author: Michael L. Creech
last modified: 03/13/23
This document is meant to help navigate the myriad of methods for sharing photos from Apple devices. The apple platform has many methods for sharing photos with others and they vary greatly in with whom you can share and what gets shared. These differences get mind numbingly complicated depending on which device, apps and method a person sharing photos is using and which device, apps and method a person receiving photos is using.
To make things even more complicated, there are lots of similar sounding sharing methods and terminology, such as shared libraries, shared albums, shared album links, iCloud links, and iCloud Photos - all of which work and behave differently.
At first glance, you might think that what gets shared would always be the same -- just the bits that make up a photo. However, photos have characteristics and information associated with them such as their resolution, date/time, where the photo was taken, video/sound snippets (live photo), titles, captions, keywords, and edit history (see Testing Specifics). Unfortunately, many of the Apple platform sharing methods work differently - changing or removing different combinations of these characteristics and information associated with a photo.
Sometimes these differences don't matter, for example if you are sending a photo of a UPS package tracking number, the receiver doesn't care if they receive a live photo or whether the edit history of the photo is available. However, if you are sending a few pictures of the jungle, from your South American trip, to your brother where you want him to see full resolution live photos that will look and sound great on his 4K TV, then it does matter.
In the following, the term sender refers to the person sharing photos with others and the term receiver refers to a person receiving shared photos. Also, the term iOS is used to mean Apple devices running either iOS (e.g., iPhones) or iPadOS (iPads) and the term macOS is used to refer to Apple devices running macOS (e.g., macBook).
Testing was performed by attempting to share annotated live photos from a sender device to a receiving device and then comparing the original and received photos based on the following characteristics (see Testing Details for more information):
Following is a description and evaluation of each sharing method in terms of the photo characteristics that are kept or lost.
For Apple-based devices, you can share photos without loosing information by using one of the following three options:
For sharing with non-Apple users, some information is always lost and the best choices are tradeoffs:
Other takeaways:
Following are two tables showing each sharing method along how the method affects each photo characteristic. The methods are roughly sorted from best to worst for retaining photo characteristics. The first table considers Apple to Apple sharing and the second table summarizes Apple to non-Apple sharing:
Sharing to Apple Receivers:
Sharing to non-Apple Receivers:
Apple has several methods for sharing photos that are based on creating web-based links associated with groups of photos. These links are sent to receivers who use them to see the sender's photos. These link-related methods are confusing in that they sound the same but behave differently. Apple has three types of links:
Based on observations, ilinks and plinks are the same in most respects, including they:
Where they differ is in how they are created and used. Plinks are created in the Photos app and have more options for what photo information is made available to receivers. Also, plinks received in Apple apps many times make it easier to import into the Photos library. iLinks are created from the web interface at icloud.com.
Slinks are different. They refer to icloud.com and have no time limit.
Many of the methods for sharing photos involve a similar set of operations that have common options. Only the settings for these options that help retain the most photo information are listed. Also listed is any unexpected behavior for given options.
For simplicity, the following examples are from the perspective of an iOS device with relevant differences noted for a macOS device.
For a sender, most of the sharing methods start with selecting photos in the Photos app. This is done by tapping the Select button (macOS, nothing to do here):
and then tapping the photos to select for macOS, you left-click/cmd-left-click photos). After this, the photos are shared by tapping the Share button (for macOS, nothing to do here):
For iOS, an Options dialog is available with various options such as an on/off slider for things like Location, Captions, and All Photos Data (no such dialog is available for macOS):
For iOS devices, it is assumed all of these sliders should be set to on to retain the most of the original photo's information:
When complete, tap Done.
Once the Options dialog is gone (or if you are on macOS) you are now ready to choose the method of sharing (e.g., AirDrop, Messages, Mail). For macOS, right-click on one of the selected photos and perform Share->{chosen method} (e.g., Share->Messages).
Each sharing method is described below.
Last tested: 03/12/23 (on iOS 16.3.1 and macOS 13.2.1 (Ventura))This method places photos directly in your Messages app message stream.
As an iOS sender, you message photos by following the directions in the Sharing Methods Overview, above, then choose Messages or the specific person to Message to (if shown). When Messages is tapped, fill in the person to send to and tap the send icon.
As a macOS sender, you message photos by following the directions in the Sharing Methods Overview, above, then perform Share->Messages and fill in the person to send to and click the Send button.
As an iOS receiver, you add the photos to your library from the Messages app by tap-and-hold on an image and performing Save.
As a macOS receiver, you add the photos to your libarary from the Messages app by right-clicking Add to Photos Library. Results for both iOS and macOS receivers:
As a non-Apple receiver, your resuls will depend partially on your system and messaging software and partially on the fact that Apple sends photos using MMS (an oudated messaging protocol). Note that your pictures and text are not encrypted over MMS. Here are the results based on limited tests sending photos to Pixel-based phone receivers:
Last tested: 02/10/23 (on iOS 16.3 and macOS 13.2 (Ventura))This method sends photos in your Mail app.
As an iOS sender, you mail photos by following the directions in Sharing Methods Overview, above, and then choosing Mail. You then fill in the email address and subject, then tap the Send icon, and then finally choose Actual Size.
Aa a macOS sender, you mail photos by following the directions in Sharing Methods Overview, above, then right-click Share-->Mail. Within the Mail app, fill in the receiver, subject, and ensure Image Size-->Actual Size. NOTE: This method will only work if the Mail app's default email reader is set to Mail.app (see Mail->Settings...->General->Default email reader). If not, you will not see the option for Sharing your photos using the Mail app.
As an iOS receiver, you can add mailed photos to your library by tapping Tap to Download on one of the images (if not showing), then tap-and-hold on an image, then choose either Save Image or Save XX images, then Done. This will place all the photos in your Library.
As a macOS receiver, you add mailed photos to your library by starting from your Mail app and either right-clicking a single image or clicking the popup dropdown menu at the top of the email (for all pics) --> Export to Photos.
Results for both iOS and macOS receiver:
As a non-Apple receiver (such as a non-Apple web mail browser), the results will vary with the receiving mail app/web browser and system. You need to download the images from the receiving mail app/web browser and import them into your photo system. Here are the results of downloading an image sent to a Gmail-based mail system after downloading the image to a file:
Last tested: 02/12/23 (on iOS 16.3 and macOS 13.2 (Ventura))Airdrop allows you to directly send photos to a specific individual that is physically close by (e.g., sitting with you at a coffeehouse). Airdrop requires the receiver & sender be able to connect using bluetooth and it uses a peer-to-peer WiFi connection to transfer the photos (you don't need to be connected to a WiFi network). Also, the receiver's device must be unlocked and AirDrop turned on for the sender. For more information on AirDrop, see How to use AirDrop on your iPhone or iPad.
As an iOS sender, you AirDrop photos by following the directions in Sharing Methods Overview, above, and then tap either the general AirDrop icon or tap the specific AirDrop receiver, if they show up with an AirDrop symbol next to them. You should now see a Waiting... message by the AirDrop icon. The receiver must now respond by accepting the share and after the photos are transferred, you should see a Sent by the AirDrop icon.
As a macOS sender, you AirDrop photos by following the directions in Sharing Methods Overview, above, and then right-click Share->AirDrop, then in the AirDrop dialog, click the receiver. You should now see a Waiting... message by the AirDrop icon. The receiver must now respond by accepting the share and after the photos are transferred, you should see a Sent by the AirDrop icon. Then, click the Done button.
As an iOS or macOS receiver, your device must be unlocked. After the sender does the sharing, an AirDrop dialog should appear on your device. You then tap or click Accept (for macOS, then click Open in Photos).
From iOS sender:
From macOS sender:
Last tested: 02/01/23 (on iOS 16.3 and macOS 13.2 (Ventura))This is a great option for sharing with a small group of people (up to 5), such as family members, where you want to share photos between each other frequently.
The person setting up the shared library (the host), and the receivers see and manipulate the same photos--just like with your own photo library.
A few highlights of shared library usage are:
For more details on setting up and using a shared iCloud library, see Shared Photo Library: Everything You Need to Know
Results:
See the section Links and More Links before proceeding.
Plink sharing is a great way to share photos, but requires some setup before it can be used. Plinks can be sent to non-Apple receivers although some photo information is lost as described below.
Note that plinks on macOS do not work as well or as easily as on iOS:
If you are an iOS sender, you obtain a plink by following the Sharing Methods Overview directions, above, however during the Options dialog usage, you also tap iCloud Link:
After the Options dialog is gone, tap Copy iCloud Link at the bottom:
You can now use Mail, Messages, or other apps where you can paste the copied link into the app.
If you are a macOS sender, this is not available. See Using iCloud Photos for an alternative.
Using plinks requires that you have iCloud Photos turned on on your apple devices. For how to do this and lots of details on using plinks, see How to quickly share iPhone photos with a link for details.
Last tested: 02/16/23 (on iOS 16.3.1 and macOS 13.2.1 (Ventura))As an iOS receiver, when you receive a text message containing a plink, you'll see a preview of the photos as a few thumbnails or as a deck of photos (for many). To the right of the preview is a blue download icon you can tap to add all the shared photos to your Library. To add individual photos, tap and hold on an individual photo and perform Save.
As a macOS receiver, when you receive the text message containing the shared plink, you'll see a preview of the pictures as a few thumbnails or as a deck of pictures (for many). To the right of the preview is a Download button you can click to add all the shared photos to your Library. NOTE: Currently adding individual photos looses all metadata (but camera) and also the edit history! This includes performing right-click Add to Photos Library on an individual photo as well as double-clicking on a photo and using the Open with Photos button.
Results (iOS sender to iOS receiver):
Results (iOS sender to macOS receiver):
Last tested: 02/14/23 (on iOS 16.3 and macOS 13.2 (Ventura))As an iOS receiver, you should receive a mail message containing the shared plink and you may see a preview picture, along with the number of photos shared. To save photos in your library, tap the preview picture (or link) which will bring up an Open in Photos? dialog, then tap Open. This will take you to your Photos App, For You tab, iCloud Links section and show a preview of all the photos shared in the mail message. Here, you can add all the photos to your library by tapping the ADD ALL button, or you can add individual photos by tapping and holding on a selected photo and performing Add to Library.
As a macOS receiver, you should receive a mail message containing the shared plink and you may see a preview picture, along with the number of photos shared. Clicking on the picture (or link) will bring up the iCloud Photos interface in your preferred browser (e.g., Safari). To download all the photos, just click the Download button (all the photos should come up as selected). If you are already logged into iCloud Photos, you'll see a preview of the photos shared along with an Add All To Library button. If you click this button all the photos will be added to your library, or you can unselect some of the photos shown and click the Add To Library button. If you have not yet logged into iCloud Photos, you'll see an Add to Library or Download dialog, click the Sign In and Import button in and enter your Apple ID. Afterwards, you'll see a dialog telling you how many photos were added to your personal library. Now finish by clicking the Dismiss button.
Results (iOS sender to iOS receiver):
Results (iOS sender to macOS receiver):
For details, see Ilink Received by non-Apple Device.
Last tested: 02/21/23 (on iOS 16.3.1 and macOS 13.2.1 (Ventura))Shared albums allow multiple people to share and comment on photos. The sender places photos in a shared album and specifies the people who will receive a notification about the album. The main problem with shared albums is that the photos are cut down in size and some metadata is lost.
As an iOS sender, follow the directions in Sharing Methods Overview, above, then tap Add to Shared Album, then under Shared Album tap on the given default album name, and then tap '+ New Shared Album' to create a new shared album. In the dialog that appears, fill in the new album name and tap Next, then fill in the contacts you wish to share with--either email address or phone number and tap Next again. Finish by tapping Post.
As a macOS sender, follow the directions in Sharing Methods Overview, above, then right-click on one of the photos and perform Share->Shared Albums which will present an Add to Shared Album dialog. Click the checkbox for Live Photo, and click the + New Shared Album.... In the dialog that appears, fill in the album name and add the receivers (either email or phone #). When done, click Create.
Once an album is shared, each receiver will receive a message when they enter their Photos app (either on iOS or macOS) presenting an invitation to join the shared album. Under macOS, the invitations are under the Photos side bar Shared Albums->Activity. Under iOS, the invitations are under For You tab, Shared Album Activity. Once accepted, the receiver has access to the shared photos and may be taken directly to the shared album.
As a macOS receiver, if you are not already in the shared album, you can navigate to it in the Photos app by clicking on the shared album name under Shared Albums or under Shared Albums->Activity in the side bar. To add the shared photos to your library, simply right-click Import on a photo or select several photos and right-click Import.
As an iOS receiver, if you are not already in the shared album, you can navigate to it in the Photos app by tapping on the album from the For You tab/Shared Album Activity section or from the Albums tab/Shared Albums section. To add the shared photos to your library, follow the directions in Sharing Methods Overview, above, then tap Save xx Images.
iOS & macOS receiver results:
Last tested: 02/21/23 (on iOS 16.3.1 and macOS 13.2.1 (Ventura))Shared album links (slinks) are obtained to turning on a public website option associated with an existing shared album. Slinks work just like plinks/ilinks in that you can paste the links in apps, like Mail or Messages, to share photos. They can also be sent to non-Apple receivers.
See the section Links and More Links before proceeding.
As an iOS sender, go to the existing shared album (see Shared Albums), tap the icon for editing the people associated with the album (person with '+' sign). On the dialog presented, slide the Public Website slider on. This will list the website link that you can then copy and paste in the desired app to send to a receiver (e.g., Mail or Messages app). When copied, tap Done.
As a macOS sender, go to the existing shared album (see Shared Albums), then click the People icon (at the top). In the dropdown dialog displayed, click the Public Website checkbox. This will list the website link that you can then copy and paste in the desired app to send to a receiver (e.g., Mail or Messages app). Once copied, click on the Photos window to dismiss the dialog.
The examples below are for receiving an slink in the Messages app (Mail works similarly and get the same results).
As an iOS receiver in the Messages app, you'll see an iCloud Photo Sharing to icloud.com link. To save photos to your library, tap the link to show the photos and then tap and hold and perform Save to Photos.
As a macOS receiver in the Messages app, you'll see an iCloud Photo Sharing to icloud.com link. Clicking the link brings up your default browser showing the photos. To save photos to your library, click on one of the photos, then right-click and perform Add Image to Photos.
As a non-Apple receiver, your results will vary depending on OS and web browser. For a Windows 10 based MS Edge browser, bringing up the link brought up a preview page on icloud.com for the shared album. Moving the mouse on a preview photo displayed a Download button in the upper right. When clicked, the photo was downloaded as a .jpeg file. Ironically, MS Edge did a better than Apple with the metadata--it contained the caption as well as camera settings.
The result for iOS, macOS, and non-Apple:
Last tested: 02/26/23 (on iOS 16.3.1 and macOS 13.2.1 (Ventura))See the section Links and More Links before proceeding.
For this method, an apple-based sender (one having an icloud.com account) sends a web link (ilink) to any receiver (apple or non-apple).
As a sender, go to icloud.com in a web brower and sign in using your Apple ID. On the top-level page, click on the Photos App. The web-based interface should now look similar to the top level of your Photos app on a macOS device. From here, you can choose your Library or an album from which to share photos.
To send an ilink to a receiver, select the photos to share and then click/tap the Share icon:
then choose Email Link or Copy Link:
Copy Link creates an ilink to the photos that can be passed to receivers (e.g., email, message). Email Link is just a convenience that also creates an ilink and also places it in a mail message. If you choose Copy Link, a dialog will display the generated link for you to copy and then paste:
As a receiver, when you obtain the ilink in either a text message or mail, clicking/tapping the link works the same way.
As a macOS receiver, clicking on the ilink received in the Mail app displays an iCloud Photos webpage displaying the photos shared. All photos shared will be selected and you can save them to your Library by clicking Add All To Library button. You can also deal with photos individually by clicking on them and then clicking on the Add to Library button. You can also download the items to a file.
As an iOS Messages app receiver, tapping on the ilink in the Messages or Mail app may bring up a dialog that says Open in Photos? that contains a message asking if you want to collaborate with the sender, along with an Open and Not Now button:
If you tap Open, you'll be taken to a display of the shared photos under your Photos App For You with the option Add Photos to Your Library? with an ADD ALL button:
Tapping the ADD ALL button will add the photos to your library, or you can add individual photos by selecting them and tapping the ADD button.
The results of the photos added to your library are:
Last tested: 02/24/23 (on iOS 16.3.1 and macOS 13.2.1 (Ventura))As a "non-apple" device receiver, you will usually obtain the ilink in either a text or mail message. The ilink may show as a picture or just a web link. How the link is handled depends on how your system integrates with photos and iCloud. In general, clicking on the picture/link will bring up a share.icloud.com web page in your preferred browser showing a preview of the photos along with a Download button:
To download all the photos, just click the Download button (all the photos should come up as selected) and then click Download again in the dialog that comes up:
The photos will then be downloaded in a downloads directory. The format and characterisics are discussed in "most compatible" format, below.
There are two options for downloading you can use by clicking the more '...'->More Download Options...:
You can choose Unmodified Original or Most Compatible and then click Download. Each option has its plusses and minus--Unmodified Original gives you the full resolution image and best video but looses any edits performed to the photo; Most Compatible limits the resolution but contains the edits performed to the photo. Each photo is represented by one or two files - one for the still image and one for video representing live photos. The files are then placed in a container (commonly a .zip container).
This option leads to the best resolution photos and video (but looses metadata and edits). Each photo is represented by:
The photo results are:
This option generates files handled by most systems (not just Apple), but has lower resolution image and video. Each photo is represented by:
The photo results are:
Last tested: 02/21/23 (on iOS 16.3.1 and macOS 13.2.1 (Ventura))Exporting photos involves a sender obtaining file representations of photos from their library and then getting these files to a receiver. The receiver then imports the files into their library (or photo software). Three different methods for a exporting photos are discussed below. Once the file versions of the photos are created, they need to be transported to the receiver--such as by sending as a mail attachment, placing on a flash drive, or some other mechanism.
As the name implies, this method writes out the photos as they were before any changes were make to them (except metadata as described below).
As a macOS sender, you select the photos to export in the Photos app, then perform File->Export->Export Unmodified Originals for xx Photos. An Export Original dialog will appear giving some naming and placement options and a checkbox to Export IPTC as XMP. If the checkbox is checked, an extra text file is written, as described below. When done, click Export Originals. The result is from one to three files per photo are written:
The results for the still image are:
This method writes out the photos in their final form and includes all metadata.
As a macOS sender, you select the photos to export in the Photos app, then perform File-->Export->Export XX Photos. In the dialog presented, choose the following settings:
then click the Export button. Another dialog will be shown were you specify where to place the photos. When done, click Export. The photos should now be available at the location you specified. The result of the exported photo is:
This method writes out the photos in their final form and includes some metadata.
As an iOS sender, follow the directions in Sharing Methods Overview, above, then tap Save to Files, then pick the directory and name to save to and tap Save. Results:
Once the photo files have been made available to the receiver, they can be imported into the Photos app library. Note that how you transfer the files from the sender to the receiver can affect the files. For example, sending an .heic unmodified original file as a mail attachment in the Mail app may convert the file to a .jpeg.
As a macOS receiver using the Photos App, perform File->Import... and choose the image(s) (.jpeg or .heic) to import, then click the Import button. The images will now be in your Library. The same can be performed for obtaining the .mov file (see below).
If you transported the photos using Mail, you can also add the photos directly to your library from the Mail app by right-clicking on a photo attachment and performing Export to Photos.
As an iOS receiver, use the Files app and tap the file to download from the cloud (if not already), tap the image, then use the dropdown menu on the file name at the top-->Save to Photos:
then tap Done. The image will now be in your library. The receiver can also select several files to import using the 3 lines icon in the upper right-->Select, then select the files of interest, then Share icon-->Save xx Images.
If you transported the photos using Mail, you can also add the photos directly to your library from the Mail app by performing tap and hold on a photo attachment and performing Save Image.
Testing was done by creating two live photos that were annotated with a caption, title, and keywords. Furthermore, the photos were edited to enhance, crop, and also change their live photo keyframe. These photos were then shared using each technique. Also, testing included sending from macOS- and iOS-based devices and receiving photos on macOS, iOS, and non-Apple software. Non-Apple software included Window-based browsers (e.g., MS Edge), non-Apple mail (e.g., Gmail), and a small amount of testing using Pixel phone messaging.
To compare the original and received photos, the behavior of the photo was checked (e.g., did it show a title and does it show the correct edit history), along with photo property information. The properies were checked using the macOS Photos App and Finder app Get Info command. iOS photos were checked on macOS after they synchronized through the use of iCloud storage. In some cases, command line tools, such as exiftool, were also used to look at metadata.
Thanks to Erica Baylor, Jeff Deslish, and Arnon Amir for helping with testing sharing to Android-based phones.