iOS 27 Shared Albums Full Resolution: iCloud Storage Cost

iOS 27's Shared Albums update fixes a problem baked into the feature for years: shared photos and videos will no longer get compressed the moment they leave a personal library. The tradeoff is that new Shared Albums now count against the owner's iCloud storage, according to MacRumors and Trusted Reviews, reversing a setup that let people share thousands of images without touching their plan. The change is rolling out now, with iOS 27 in public beta ahead of a full release expected alongside new iPhones in September.

Shared Albums have compressed photos for years, capping them at 2,048 pixels on the long edge, with a slightly higher ceiling of 5,400 pixels for panoramas, according to MacRumors. Up to 5,000 photos and videos could live in a single album without counting against a user's iCloud quota under that previous system.

iOS 27 rewrites both halves of that arrangement. Full-resolution photos and videos now stay intact when shared, but new permanent albums draw directly from the owner's iCloud storage, including anything uploaded by people they invite, MacRumors reported this week.

How iOS 27 achieves full-resolution Shared Albums

The practical upgrade is straightforward: photos and videos added to a Shared Album will keep the same resolution as the original file, instead of being reduced for sharing. Trusted Reviews confirms that both standard photos and panoramas retain full resolution under iOS 27, closing a gap that's existed since the feature launched.

That gap had a side effect. iGeeksBlog, testing the developer beta seven weeks ago, described a personal workaround built on the old compression: upload files to a Shared Album, delete the local copies, and keep access to the content without it touching a personal iCloud quota. Because Shared Albums compressed everything, the writer never used the trick for anything meant to stay at original quality, only for files where the quality hit didn't matter, according to iGeeksBlog. That workaround stops functioning the moment someone creates a new permanent album under the iOS 27 beta, per the same report.

iOS 27 Shared Albums storage limit: who pays and the iCloud Photos catch

The in-app language leaves little room for interpretation. Testing the developer beta, an iDownloadBlog writer found that Photos now tells users the owner of a shared album will provide iCloud storage for any new items added to it. It's the owner's account that absorbs the cost, not each contributor's, a distinction that matters once multiple people are adding to the same album.

The same beta test surfaced a second wrinkle. The writer, who says they've used shared iCloud albums since 2014 and still has albums dating back to the original iPhoto app on the Mac, reported being unable to create a permanent Shared Album without iCloud Photos turned on, something that wasn't required in the past. Apple hasn't confirmed that restriction is permanent, and it's the kind of beta detail that could still change before release, but if it holds, it would keep anyone who leaves iCloud Photos disabled out of long-term shared albums entirely.

Who pays for Shared Albums contributor photos in iOS 27

The storage charge isn't limited to what an album's owner uploads. If someone invited to a Shared Album adds their own photos or videos, that content counts against the owner's iCloud storage too, according to MacRumors and Trusted Reviews.

Apple is also widening who can participate. Friends and family can now join and upload to a Shared Album through iCloud.com without an Apple Account or an Apple device, per MacRumors and heise online, meaning Android and Windows users can contribute directly through a browser. MacRumors said the broader web access could lead to more contributions overall, increasing the storage burden for whoever owns the album.

iOS 27 temporary Shared Albums for short-term sharing

Apple built in an alternative for anyone who doesn't want a group album eating into their iCloud plan. Creating a new Shared Album now starts with a choice between two types, a decision users may encounter the first time they set one up under the beta: permanent albums retain full resolution but count toward the owner's storage, while temporary albums skip the storage charge entirely, according to iGeeksBlog and MacRumors.

The tradeoff for temporary albums is impermanence. Anything not saved to a personal photo library within 30 days gets deleted automatically, per heise online and Trusted Reviews. That makes them useful for a wedding weekend or a one-off group event, but not a real stand-in for the long-running family album that used to sit outside iCloud storage for free.

What happens to existing Shared Albums

Albums created before iOS 27 aren't swept into the new rules automatically. Existing Shared Albums stay outside iCloud storage calculations by default, so long-time users won't see their storage usage spike just from installing the update, according to MacRumors and Trusted Reviews.

Apple is adding an "Upgrade Shared Album" button in Photos for anyone who wants an older album's contents bumped up to full resolution. Tapping it means the album's contents count toward the owner's storage from then on, per MacRumors and heise online.

Based on testing of the developer beta seven weeks ago, iGeeksBlog reported that Shared Albums created under iOS 26 kept working the old way even after the test device updated to iOS 27. Its advice for anyone relying on that behavior: create any Shared Albums likely to be needed before installing the update, since albums made after the update fall under the new rules.

What's still unresolved before the September release

Apple's free iCloud tier hasn't moved in years. New iPhones still ship with 5GB of free iCloud storage included, MacRumors reported, and heise online described that figure as outdated, noting criticism of Apple's unchanged 50GB, 200GB, and 2TB tiers even after the company added 6TB and 12TB options in 2023 priced at 30 and 60 euros a month.

More relevant to anyone testing the beta right now: several details haven't been confirmed by Apple directly, and its own support documentation hasn't caught up with the changes yet, per heise online. Whether the iCloud Photos requirement for permanent albums survives to release, how precisely Apple will show owners what contributors have added, and what controls, if any, owners get over incoming uploads are all open questions. With the feature still in public beta and a full release expected alongside new iPhones in September, those specifics could still shift before Shared Albums full resolution reaches everyone's iPhone.