? I can't find any instructions anywhere to confirm whether I am doing it correctly.

Bottom line: I cannot add ANYBODY to the shared subscriber list the way it is adverstised that I am supposed to be able to.

Is there some criterea that I am overlooking for they type of subscriber who can be added? It doesn't seem to work with .mac, or .me iCloud addresses, nor any others. So I am at a loss.

Thanks ...

Posted on Sep 24, 2012 1:59 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 24, 2012 4:41 PM in response to Woodwyn

If you create a Shared Photo Stream that's available to the "public" via the web page, do you encounter the same trouble? Those Shared Photo Streams don't have to be restricted to iCloud users. I can't seem to add people at all on my iPhone but it's working correctly for me using Aperture. (I still have iLife '09 iPhoto.) I can add people, quit Aperture, open Aperture and the changes are there.

-Doug

EDIT: I just figured out how to add people on my iPhone and it immediately updated the Aperture library. So, the service seems to be avaialble and functioning for other people.

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Answer 2

Woodwyn Author

Level 1

137 points

Sep 24, 2012 5:00 PM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

Hi, yes, I've created a Stream that's available to the public, via the "public website" option. I've tried to enter both iCloud (@me, @mac) addresses as well as others (Gmail, Yahoo), and neither the iPad, nor iPhoto take them. They appear briefly but then go away. My understanding is that there is supposed to be some kind of invitation sent which the reciever must accept before the stream becomes shared with them, but so far none of the test e-mails have resulted in this "invitation".

I do not have Aperture, but I do have the iPhoto app on the iPad, recently updated for iOS 6, and it does not even have the option to share to Photo Stream, which I thought was supposed to do.

This seems very strange that it is working on none of my devices. I am just updating my iPhone 3GS now (waiting to update my iPhone 4 until I figure out a good solution for the Maps debacle). I will post back the results if I am having any better luck with the iPhone than I have with the iPad or iPhoto on the Mac.

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Answer 3

Woodwyn Author

Level 1

137 points

Sep 24, 2012 6:04 PM in response to Douglas McLaughlin

Well, I just finished installing iOS 6 on my iPhone 3GS. The exact same thing happens there when I try to add a name to the shared list. It appears briefly and then flashes off. No invitation is sent to the recipient. ANd yes, sharing is handled completely differently on the iPhone than on the iPad.

This must be an iCloud problem, specific to my account, since other users do not have the problem, and it affects all three of my upgraded devices? I guess I will contact Apple ...

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Answer 4

Oct 29, 2012 1:19 AM in response to Woodwyn

I see the exact same thing from both my iphone 5 and iPad 3. If I invite more than one person at one time, they don't disapear but they never receive the invite either.

Lame.

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Answer 5

Oct 29, 2012 1:38 AM in response to boogybren

Ok, I found the solution.

I was trying to invite using any old email address. You can only invite someone by using THEIR iCloud email address.

It works, but super unintuitive.

HTH

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Answer 6

hubyduby

Level 1

20 points

Oct 27, 2013 10:58 AM in response to Woodwyn

Apologies for the thread necromancy! I had a similar problem from my wife's iphone 4S. She created a new photo stream on her phone and tried to send invitation to me via email and phone number and nothing popped up on my phone. I was able to create a photo stream on my iPhone and she received and accepted my invitation but I still did not receive her invitation. I struggled with this for a while and checked how she listed me in her contacts. my phone number is listed as mobile and not iPhone. I changed it to iPhone and resent the invitation... Bam! Invite received on my iPhone.

That's weird. The phone number she had was correct and the email address is also correct. What if she were sending photos stream invites from iPad to iPad, would my email address work then? Does my phone only accept photo stream invites by phone number only?

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