Shared Albums are a great way to share your photos with your family and friends from the Photos app. It allows all subscribers to add new photos and interact together. The current limit is 5000 photos and videos but you can always create a new album. Sadly, some users report that Shared Album is not showing up on the iPhone. Most reports confirm that the problems started after a software update. If you, too, have trouble finding Shared Albums you or others created in your Photos Library, make sure to follow the instructions below.
Table of contents:
The Shared Album invite not showing up
If you made some changes to your iPhone or installed a major update, it might take some time for Shared Albums and invites to appear. Also, check the network and make sure that Shared Albums are enabled.
We also recommend the person that shares the album with you remove your subscription and send the invite again. If that doesn’t work, wait it out a bit and definitely send the report to Apple.
1. Restart your iPhone
First, restart your iPhone and check if photos from Shared Albums appeared. If you’re sure that Shared Albums are enabled, restart your device and wait for some time. After that, check again because it seems that users started seeing photos from Shared Albums after 10 minutes or so.
If that didn’t help, make sure to toggle Shared Albums in system settings. This is especially useful if you recently updated iOS to a newer major version. If that did nothing and the Shared Album or multiple albums are still not showing up on your iPhone, check the next step.
2. Enable Shared Albums
In order to use Shared Albums on your device, the option needs to be enabled. Also, if someone is sharing their albums with you, they can remove you from the list and send you an invite again. Once you accept the invitation and wait for some time (while connected to a Wi-Fi network), the photos should start appearing.
Here’s how to enable Shared Albums on your iPhone:
- Open Settings.
- Select Photos.
- Enable Shared Albums.
- If the option is already enabled, disable it and wait for some time (users suggest 10 minutes or so), and restart your device.
- Once again, navigate to Settings > Photos and enable Shared Albums.
Some people suggest disabling and enabling iCloud Photos sync in Settings but we’re not sure this is related to this error. You can always give it a try.
Also, if you are not sure how to remove and add people to your Shared Albums, just open Photos > Albums and open the Shared Album. Once you’ve done that, tap on the People icon at the top and select the person you want to remove. Tap Remove Subscriber. Now, go back and, under the same menu, tap Invite People. Send the invite and, once they accept it, the album should appear after a few minutes.
3. Check the network
Again, it’s paramount that you’re connected to a stable network so the album can load in the background. If you use mobile data frequently or rely solely on mobile data because you don’t have access to Wi-Fi, you should ensure that Photos are able to use mobile data in the background and sync all changes.
Here’s how to allow Photos to use cellular data on your iPhone:
- Open Settings.
- Tap Photos.
- Select Cellular Data.
- Enable Cellular Data and, if you have a large or unlimited data cap, enable Unlimited Updates.
4. Update iOS
Some users recommend resetting the device to factory settings but we don’t believe that will solve anything in this case. It’s a tedious procedure and there’s no certainty that the problem will be solved. What you should do is report the problem to Apple and keep your iPhone up to date. Based on reports, most users had this problem on iOS 15 but, as time goes by (we’re now on iOS 15.4), the reports about Shared Album not showing on the iPhone dialed down.
Therefore, navigate to Settings > General > Software Update and install updates if available. Hopefully, the same issue won’t bother you after you’ve updated the firmware.
And, on that note, we can call it a wrap. Thank you for reading and don’t forget to share your thoughts or provide alternative solutions we overlooked. You can do that in the comments section below.
Editor’s note: This article was initially published in A2022. We made sure to revamp it for freshness and accuracy.
