Learn how to use the new ‘Shared by’ filtering option in a shared iCloud album on iPhone, iPad, and Mac that lets you see images and videos uploaded by a particular participant.
iCloud shared albums are a terrific way to ensure your family and friends can see the photos you took on vacation or on a special occasion. Plus, they can contribute their own photos and videos to your album.
Once you have a shared album with photos uploaded by several members, it can get confusing to determine who shared a specific item.
iOS 27, iPadOS 27, and macOS 27 Golden Gate address this by adding a new filtering parameter that allows you to see all photos and videos added to a shared album by a specific member.
This joins the other media types filtering option that lets you filter by photos, videos, and screenshots. Of course, you also have the sorting options to see photos and videos by oldest, newest, or date added.
Follow these steps to filter photos and videos in the shared iCloud album by the participant who shared them.
iPhone
1) Update your iPhone to iOS 27 (currently, it’s in beta).
2) Open the Photos app, scroll down the Collections tab, and go inside an album, or tap Shared Albums and then open one.
3) Tap the three-line menu icon as shown in the screenshot below.
4) Select Shared By, and then tap the person’s name to see all photos and videos they uploaded to this shared album. You can select more than one person to view everything they shared.
And when you’re done, repeat the above steps and tap ‘Clear Participant Filters’ to view everything in this shared album by all members.
iPad
The process on an iPad running iPadOS 27 is similar to that on an iPhone, but given the screen size, the filtering options are at the top, as seen in the screenshot below.
Mac
1) Update your Mac to macOS 27 Golden Gate. You can also install Golden Gate on a second partition of the same Mac.
2) Open the Photos app, click Shared Albums in the left sidebar, and go inside one.
3) Click the three-line ‘Show filter menu’ icon at the top and select one or more participants to view photos and videos they added to this album. Alternatively, you can click View > Filter By in the top menu bar and use the ‘Shared By’ option.
Note: You can follow the steps above only if you have at least 2 participants in the shared album. If you’re the sole member, the ‘Shared By’ option won’t even appear.
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