Sharing a collection

There are two ways to share a collection, and they behave very differently.

	Collaborate	Send a Copy
What the other person gets	The collection in their own library, kept up to date with your changes	An independent snapshot in their own library
Their edits	Come back to you if you gave them Can edit	Stay with them
Can you take it back	Yes. Change their access or stop sharing at any time	No
Needs iCloud	Yes, both sides	No

Open the Share sheet from Share on the collection, from the scope menu on the Mac, or from a collection's context menu, then pick the mode at the top.

Collaborate

1. Choose Collaborate and a Permission of Can view or Can edit.
2. Press Invite. Within a few seconds the sheet reads Invite link ready. The collection's upload runs behind the link and you can close the sheet; sending continues in the background.
3. Send Invite… opens the system share sheet for Messages, Mail or AirDrop. Copy Link copies the link for anywhere else.

Anyone signed into iCloud who opens the link gets the collection: its items, images and documents. The recipient needs Collections. installed. The collection appears in their library at once and the images follow a few at a time. An alert confirms it was added.

Only send the link to the people you mean. Family Sharing makes no difference either way.

A collection that is already being shared shows Already collaborating on the Share sheet and sends you to Manage Sharing instead of making a second invite.

Manage Sharing

Manage Sharing… on a shared collection shows:

• Sync: Last received and Last sent, and a Sync Now button. Changes you save are sent a few seconds later; participants' edits arrive when their devices send them.
• Participants: each person with their role, a Can view / Can edit picker, and Remove. Removing someone takes the collection out of their library immediately.
• Stop Sharing, for the owner. Every participant loses access and the collection leaves their libraries. Copies you already sent are unaffected.

What participants see

• The collection carries a Shared by badge with the owner's name, or Shared with you. The owner sees a Shared badge.
• A participant with Can view can browse everything but not change it. With Can edit, their changes come back to the owner and to everyone else.
• Manage Sharing on a participant's device shows the sync times and who else is in the share.

Send a Copy

Choose Send a Copy and press Export. The sheet reads Copy ready and offers Send Copy… and Copy Link. The recipient opens the archive in Collections. and gets an independent copy with new records of its own. Neither side sees the other's changes afterwards.

Sharing a single item

To show one item to someone, use Share on the item page for its image, or generate the For Sale extract or a Collection Report for one item. See Sales and market and Reports.