How to Fix Shared Album Not Updating on iPhone (7 Tips Included)

Shared Albums (formerly iCloud Photo Sharing) is an amazing feature that allows users to share photos and videos with family or friends of up to 100 people on all iOS devices. Users can easily create and share albums, have family and friends like, comment, and even upload their own photos and videos to the album.

However, it can get really troublesome to share your albums with others when the Shared Album not updating on iPhone. Don't panic, the solutions provided in this article will help resolve this issue.

Why is Shared Album not updating?

Why is Shared Album not updating? There are many things that can cause “iCloud Photo Sharing not updating or working”:

● Your iPhone won't be able to upload or share photos with iCloud if it is connected to a poor Wi-Fi or cellular network.
● Shared Albums or iCloud Photo Sharing is not enabled on your iPhone or iPad.
● You may have mistakenly created a private album instead of a shared album.
● Apple server is down or under maintenance, so the Shared Album not syncing on your iPhone.
● Other reasons such as outdated iOS system, low power mode enabled, iPhone battery power, etc.

Top 7 fixes to Shared Album not updating on iPhone

After knowing the reasons behind shared album photos not updating, now let's see some possible solutions to fix it.

Fix 1. Make sure the Shared Albums is turned on

If the Shared Albums is not enabled on your iPhone, you won't be able to share photos with iCloud. Besides, Shared Album invitation not showing up may be because you did not accept the shared album invitation. Go check if these features are enabled.

How to enable iCloud Shared Albums on iPhone

Go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos > toggle on Shared Albums. You also need to make sure that iCloud Photos is enabled.

How to accept a shared album invite

Before you get photos and videos from a shared album on iPhone, you need to accept the shared album invitation. Go to your Photos app > click on the For You tab, the invitation will appear at the top of the list > tap Accept.

Fix 2. Check network connection

One of the prerequisites for iCloud Photo Sharing to work is making sure you have a stable WiFi or cellular network on your device. If you find the Shared Album not showing up, it may be due to an internet connection issue.

If your network is working properly, you can try to reset network settings. To do that, go to Settings > General > Reset > tap on Reset Network Settings > enter your password to make it.

Fix 3. Check Apple System Status

iCloud Photo Sharing will not work if the Apple system servers are unavailable or if there is a problem with the iCloud service. You can visit the Apple System Status page and check for a green dot next to iCloud Photos.

Fix 4. Make sure the iCloud Photos link has not expired

iCloud Photos links are valid for 30 days after they are sent to others. If the link expires, people won't be able to view the image, and they'll get a "Fail to Retrieve" message. In this case, you need to send a new iCloud Photos link.

Fix 5. Sign out & in your iCloud account

If there is an error with your iCloud account, the iPhone shared album will not update. If you think that this account is causing the iCloud photo sharing to function abnormally, you can choose to log out and log back in to your iCloud account.

Go to Settings > [your name] > scroll down to the bottom > tap Sign Out > enter your Apple ID password to confirm. After signing out, wait a few seconds, then tap the Sign in button to sign back in to your iCloud account.

Fix 6. Disable Low Power Mode

Low Power Mode is a useful feature that can save your iPhone's life. However, if your iPhone is in low power mode, most functions, including shared photo albums, will be turned off, and you won't be able to copy the iCloud Photos link. For Apple photos shared album to update , you can charge your iPhone or manually turn off Low Power Mode in Settings.

Fix 7. Update iOS to the latest version

If you want to share photos with family or friends using iCloud shared photo albums, you need to make sure your iPhone is running iOS 12 or later.

Go to Settings > General > Software Update to have a check. If there is an update available, tap Download and Install to update it.

Bonus tip: Alternative way to share/sync photos between iDevices

FoneTool is an iCloud Shared Album alternative to share photos between iOS devices, which can help you transfer all or selective photos from iPhone to computer and other ios devices. If your Shared Album not updating, you can rely on FoneTool to access your photos.

Besides, the Shared Albums is like a private social media, and sharing photos with others through Shared Albums can involve some very private issues. But with FoneTool, you can choose some specific photos to share at any time.

You can freely transfer photos from different albums at once, such as Camera Roll, Photos Library, or any other folder where photos are saved. This tool allows you to transfer files from one Apple ID to another with just one USB cable, so you can easily get the transferred files without network or Apple ID restrictions.

Click the download button to install this tool for free, then follow the steps below to find photos in shared albums and share them with your family and friends.

Steps to share photos between iPhone to iPhone:

Step 1. Connect the source iPhone to computer > open FoneTool > choose Phone Transfer > go to iPhone to PC and click Start Transfer.

Step 2. Click the plus icon to choose photos > click OK to continue.

Step 3. Click Start Transfer > select a location to save the photos > click Transfer.

Step 4. Unplug the source iPhone > plug the target iPhone to the computer > click Phone Transfer and go to PC to iPhone.

Step 5. Choose Photos > drag the transferred photos to the box > tap Open to continue > then click Start Transfer.

Conclusion

That's all 7 fixes for shared album not updating. This issue can be easily solved with the solutions demonstrated in this article. Hope you can share photos with family and friends again. If you find such problems difficult to solve, you can switch to FoneTool for free. It can help you share photos, contacts, messages, music from iPhone to computer, iPhone to iPhone/iPad and vice versa.

To better organize the photo library on iPhone, you can let FoneTool selectively backup important iPhone data to computer. In addition, it also allows you to find and delete duplicate photos automatically to free up iPhone storage space. Find out more for yourself!