Can I share an iCloud photo library between family members?

I am searching for a good photo and video backup solution for my entire family. Previously I was backing up photos to a Windows Home Server that did a weekly backup to Amazon's cloud storage; however, the system disk on the home server blew up, leaving me with the choice to rebuild the server or alternatively look for a more seamless, lightweight solution. I have large quantity of photos and video on a home server data drive, as well as a large number of photos that have been recently scanned to my MacBook pro. We have almost completely transitioned to Apple products and use Time Machine for Macbook backups, so that function of the Home Server is no longer useful.
I like the concept of Apple's iCloud Photo Library; however, I need a solution that allows photos from at least my wife's and my devices to be seamlessly backed up to the library. We use different iCloud IDs. The ideal use case would be that photos taken on any of our devices (across a set of iCloud IDs) would be shared within a single library.
Family Sharing allows you to share a number of things across family members, but currently the photo library doesn't appear to be one of them.
Any pointers on how to proceed? Will the OS X Photo app and the move to bring iCloud library to the Mac make any difference? Any alternative solutions?

Someone else can probably answer the family sharing question better than I can, but I wanted to respond with an alternate suggestion. I didn't find the features I wanted in family sharing, so I didn't give it much of a chance. It did seem like you'd have a separate album for each family member.
I just recently started using Flickr and it's great. I looked into it a few years ago and there were limitations on how many MB's you could upload per day and I don't remember being impressed by the amount of free storage. Now Flickr gives you 1000 GB for free and stores the image in the original quality and size. If you download the Flickr app on your phone, you can set it to automatically upload all of the new pictures on your iphone, ipad, etc. If you and a family member share a Flickr account, you can both auto sync your camera rolls into the same Flickr account.
Personally, I'm using Flickr as a way to automatically back up photos for free. I quickly ran out of free icloud storage and I haven't wanted to pay for more.In Flickr, the auto uploads from your phone are set to private by default, but you could use flickr to share albums with friends who don't own any apple products... unlike icloud photo sharing, that only allows your friends with an apple device to view shared albums.

Similar Messages

  • HT6378 Can I share my iCloud-Photo-Library with my wife, so that photos from my iPhone and all photos from my wifes iPhone are in the same Photo-Library?

    I have a Apple-ID and my wife has her own Apple-ID, but I want to use only one iCloud-Photo-Library. Is that possible?
    I have created a Family-Sharing, but when I now set Foto-Library to on at both of our iPhones, I have one Library for my wife and another one for me.
    Is there a trick?

    Someone else can probably answer the family sharing question better than I can, but I wanted to respond with an alternate suggestion. I didn't find the features I wanted in family sharing, so I didn't give it much of a chance. It did seem like you'd have a separate album for each family member.
    I just recently started using Flickr and it's great. I looked into it a few years ago and there were limitations on how many MB's you could upload per day and I don't remember being impressed by the amount of free storage. Now Flickr gives you 1000 GB for free and stores the image in the original quality and size. If you download the Flickr app on your phone, you can set it to automatically upload all of the new pictures on your iphone, ipad, etc. If you and a family member share a Flickr account, you can both auto sync your camera rolls into the same Flickr account.
    Personally, I'm using Flickr as a way to automatically back up photos for free. I quickly ran out of free icloud storage and I haven't wanted to pay for more.In Flickr, the auto uploads from your phone are set to private by default, but you could use flickr to share albums with friends who don't own any apple products... unlike icloud photo sharing, that only allows your friends with an apple device to view shared albums.

  • ICloud Photo Library and Family Sharing

    Does anyone know how the iCloud Photo Library and Family Sharing accounts interact?  I'd rather not have to specify what to share with the rest of the family if I don't have to.

    Each family member has their own Apple ID, but uses the main one for purchases.  It seems to make sense that each AppleID could have its own Photos library, but I can't find anything in the support area that says this to be the case definitively.  I want each family member to have their own Photos library that syncs between their iPhone and their ID. I hope that's how it works.

  • HT204486 Sharing Photo library with family members with different iCloud accounts?

    How might one share Photos library with family members with their own Apple IDs?

    I would try the following:
    1. Create a smart album. Match condition as "Album" is "Any". That should capture all your photos and videos as of now.
    2. Share that Album via iCloud photo sharing, sending invitations to the family members.

  • Share iCloud Photo Library between two iCloud Accounts

    I'm hoping someone can think of a creative solution to a problem I've encountered after upgrading to the latest OS on our Apple devices. Here is our specific use case:
    Prior to iOS 8/OS X Yosemite, this was my configuration
    Each Device (iPhone, iPod, iPad, Mac) was configured as such:
    Primary iCloud Account: shared family account - [email protected] iPhone, calendar, reminders, Photostream enabled
    Secondary iCloud Account: individual unique account - [email protected], calendar, reminders, mail enabled
    This allows each user to have their own content under their unique iCloud account that was a secondary account on each device, but still have access to all of the shared services setup under the common Primary iCloud account on each device.
    Most importantly, Photostream allowed EVERY photo on EVERY device to be automatically shared with every other device.
    Post iOS 8/OS X Yosemite:
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    BUT, due to Continuity and Hand-Off relying on the primary iCloud account, there is no way to share one iCloud Photo Gallery account across multiple users. The only way I've found to do that is to maintain a common primary iCloud account on each device that handles the iCloud Photo Gallery syncing, but then every device will respond to Hand-off and Continuity actions, which is obviously not ideal.
    To recap, I want individual iCloud accounts on every device per user so that Handoff and Continuity work correctly, BUT I want one common iCloud Photo Gallery across all accounts so that every picture is shared with every device without having to manually add them to a shared album.
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    For iPhoto 09 (version 8.0.2) and later:
    What you mean by 'share'.
    If you want the other user to be able to see the pics, but not add to, change or alter your library, then enable Sharing in your iPhoto (Preferences -> Sharing), leave iPhoto running and use Fast User Switching to open the other account. In that account, enable 'Look For Shared Libraries'. Your Library will appear in the other source pane.
    Any user can drag a pic from the Shared Library to their own in the iPhoto Window.
    Remember iPhoto must be running in both accounts for this to work.
    If you want the other user to have the same access to the library as you: to be able to add, edit, organise, keyword etc.
    Quit iPhoto in both accounts. Move the Library to the Users / Shared Folder
    (You can also use an external HD set to ignore permissions, a Disk Image or even partition your Hard Disk.)
    In each account in turn: Double click on the Library to open it. (You may be asked to repair the Library Permissions.) From that point on, this will be the default library location. Both accounts will have full access to the library, in fact, both accounts will 'own' it.
    However, there is a catch with this system and it is a significant one. iPhoto is not a multi-user app., it does not have the code to negotiate two users simultaneously writing to the database, and trying will cause db corruption. So only one user at a time, and back up, back up back up.

  • How do I share one iCloud Photo Library

    We are in our late 60's (years of age). We have 3,500 pics on the Mac,
    I now have PHOTOS on my Mac, my iPhoto Library is 8.99GB. 
    I am almost ready to jump to use iCloud Photo Library. I know I will need to up it to 20GB @ .99 cents a month (a deal if all this works out)
    How can she and I access my *(our)* photos in iCloud Photo Library.
    Our Stuff::
    Mac Book Pro 2011 13"           OSX 10.10.3 I have two external HD's as back ups, on on Time Machine, on with SupperDupper.
    My phone iPhone 5:16GB      iOS 8.03,
    my wifes iPhone iPhone 5:16GB iOS 6, (yeah, I know!!)
    Yes, I will got through the hurdle of upgrading and teaching her iOS 8.03 on her phone.
    She has always had an Apple ID but never even used the App Store for a purchase.
    So, I do all of that how does she access the pics to show her friends.
    Is Family Sharing as bad as many have said: Maybe that's for another question/group.
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    Thank you Apple Community in advance for any advice of a positive nature.
    jojoguitar_mn_USA

    You mention she hasn't made a purchase on her AppleID. But does she use unique iCloud features? Does she use her own email, Calendar and contacts provided by iCloud?
    If she effectively shares all the iCloud feature set with you, you could safely just use her device(s) as your own. If you look in the iCloud settings you'll notice some can be turned on and off, like mail and calendars, etc. Those services are accessible as a secondary account. The services like Find my iPhone and Photos are only accessible from the primary iCloud account.
    If that particular service set works for your needs-
    Set the primary iCloud account on her phone with your credentials.
    Then the Photo library available via iCloud photos will be the same one you sync with on your mac.
    If not - you can't do what you want. You have to set up family sharing and use the Family Album. Share your photos to the Family album and they'll be visible to her, but not her library.

  • How does a family share an iCloud Photo Library?

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    I recently spend a lot of time and effort moving our family of 4 to a Family Sharing program.  It works nicely for music and apps.
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    3 - Again, I provided insufficient information.  I have a NAS to which I have offline storage of iPhoto.  I execute a weekly cron job which rsync's to the NAS - copying a bunch of data.  iPhoto, iTunes music, etc.
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