Q: sort order in iCloud shared photo stream

Apple changed the text on that page and the terminology in November, long after I wrote my answer in June 2014. This discussion started out discussing Shared Photo Streams, as introduced with iOS 7, a possibly endless stream of photos added to the stream to share with someone.

In iOS 8 the shared photo streams are now appearing in the Photos.app on a "Shared album" page. Perhaps the terminology change you are pointing out is an indication that "Shared Streams" one day will be true albums, that can be sorted.

Added: This change in terminology is making it difficult to refer to Shared Photo Streams consistently. The Mac application documentation/Help for iPhoto and Aperture is still calling the "Shared Albums" by the previous names - "Shared Photo Stream". And that is the way these items are still behaving - the are streams of photos.  iOS 8 is now calling them "albums", and this new name is promising too much (right now).

Not sure whose post you're responding to, because the points you make have nothing to do with mine.

Also, try taking a breath; discussion in the Apple Support Community forums need not involve emotional energy.

I understand. Thanks for clarifying.

You're welcome.

It can be done, but you have to trick iCloud software to do it.  To replicate an iPhoto album in iCloud, first set iCloud preferences in iPhoto to Photo Share.  Don't click My Photo Stream.  Then create your iCloud Event in iPhoto by adding only one photo – the LAST one in the album you want iCloud to exhibit.  Then add each photo, one at a time, in reverse order, to your iCloud event.

What you'll get in the Web version is a vertical scrolling of photos in correct order, top to bottom.  Clicking on any photo will get you to a slideshow that also runs in the same order as in your iPhoto Album.  If you don't load your photos one at time, slideshow will not necessarily run in the desired order.

YEP - exactly what I was looking to do.

I know I have a potential high-end client and by adding her iPhone # to invite, she will always have my portfolio shot with the best camera (D800) sized for iPad Retina (2048px) to view on the best possible device at any given time, in her Photos app, swiping away.

Would be nice to arrange them in a preferred order. The Shared albums in the iOS app is the easiest and highest quality display method I know of. And she would never have to look for a link, just open that app.

*sigh* hopefully an enhanced feature in the new iOS and El Capitan and the engineers are reading these boards!

I have the exact opposite problem.  I have a sequence of photos that I WANT to store in chronological order (it's a sunset sequence) but ICloud insists on storing them in some random sequence that only it can understand the reason for.

What the hey?  I'm PAYING for this service, why isn't some sort of sequencing control provided?  Even Facebook lets you post pictures in order when posting an album.

Let's just call this for what it actually is.. a massive fail. I understand that some people want to see the newest photos first and on long streams it would be impossible to find the new photos amongst 000's but surely there should be an option to have a custom setting so that for the people who want to set photos in a chronological order, they can.

"Picture" the scenario, a baby is born and mother and father take lots of pictures of the newborn and share them with their friends and family. Over the months and years other photos are added by subscribers as the baby grows up only that someone has a really cute picture of the baby from week 3 that they never added. Should that have to be published alongside pictures from the 2nd birthday if that's when the user found this cute picture or should it be able to aligned with the other pictures from that period in time. Either way the user should have the choice.

Maybe I'm just too organised but Apple are usually first class for organisation.

You are mislead by the name "Shared Album".  This sharing feature is not really an album. The previous name "Shared Photo Stream" was more adequate. The Shared albums are just a way to send a stream of photos to friends and familiy, but no way to organize an album of photos. The photos cannot be rearranged and we cannot add captions or titles.

We drop photos into the shared album, and the recipients grab them and create albums in their own photos library, where they can add titles, keywords, captions, and arrange the photos and make backup copies.  In the Shared albums are the photos not save.

I agree, it would nice it could be truly used as a "shared album" and enjoy all the benefits of a real album including sorting. Maybe one day. As far as the objection of difficulty finding the newest photos among thousands, that's not an issue, Apple has already taken care of that with the Activity view; it wouldn't matter where the new photos were sorted in the album, anyone could still immediately jump to the newly added ones by looking at the latest Activity. Google is apparently also going to add a "shared album" feature to their Photos product, it will be interesting what approach they take in this regard.

I have read through all of the posts. I just returned from a group trip and want to find a sharing site for everyone to share their pictures.  Many are senior citizens so it has to be easy. They must also be able to download pictures they want in high quality. I would like the pictures to go in chronological order as there will be a LOT of pictures as there were 30 people on our trip.  if I can't do what I want through iPhoto, who do you suggest?  Open a designated Facebook? Google pictures, or what.  HELP!!!!  Thank you

Flickr.

Really?  I'll check it out ... thanks!

Oddly, it worked for all the pix taken same day, but when I changed dates of photos taken next day (actually JPEG graphics I imported), those still appear at end of slideshow. Odd.