How do I merge or retrieve photos from another iCloud account in my family?

My wife and I both have iCloud accounts for our photos from our phones. Is there a way for me to merge our photos or someone retrieve the photos from my wife’s iCloud account?

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.4

Posted on Aug 19, 2021 02:34 PM

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Posted on Aug 19, 2021 02:37 PM

You can't merge iCloud accounts.


What you can do is set up a separate user account on your mac which you sign into your wife's iCloud account. You can then sync a photos library on that account with her iCloud account


If you really want a merged library, then you could set up a library on an external drive that both accounts use as the system lirbrary. Though that would also merge your online iCloud accounts (both accounts would contain all the photos)

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Aug 19, 2021 02:37 PM in response to John C Lin

You can't merge iCloud accounts.


What you can do is set up a separate user account on your mac which you sign into your wife's iCloud account. You can then sync a photos library on that account with her iCloud account


If you really want a merged library, then you could set up a library on an external drive that both accounts use as the system lirbrary. Though that would also merge your online iCloud accounts (both accounts would contain all the photos)

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How do I merge or retrieve photos from another iCloud account in my family?

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