Who owns a shared photo library? Can you change ownership if it is OWNED?

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Who owns a shared photo library? Can you change ownership if it is OWNED?

My father-in-law has created shared folders to share photos with the family. I assume he is the OWNER of the shared folder. He is elderly and there is going to be a time in the future when he will pass. Who owns the shared photo library? Will ownership pass to someone else that it is shared with if the user who created it effectively "disappears" due to some inactivity.

He is setup with a legacy account (or whatever Apple calls it) to allow for passing ownership on to someone else if I understand how that works but I still wonder about the original question and if the legacy feature takes that into account?

iPhone 15 Pro Max

Posted on Aug 26, 2025 2:06 PM

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Answer 1

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Phil0124

Level 10

215,876 points

Aug 26, 2025 2:51 PM in response to XenoChron

Legacy Contacts provide access to the decedents Accounts to the chosen contacts. It doesn't change the account or feature ownership.

click here ➜ How to add a Legacy Contact for your Apple Account - Apple Support

The Shared Library is owned by the account that created it and does not automatically pass to anyone.

Inactivity does not cause an account to "disappear" in any way shape or form. The account will continue to exist regardless of usage. You can request the account be deleted if you no longer need access to it though.

You can create a new Shared Library on somebody else's account and transfer photos manually to it.

If you delete the Shared library, then photos in it will be automatically downloaded to the shared library members before it is deleted.

click here ➜ How to use iCloud Shared Photo Library - Apple Support

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Answer 2

XenoChron Author

Level 1

30 points

Aug 27, 2025 1:19 PM in response to Phil0124

Thank you.

That last point about deleting a shared library is interesting. I'm very curious though what happens if the included users don't have enough iCloud storage available to download the shared folders to their personal library. I don't see where the instance is mentioned.

Do they have the opportunity to add storage to accommodate the transfer?

Because shared libraries don't count against your storage they are a convenient place to store a lot of photos so you could easily have your library overwhelmed if they were deleted.

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