No one likes multi-megabyte attachments. That’s why iOS 12 and later lets you quickly share iPhone pictures and videos from your Photos app by generating Dropbox-style links that anyone, including non-Apple users, can open to view and download the items. In this tutorial, we show you how to make it happen.
Takeaways:
- iOS 12 and later allows you to create shared links for a selection of photos and videos
- Anyone with a link can browse, view, and download the items
- Macs, Windows, and other devices access the shared items via iCloud.com
- With iOS, shared links open right in the Photos app
- Links automatically expire after 30 days
Photos for Mac currently lacks this link-generation feature.
No one likes multi-megabyte attachments
To see the stuff you shared, your recipient simply opens a shared link. This should be especially useful when sharing multiple photos and videos with non-Apple devices. Your device uploads the shared items to iCloud, but these don’t count against your storage allotment quota. You’ll save a bunch of bandwidth if you share media this way because all you’re sending is a link.
When tapped on iOS, the link opens in Photos.
On the desktop, clicking an iCloud sharing link received through Messages, email, or other means opens a preview at iCloud.com. The shared link is accessible to anyone that has it for up to a month before it expires.
Any edits made to a shared item on your device will not reflect on the recipient(s) devices. What recipients see and download is a version of the image at the time of sharing.
Related: How to easily turn an iPhone photo album into a public website
Prerequisites
This is what you’ll need to generate iCloud.com sharing links:
- iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch with iOS 12 or later
- iCloud Photos must be enabled in Settings
Folks you send the media links to don’t need to have iCloud Photos enabled on their end.
How to share iPhone photos and videos via a link
Do the following to generate a sharing link for one or more items in your Photos library:
1) Open the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad.
2) Go to Albums or Library to see your pictures.
3) Tap Select in the upper-right corner and pick one or more media items you’d like to send to someone.
4) Select the Share button.
5) Choose Copy iCloud Link.
A message pops up to inform you that your photos and videos are being prepared for sharing, which may take a while, depending on their size and number.
6) Once it’s prepared, a link is automatically copied to the system clipboard. Go to Messages, Mail, WhatsApp, or any other app of your choice and paste this iCloud link to send it to friends or family.
How to open iCloud media links
You can access shared iCloud photos and videos via a computer, iPhone, or iPad. iOS customers are treated to the most frictionless sharing experience due to the deep integration with the Photos app.
A badged icon in the For You tab indicates new content, like shared media
Mobile
You don’t need to manually open a link, thanks to iOS’s enhanced Siri intelligence which detects it and automatically creates a preview in Photos. Don’t worry, nothing will be added to your image library unless you specifically choose to.
Pasting a link into Messages generates a rich preview
Receiving a link in an email on iOS may create a preview page in Photos, too. Opening a link on non-iOS devices, like an Android smartphone or tablet, takes you to an underlying download page on iCloud.com.
Desktop
Accessing an iCloud shared photo link in your favorite desktop browser opens a nicely designed download page on iCloud.com with the same grid of thumbnails as the preview page in Photos.
The media is shared with full EXIF data, including camera model and location.
How to copy shared media to your library
To retain the items before a link expires or the sender stops sharing, add them to your Photos library or download them to a computer through the web interface. Nothing gets added to the Photos library unless you specifically cherry-pick the shared photos and videos you’d like to keep.
Mobile
You can copy everything at once to Photos, choose multiple items to keep, or add just a single image to the library. No matter what you choose to keep, a preview page remains present in Photos and on iCloud.com until sharing is revoked or the sharing link expires automatically 30 days after you created it.
All items
To add everything that was shared with you through a link, do the following:
1) Open the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad with iOS 12 or later.
2) Tap the icon labeled For You in the tab area found alongside the bottom.
3) Tap a preview of the share underneath the Recently Shared headline.
4) Tap the Add All button.
All of the shared media items get downloaded to your device in their original resolution. Find them in the Photos tab, positioned in accordance with their original creation date.
Single item
Do the following if you’d like to quickly add a single shared item to your library.
1) Open the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad with iOS 12 or later.
2) Select the icon For You in the tab area found alongside the bottom.
3) Choose a preview of the share underneath the Recently Shared headline.
4) In the lower half of the interface, tap a thumbnail to see the underlying photo or video.
5) Tap the button Add to Library centered at the bottom of the interface.
The current item is downloaded and saved to the Photos library on your device.
Multiple items
To copy an arbitrary selection of the shared items to your device, do the following:
1) Open the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad with iOS 12 or later.
2) Select the icon For You in the tab area found alongside the bottom.
3) Tap a preview of the share underneath the Recently Shared headline.
4) Choose Select near the top-right corner of the thumbnail section.
5) Tick the checkmark in the top-right corner of each photo or video you’d like to keep.
6) Tap the Add or Add All button.
The selected items will be downloaded straight to the Photos library on your iOS device.
Desktop
You can download the shared media with any web browser for Mac or Windows.
1) Open a desktop browser of your choosing (we’ll use Safari).
2) Click the URL field at the top of the window, paste the iCloud.com link copied from a friend’s iMessage or email, and hit Enter or Return on the keyboard.
3) You’ll see a simple webpage with a grid of thumbnails. Pick the items you’d like to keep by ticking the circle in their top-right corner, then hit the Download button.
4) Once the ZIP file has been downloaded to your computer, go to your default Downloads folder and double-click the archive to unpack it.
Tap Show More in the Finder’s new Gallery view to reveal metadata
The web interface at iCloud.com allows anyone to access shared media via a browser, even if they’re not on one of Apple’s platforms, like Linux customers.
iCloud Photos disabled?
iCloud Photos must be on before you are permitted to create a link.
If you try to share media but iCloud Photos is off, you’ll not see the Copy iCloud Link option in the iOS Share Sheet. In old iOS versions, you may see a message cautioning you that these sharing suggestions and iCloud.com sharing links require iCloud Photos to be toggled on in the sender’s Settings app.
Tap the link Use iCloud Photos, then tap the button Use iCloud Photos to quickly enable this feature. Or, venture into Settings > Photos and enable iCloud Photos.
How to stop sharing iPhone photos
You can stop sharing items at any time. Here’s how:
1) Open the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad with iOS 12 or later.
2) Tap the icon labeled For You in the tab area found alongside the bottom.
3) Tap a preview of the share underneath the iCloud Links headline.
4) Choose Stop Sharing from the three-dotted menu in the top-right corner.
5) Confirm the operation by selecting Stop Sharing from the popup menu.
Access to your shared media will get removed from iCloud immediately.
A preview of the shared items disappears from Photos for everyone and the associated iCloud.com download webpage is pulled permanently. Any shared photos or videos that people with your link have chosen to download to their device shall remain in their Photos app.
How to stop receiving shared iPhone photos
A shared link expires after 30 days, but you may opt out anytime you want:
1) Open the Photos app on your iPhone or iPad with iOS 12 or later.
2) Tap the icon labeled For You in the tab area alongside the bottom.
3) Tap a preview of the share underneath the Recently Shared headline.
4) Choose Remove or Decline from the three-dotted menu in the top-right corner.
“Access to these shared photos will not be available anymore,” reads the warning message.
Previews of any shared photos and videos are automatically pulled from the For You tab in your Photos app. The items you’ve kept on the device won’t be removed.
Want to share the media you received through a link with other folks? Select Copy Link from the three-dotted menu to grab the original sharing link, then paste it into a message.
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