I have not seen a useful solution to getting my missing shared albums from the iCloud. I've done everything suggested but there are still 4 or 5 albums that seem to be lost. There are hundreds of photos that may not be recovered. Any real solution out there? In the mean time I'm moving everything off the cloud since I can't trust it to keep photos safely.
Hello kerrysr,
Thanks for that info and for choosing the Apple Support Communities. If we understand correctly, you are trying to download photos that are synced with iCloud. There are a couple of ways you can do this:
"Photos and videos
If you use iCloud Photos, your photos and videos are automatically uploaded to iCloud at full resolution.
Download copies of your photos and videos from your device
* On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, tap Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos. Then select Download and Keep Originals and import the photos to your computer.
* On your Mac, open the Photos app. Select the photos and videos you want to copy. Choose File > Export.
* On your PC, make sure that you set up iCloud for Windows and turn on iCloud Photos. Open File Explorer. In the Navigation pane, click iCloud Photos, then select the images you want to keep on your PC. Right-click the selection and choose "Always keep on this device." If you use iCloud for Windows 10 or earlier, learn how to download your photos. After the items download, copy them to another folder on your computer. To do this, press and hold the Ctrl key and drag the items to the folder. Include this folder if you back up your computer.
Download copies of your photos and videos from iCloud.com
If you want to download a few photos or videos, use iCloud.com to download the most recent version of photos and videos.
* On your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to iCloud.com, tap Photos, and tap Select. Then select the photos and videos you want to download, and tap More. Select Download, then tap Download again to confirm. Your photos and videos will download as a .zip file to iCloud Drive.
* On your Mac or PC, just go to iCloud.com and click Photos. Then select the photos and videos you want to download and click Download.
If you don't have iCloud Drive turned on, you can find the .zip file you downloaded in the Files app under Downloads or Recents.
Copy photos from Shared Albums
You can also use the steps below to manually copy photos and videos. Comments or likes connected to a shared photo aren't saved, and photos and videos saved from shared albums aren't full resolution.
Copy photos from Shared Albums on your iPhone or iPad
1. Open Photos and tap Albums.
2. Find Shared Albums, then tap the name of the album that you want. You might need to swipe left to find the shared album.
3. Save photos from the album using one of these methods:
* Tap an image to open it, then tap Share. To select more images, scroll the images left or right and tap the ones you want to save. Tap Save Image.
* Tap Select, then tap the images you want to save. Tap Share
6. Import the photos to your computer.
Copy photos and videos from Shared Albums on your Mac
Follow these steps to manually import photos and videos in shared albums to your Photos library:
1. Open Photos and select Shared Albums.
2. Double-click a shared album.
3. Control click (or right-click) a photo and choose Import.
After you import your photos, you might want to back up your library. You can store them as a separate library on your computer or on a different drive.
Copy photos and videos from Shared Albums in Windows
Saved photos are available even if you turn off Photos in iCloud for Windows. To save photos and videos from a shared album, you must save them to another folder on your hard drive:
1. Open iCloud for Windows.
2. Click Options next to Photos. Note the path listed under iCloud Photos location.
3. Open a File Explorer window (Windows 8 or later) or Windows Explorer window (Windows 7).
4. Go to the iCloud Photos folder using the above path. Open the Shared folder.
5. Select the photos you want to save, then copy them to another folder on your computer. To do this, press and hold the Ctrl key and drag the items to your folder. Include this folder if you back up your computer.
For information on backing up your Windows computer, see Microsoft Support.
Download photos from My Photo Stream on your iPhone or iPad
Photos in My Photo Stream download to your Mac automatically. Use these steps to download them to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
1. Tap Photos, then tap the Albums tab.
2. Tap My Photo Stream.
3. Tap Select, then tap all the photos you want to save.
4. Tap Share
My Photo Stream is shutting down on July 26, 2023. Learn more about this transition and how to use iCloud Photos to keep your photos up to date across all your devices."
And that is from here Archive or make copies of the information you store in iCloud - Apple Support You can also request an archive of photos linked to your Apple ID here Data & Privacy
If you are still not able to get all the photos you are looking for, please contact Apple directly for further assistance Get Support
Cheers!
How many shared albums and how many photos do you have in the shared albums? If you are having many shared albums, it may take several days until they will come back.
As the shared albums are a free service, we are expected to be considerate and not to use it excessively. Apple will limit the network traffic for the shared albums, if we are exceeding the limits for shared albums - then we have to wait until the limits are no longer exceeded. My Photo Stream and Shared Albums limits – Apple Support
As the name says, the shared albums are meant to be used for sharing photos, not as a long time storage of your Photos Library. The shared photos are optimized for sharing - reduced to a smaller size and many metadata removed. We need to keep the originals in our Photos Library to keep them in a good quality and with all metadata like the locations.
If the Shared albums are really missing and it is not a problem of the limits, you need to use the backups you made, while the albums have still been there. How long have the shared albums been missing?
Thanks for your helpful note. Yes, I was using shared albums for storage thinking I could share when I wanted. So that‘s my error. I‘ve saved all but four Shared albums which are the ones I haven‘t seen for months. I know I have all the photos somewhere so I‘ll just have to make new folders.
Lost shared photo albums
