How do I remove shared iCloud Photos from my wife's library after deleting sharing?

I shared my photos with my wife, but she didn't like them mixed in with hers and using up her storage space, so she asked me to stop sharing. After deleting, they were still showing up on her computer so I deleted sharing from her computer too. Unfortunately my 41,000 photos are still in her library, but now as part of her library which was only 2,000 photos. At least before she could select personal or shared photos, but now they're all together. There is no way to manually separate the two. She wants my photos gone. What can I do?



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MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.4

Posted on May 6, 2025 07:00 AM

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4 replies

May 6, 2025 07:28 AM in response to travlrz

I'm guessing divorce is not an option…


I'm not sure what you meant by "sharing." Did you mean that you had both computers connected to the same iCloud account? Or did you use a "Shared Album" in Photos? Or did you have a "Shared Library?"


You didn't tell us where how these pictures were made. If they came from different cameras then you may be able to use a Smart Album to collect her pictures all made with the same camera, for instance. Like this:

There are other options available for Smart Albums that may help.


If they are from a Shared Album, the camera information might be stripped, so you might be able to use "Camera Model is empty."


If they are from a Shared Album, then they are probably smaller in resolution. Smart Albums won't search for resolution, but the trusted 3rd party app PowerPhotos ($30) could be used to separate out smaller images.


Let us know how it goes…

May 7, 2025 09:41 AM in response to travlrz

I'm assuming you both use iPhones for your photos, right?


If so you can create a smart album with the criteria:


Camera Model is "your model iPhone"


If, as Richard says you've lost the metadata for the shared photos then create a smart album with the criteria: Camera Model is not "your wife's iPhone model".


Then you can delete the photos in the smart album.


As for the pressure you'll be under you could try a hypnotist to convince your wife it never happened. Remember, a happy wife is a happy home. 😉


May 7, 2025 06:45 AM in response to Richard.Taylor

Thanks Richard,

divorce isn't on the table, but I will be reminded of the f-up for a long while.


We have a shared iCloud family account, but everything is separate. Not a shared album--I shared my whole library of 40,000 pics with her. Most of the pictures came from our iphones and lived happily in our individual phones, macbooks and iCloud. I could separate out the 7,000 I took with my Canon Powershot with your Smart Album idea, but most were taken on our iPhones 6s-14s.


Any other ideas?

May 7, 2025 08:22 AM in response to travlrz

travlrz wrote: … divorce isn't on the table, but I will be reminded of the f-up for a long while.

I understand that, alright.


You can seagate iPhone 6s fro iPhone 14s, mostly, but sometimes pictures don't have full metadata. You can also use multiple conditions, so iPhone 6 and date is between June 1 2015 and Sept 23 2016, for instance. The Mac detects categories of objects, so you can search for Text includes flower if she takes lots of flower pictures, for instance.


When you separate out a sub-group, add a keyword to those, like mine or hers, and then you can get them later with keyword includes hers.


With the keyword manager (⌘K) you can make shortcuts, like m and h-- then when you see a picture that's hers, you just hit the h key, and it adds a hers as a keyword. If you're working in a Smart Album with keyword is not hers AND keyword is not his, then that pictures will immediately disappear, and you're left with pictures that aren't identified yet.


Keywords are cool! See this:

Add keywords to photos and videos on Mac - Apple Support


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How do I remove shared iCloud Photos from my wife's library after deleting sharing?

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