How do I add people to People and Pets or photos to Shared Albums?

Question

How do I add people to People and Pets or photos to Shared Albums?

Is it just me or has it become even MORE difficult to add photos to "Collections" since the iOS 26 upgrade? Not only did I lose one (very important) person from my "People&Pets" collection, when I try to "add more people" I get only a few random new faces and then the whole interface freezes - even clicking the "x button" doesn't do anything. The same happens when I try to upload a new photo to a shared album - I can SELECT which photos I want to add, but then I have only the option to click on a blue checkmark or the "X button" - and neither does ANYTHING - the whole interface just freezes until I swipe it away. And of course we STILL are not able to actively select faces for "People&Pets" - if the AI can't find any, we are out of luck. Pretty lousy for a "8 versions upgrade"!

iPhone 15 Pro

Posted on Dec 21, 2025 6:19 AM

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Answer 1

brbo

Level 8

38,701 points

Dec 31, 2025 8:40 PM in response to Sebastian Kuhn

Re: How do I add people to People and Pets ..........

Wondering if you have tried following Apple Support's online artiicles for iOS26:

Eg: Find and name people and pets in Photos on iPhone - Apple Support

says:

" Name a person or pet in a photo or video

When you name a person or pet in a photo or video, they’re automatically added to the People & Pets collection and named in other photos and videos in your library.

Go to the Photos app on your iPhone.
Open a photo or video, then swipe up to see the details.

People or pets in the photo or video appear in the bottom-left corner.

A question mark appears next to those you haven’t named.

3.Tap the person or pet with a question mark next to their picture, then tap Edit Name and Photos.

4.Tap Name This Person or Name This Pet, enter their name, then tap

________

If needed: There's more info, in the above linked article.

________________________

Re: "How do I add ... photos to Shared Albums? : when I try to upload a new photo to a shared album - I can select which photos I want to add, but then I have only the option to click on a blue checkmark or the "X button" - and neither does ANYTHING - the whole interface just freezes until I swipe it away."

See how to: Add and delete photos and videos in a shared album on iPhone – Apple Support (AU)

Eg: says:

":Add photos and videos to a shared album

Go to the Photos app on your iPhone.
Tap Collections.
Tap Shared Albums, then tap an album.
Tap , then tap Add Photos.
Select photos and videos, then tap .

When you add new photos, the people you share the album with are automatically notified."

___

NB: If you have installed iOS 26.2 the latest update,

and

the latest methods from Apple Support (above) are not working for you:

You may want to send feedback to those who work on the software behind-the-scenes at Apple:

Web-form for feedback: Feedback - Photos - Apple

_______________________________________

For more info. / support / contact options etc.: Photos Support Website: Photos - Official Apple Support

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Answer 2

léonie

Level 10

200,621 points

Jan 1, 2026 1:32 AM in response to Sebastian Kuhn

After you select the photos to share to the Shared album and select the album you want to share them to, then tapped , you still have to tap the "post" button in the upper right corner, or nothing will happen.

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Answer 3

Jan 2, 2026 6:05 AM in response to brbo

This suggestion for adding names to people certainly helped - but it requires looking at photos one at a time, figuring which persons are recognized and then name the ones that aren't. Even worse, a lot of the time even a picture that clearly shows one (and only one) person has NO circle at the bottom left, and there seems to be no possibility to select a face and give it a name if the AI doesn't already recognize it as a person.

It used to be (at least in Photos on a Mac) that one could select an already established person, then look for more similar pictures where you could answer "yes" or "no" when asked if that picture showed the same person. Right now, there seems to be no way to identify quickly a large number of pictures with the same specific person in it if the (still quite dumb) Apple AI doesn't find them automatically.

Finally, the advice in the article how to "Add People at the bottom of the People & Pets collection" is also very inefficient - with an image collection in the 10's of thousands with probably hundreds of people (many repeated), that brings up just 10 or so extra (random) faces.

I did report this issue to the feedback link you suggested. Thanks again!

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