Photos ap Shared Albums missing

For those following the thread. This is the solution that worked for me, thanks to a long discussion with ChatGPT:

1. Completely close the Photos app.
2. Open Finder, click Go in the top menu bar, and select Go to Folder....
3. Type in ~/Library/Application Support/ and hit Enter.
4. Look for a folder simply named CloudDocs.
5. Drag that CloudDocs folder directly to your Desktop (this safely pulls it out of the system loop without deleting anything).
6. Restart your Mac, open Photos, and wait 5 minutes. The Mac will regenerate a fresh cloud request handshake and try pulling your album layout from the server again.

I cannot say I understand exactly what this does, but it did work on two of my computers that failed to load the shared albums.

Since you did not mention it, I have to ask:

Have you made sure that Photos > Settings > iCloud > Shared Albums is enabled on both Macs?

Are all of the devices signed into iCloud with the same Apple Account (Apple ID)?

Also:

If all of the devices signed into iCloud Photos, have you checked that the non-shared contents of your devices match iCloud Photos and each other (aside from the Shared Albums)? (Is synching working at all?)

You wrote: "deleted the local caches, and even tried a brand-new empty temporary library on a completely different cellular hotspot network. "

Can you elaborate on this a bit, please?

• Which local caches did you delete?
• Just to be sure, as you did not mention it - you enabled iCloud Shared Albums again in Photos for Mac, after you turned on iCloud Photos in the new library?
• Did you previously use Wi-Fi? Photos for Mac is not syncing well on a cellular hotspot network.

It may take a while until the shared albums will come back after you switched iCloud Photos to a new Photos Library. The shared albums created on the older versions of Photos (macOS 10.15 to macOS 26) are cached inside the Photos Library. Photos will have to download them again from iCloud, if you switch to a new library. On macOS 27 Golden Gate I am still seeing this cache in the library package, but new shared albums will be shared directly out of the Photos Library. I have not yet found the cache for the new shared albums dated on Golden Gate.

If you are creating new Shared albums (on macOS 27 or iOS27) as temporary albums in a full resolution, they are no longer accessible on older system versions. You can only share them as an iCloud link. This will also apply to older shared albums you upgrade to the new format. See: Create or join shared albums in Photos on Mac - Apple Support

I'm baffled, but let's gather some additional information that might help me or another volunteer in this forum.

For example:

What version of iOS is running on your iPhone currently?

Do you know when the Shared Albums were created?

Do you know which one(s) of your devices created the Shared Albums, running what operating system(s)?

Have you ever seen these Shared Albums on your Macs previously? If so, when did it stop?

Syncing it’s working just fine, The only problem is the shared albums not appearing , and appropriate settings have been applied and toggled on and off with restart between events. I have Even logged in and logged out of my account to try to have the shared Albums appear.

What version of iOS is running on your iPhone currently? • Latest released version 26.6.2

Do you know when the Shared Albums were created? • Shared albums were created on Desktop several years ago, but were sharing across devices previously.

Do you know which one(s) of your devices created the Shared Albums, running what operating system(s)? • The desktop iMac Intel i5 created them and is running Sequoia 15.8.1 Not showing up on laptop running Latest Golden Gate Mac software

Have you ever seen these Shared Albums on your Macs previously? • Yes, shared albums worked as expected. If so, when did it stop? • It stopped after I decided NOT to store photos locally only, purchased more iCloud storage and decided to sync the entire library on iCloud. The former local photos only are visible on all devises.

Strange. Merely enabling iCloud Photos should not disable Shared Albums on the same Mac. They should be independent features.