If you are not fond of sharing your photos with your friends and family, then you may want to turn off photo sharing on your iPhone. Here’s how to do it.
A TikToker video went viral recently showing how iPhones can share your location information from a photo you’ve sent them. This can be a concern for those who travel a lot or use their phone to document their lives.
iCloud Photos
iCloud Photos is Apple’s cloud-based photo storage that keeps all your photos in sync across multiple devices. The service is available on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and you can also access it from the web. It allows you to view all your photos and videos in one place, edit them, share them with other people, and back up your photos to iCloud.
Fortunately, you can easily turn off photo sharing on your iPhone. If you want to do this, all you need to do is open the Settings app and select iCloud Photos.
Once you have done that, you will see a toggle at the bottom of the screen. Tap on it and you will be able to stop auto-sharing. This will stop the sharing of all your photos from your iCloud account on all other devices with iCloud enabled.
You can also choose to download the original photos and videos and keep them on your device instead of storing them in iCloud. This can save you a lot of space on your device, and is a good option if you’re concerned about the amount of space iCloud Photos takes up.
Another way to stop photo sharing on iCloud Photos is by enabling Optimize iPhone Storage, which will store thumbnails of your full-resolution photos in your iPhone instead of storing them on iCloud. This can be a great solution if you’re low on memory and want to save more storage space for other files.
Finally, if you’re not concerned about the amount of space iCloud photos take up on your iPhone or iPad, you can select “Download and Keep Originals” and turn off iCloud Photos completely. This will allow you to download and save your full-resolution images to your phone or tablet.
Shared Albums
iCloud Photo Sharing is one of the most useful iOS features that empowers you to share unlimited photos and videos with your family or friends easily. However, there are some users who have reported that their iCloud photo sharing is not working.
Thankfully, there are several ways to fix this issue. First, you can try to reset the network settings of your iPhone and reinstall iOS. This will help you solve the problem quickly.
Another option is to turn off iCloud Shared Albums. This can be done from the Settings app. In order to do this, you will need to navigate to your Apple ID (at the top) and select iCloud & Photos.
After that, you can tap the iCloud Photo Sharing switch to toggle this feature off. You can also delete the shared albums that are already created on your device.
Once you’ve deleted a shared album, you can no longer add or remove photos from it. This is a great way to clear clutter on your device and make sure you have space for new albums.
Finally, you can also turn off iCloud Shared Albums on your Mac and PC. You can do this from the iCloud folder on your PC or the Preferences menu in the Photos app on your Mac.
A shared album is a collection of photos and videos that you have shared with others. It’s a great way to share memories with friends and family, or to show images that are too personal to post publicly.
The iCloud Shared Albums feature on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac lets you create shared albums for photos and videos. You can then choose who you want to share the album with, whether it’s through Messages or a link.
Messages
If you’re not a fan of seeing people’s “Share your name and photo” alerts in iMessage, it’s easy to disable that feature. This feature can be handy if you want to share your personal information with others, but it can also be annoying when it’s not something that you regularly use.
You can easily turn off this feature by opening the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad, then scrolling down a bit and tapping Messages. Here, you’ll find an option called Shared with You.
Once you’ve opened that setting, you’ll see a number of toggles, each for a different supported app. Simply toggle off the ones you wish to disable and leave them on for the apps you still use.
Thankfully, you can also opt to hide a person’s content from their respective “Shared with You” sections on all supported apps. To do this, open a conversation with someone in the list, then tap on their bubble up top and choose the “Hide in Shared with You” switch.
Note that turning off “Shared with You” will only remove the photos and videos they shared in Messages, not those that were sent via any other app. However, this is a handy way to save space on your device without having to constantly dig through messages threads for content that’s no longer relevant.
You’ll also need to remember that if you do hide someone’s content from their Shared with You section, it won’t show up in any other shared media app like Safari, Apple Music, or Apple TV. Nevertheless, you can always turn the feature back on later if you want to.
In iOS 15, you can quickly view the photos shared with you by everyone in Messages by tapping on the For You folder, which is found at the bottom of your photo library. You’ll then be able to view the full photo sharing history, sorted by day.
You can also disable iCloud Photo Link in Messages and send real photos rather than links. This can be useful if you have to travel frequently and don’t want anyone to know where your photos are.
Family Sharing
Family Sharing is a free feature from Apple that lets you share Apple Music, iCloud Storage, location sharing and iTunes & App Store purchases with your family. The service is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch and Mac devices running iOS 8 or later.
To use Family Sharing, each member of your group must have an Apple ID that’s linked to their family group. You’re the organizer of your group, so you can invite and remove members and disband the group at any time.
Leaving a Family Sharing group means you no longer have access to the shared content or services in your group. You also lose access to your family’s shared iCloud photos and videos.
You can leave a Family Sharing group using the Settings app on an iPhone or iPad. Or, if you’re on a Mac, open System Preferences and select Apple ID.
Then, select the name of the person you want to remove from your family. Tap Remove and follow any additional onscreen instructions.
A child under 13 cannot be removed from Family Sharing in the U.S., but in other countries they can be. In that case, they must be moved to another family group before you can remove them from one.
If you have a child in your group who you want to remove, Apple’s suggested way is to ask them for permission to turn off screen time family sharing on their device. However, if they won’t give you permission or don’t allow you to change the setting “Ask to Buy” for them, you have several other options.