stanfromsequim

Q: iCloud photo sharing

I Have a Mac with so El Capitan. My photos on this computer are in a shared file with another user on the same computer. When I try to use photo sharing it doesn't recognize the shared files and doesn't upload them to iCloud storage. What to do?

MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2015), iOS 9.2

Posted on Aug 22, 2016 4:29 PM

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Q: iCloud photo sharing

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  • by LarryHN,

    LarryHN LarryHN Aug 22, 2016 6:02 PM in response to stanfromsequim
    Level 10 (84,105 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 22, 2016 6:02 PM in response to stanfromsequim

    You need to provide details as we can not see you

    My photos on this computer are in a shared file with another user on the same computer.

    Please explain this - exactly what are you doing? Photos has no multiuser capability

     

    LN

  • by snofamthrlsgoat,

    snofamthrlsgoat snofamthrlsgoat Aug 22, 2016 6:10 PM in response to stanfromsequim
    Level 1 (25 points)
    iWork
    Aug 22, 2016 6:10 PM in response to stanfromsequim

    it sounds like you are describing two different features.

    iCloud Photo Sharing is only accessible through the Photos app on your Mac.

    please look at this article iCloud Photo Sharing - Apple Support

    iCloud Drive is where you can place files to be uploaded to iCloud so that you have access across your devices.

    check this out iCloud Drive FAQ - Apple Support

     

    which of the two features of iCloud best match what you're attempting to accomplish?

    in either case, the user of the Mac needs to be signed in to your iCloud account in System Preferences for any iCloud communication to work.

  • by stanfromsequim,

    stanfromsequim stanfromsequim Aug 24, 2016 12:56 PM in response to LarryHN
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 24, 2016 12:56 PM in response to LarryHN

    When I first imported my pictures into my Mac I put the photos library into a shared directory instead of into a specific user directory. Now my wife can access all the photos when she is logged into her userid just like I can when im logged into my userid. We then sorted all our photos and created albums for our specific needs. So she has an album for all her photos which are broken up into sub albums. I did the same thing with mine and we also have some albums that we both use. This has worked well. So now what I want to do is for both of us to be able to take photos with our phones and be able to have those photos available to each other as well as to be able to put them into our individual albums where we so desire. So if she takes a picture of a flower with her iphone I want her to be able to put that picture into her flowers sub album in my iCloud storage and where all our pictures have been stored from my Mac. I guess this means she has to be able to access my iCloud storage Where all the pictures and albums are stored. So can I upload all my photos to my iCloud storage and then create a shared album that contains all of these photos and albums So she can access them? It is a little confusing. I hope this explains what I am trying to do.

  • by snofamthrlsgoat,Apple recommended

    snofamthrlsgoat snofamthrlsgoat Aug 24, 2016 4:12 PM in response to stanfromsequim
    Level 1 (25 points)
    iWork
    Aug 24, 2016 4:12 PM in response to stanfromsequim

    i haven't tried exactly what you're doing, but with my experience when a Library is being stored in a Shared directory, it has limitations. i tried to put a System Library on a network drive and it wasn't allowed.

    in order to function with iCloud Photo Library, the library has to be the "System Library" and it will only work with 1 users iCloud, not both. here is more on the idea of System Library https://help.apple.com/photos/mac/1.2/#/pht211de786

    photos choose library.png

    i don't think you'll be able to make a library in a shared directory a System Library so that it works with iCloud Photo Library, that would conflict with each user having separate iCloud accounts, permission issues i would imagine as well. you could export batches of images from the library in the shared directory, importing them into a System Library with iCloud enabled, and put the photos in a Shared Album for access across devices.

     

    it would be worth seeing if iCloud Photo Sharing would be the right solution, so that each of you has access to a stream of images Get help using iCloud Photo Sharing and shared albums - Apple Support.

  • by stanfromsequim,

    stanfromsequim stanfromsequim Aug 26, 2016 9:53 AM in response to snofamthrlsgoat
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 26, 2016 9:53 AM in response to snofamthrlsgoat

    So here is what I found out: I have almost all the photos uploaded from the shared pictures library on my mac. The pictures library is in a directory called "shared". I can look on my iPad and my iPhone and see the pictures that have been uploaded so far. It is very slow and shuts down often due to some iCloud limitations. I just stop it and start it up the next day. I have 600 items left to go out of 6000 total. I created a "family" sharing album and put a picture from my wife's iPhone into it. It then appeared in my family album on my mac. I then imported it into "all photos" on my mac and then I could edit it or whatever I wanted. So right now if we want to get all our photos together we will have to do it this way but I don't see us doing that very often. Only if we take photos on a trip or something and want to keep them in our main photos library which is mine. Apple could make this a lot easier if we were able to share our iCloud space. I don't think you can do this now. The family sharing option is really not useful for this. Oh the wonderful world of computers.  Thanks

  • by snofamthrlsgoat,Helpful

    snofamthrlsgoat snofamthrlsgoat Aug 31, 2016 2:53 PM in response to stanfromsequim
    Level 1 (25 points)
    iWork
    Aug 31, 2016 2:53 PM in response to stanfromsequim

    another alternative might be to connect your wife's phone to the Mac and import directly into the desired library.

    from Camera Roll > Import to Library, skip iCloud Photo Sharing.

  • by stanfromsequim,

    stanfromsequim stanfromsequim Aug 31, 2016 2:52 PM in response to snofamthrlsgoat
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Photos for Mac
    Aug 31, 2016 2:52 PM in response to snofamthrlsgoat

    So the solution for this is so simple. I just signed into iCloud using my apple id on both my wife's iPhone and her iPad.  I was careful not to include safari and mail so they wouldn't be messed up.  Now I have what I want. We both have access to all our photos from all our devices and can share all the albums and such. I have not found any problems with this yet but that may be because my wife does not utilize all the capability of her devices. She really only surfs the internet on her iPad and not her phone so not having bookmarks synced between those devices is not a problem for her.I really like being able to share my calendar with her and she can put her events into it and so I can look at the calendar and see what her schedule is and she can see what my schedule is. We are both retired so our calendar is pretty free. So this satisfies my needs at this time. Thanks for helping me on this.

     

    Stan