iCloud Family Sharing - Photos across same icloud with multiple devices

Hi Connor,

As Apple will not split the iCloud automatically, I recommend the following steps:

1. Sign out of the shared iCloud account from any other device except yours (photos will be deleted from their devices and you can share with them later)
2. Create a separate iCloud account for each user
3. Invite them to the Family sharing and share the iCloud storage (you will need the 200GB plan to do that)
4. After having a separate iCloud account for each, you can create a shared iCloud album having all the previous shared photos with all the family

Just make sure to have a backup from each device, just in case.

PS: Logging out of the iCloud at the other devices can lead to deleting all contacts and other content, you will actually get asked when you log out the iCloud if you want to keep such content or not

connor_123gg wrote:

My family and I have used the same iCloud for years now, and were hoping to stop seeing eachothers photos in the photo app. There are about 22,000 photos saved, and when I try to disable the photo feature on icloud, it says that all 22,000 photos will be deleted from my device even though I've probably taken about 5,000 photos recently on my specific device. Maybe they're just not downloaded? I"m not entirely sure.

Anyway, I'd like all of us in my family to have their own photos only viewable on their devices but would really love to not lose all 22,000 photos that are in the icloud. What is the easiest path here? Do we all just need to have our own separate iclouds and maybe make that one album as a shareable album?

Thanks!

Why did you think about disabling the Photo Library?

At this point, your family need their own Apple IDs, to get their one iCloud Photo Library.

If you subscribe to the 200GB or larger iCloud plan and use Family Sharing to share it, your current photos will "stay" in your Library using your Apple ID.

There is no way to share your entire library and the shared album for family is populated manually.

The iCloud Photo Library is not an ideal "let's all have access to each other's" type of photo service.