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Home sharing vs family sharing

How does home sharing work with family sharing in regards to photos? Does the family sharing owner have to turn on home sharing and can that owner see photos from other family members?

iPad Air, 16

Posted on Jul 19, 2023 8:48 AM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jul 19, 2023 1:09 PM

Home Sharing and Family Sharing are 2 entirely different things. They do not work together at all.


The only thing Home Sharing can do is share photos from a computer to other devices on the same network.


If those Photos include shared photos from shared albums from Family Sharing that is fine, but there is no direct connection between one service and the other.


Home Sharing shares whatever you choose to share. If that includes shared albums then it will share those. Home Sharing does not give free access to all your photos unless you set it up that way. You are in control entirely of what gets shared.



Home Sharing can be turned on by anyone on their specific computer, it does not need to be the Family Organizer at all.

To access those photos, others would have to log in with the relevant Apple ID for Home Sharing on their devices.


When turned on, it can then share any photos selected, including any shared albums that you choose to share.


If you are already using Family Sharing, then Home Sharing for Photos is unnecessary and to an extend redundant and would not really work among different people on iOS devices. It would work if trying to Home Share photos to an Apple TV, but in that case, AirPlay is a more straight forward option.


1 reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jul 19, 2023 1:09 PM in response to aksusieq

Home Sharing and Family Sharing are 2 entirely different things. They do not work together at all.


The only thing Home Sharing can do is share photos from a computer to other devices on the same network.


If those Photos include shared photos from shared albums from Family Sharing that is fine, but there is no direct connection between one service and the other.


Home Sharing shares whatever you choose to share. If that includes shared albums then it will share those. Home Sharing does not give free access to all your photos unless you set it up that way. You are in control entirely of what gets shared.



Home Sharing can be turned on by anyone on their specific computer, it does not need to be the Family Organizer at all.

To access those photos, others would have to log in with the relevant Apple ID for Home Sharing on their devices.


When turned on, it can then share any photos selected, including any shared albums that you choose to share.


If you are already using Family Sharing, then Home Sharing for Photos is unnecessary and to an extend redundant and would not really work among different people on iOS devices. It would work if trying to Home Share photos to an Apple TV, but in that case, AirPlay is a more straight forward option.


Home sharing vs family sharing

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