Share your photos among computers on a network

If your computer is connected to other computers over a local network, you can share your photos with up to five of those computers. Others using one of those computers can view the shared photos in iPhoto, and drag the photos you choose to share into their iPhoto library.

To share photos, each computer needs Mac OS X version 10.2.6 or later and iPhoto 4 or later.

To share your photos over a network:

  1. Choose iPhoto > Preferences, and then click Sharing.

  2. Select “Share my photos,” and then select the items you want to share.

  3. In the “Shared name” field, type the name you want other people to see when they look for shared photos on your network.

  4. To require others to enter a password before they can see your shared photos, select “Require password” and type a password.

Others can view your shared items only while your computer is on and iPhoto is open on it.

To look for shared photos:

  1. Choose iPhoto > Preferences, and then click Sharing.

  2. Select “Look for shared photos.”

Shared libraries appear in your Source list. (Your shared items don’t appear there, only photos shared from other computers.) The shared photos you view are streamed over the network to your computer.

If you don’t see any shared libraries:

If the “Look for shared photos” checkbox is selected (in the Sharing pane of iPhoto preferences), and you don’t see any shared libraries or albums in the Source list, one of the following may be the problem:

  • There may not be any computers on your network in the same subnet with photo sharing turned on.

  • The other computers on your network might not have iPhoto open.

  • The other computers on your network might not have iPhoto 4 or later installed.

To turn off photo sharing:

  1. Choose iPhoto > Preferences, and then click Sharing.

  2. Deselect the “Share my photos” checkbox (so that the checkmark disappears).