# Adding my family on the account



## mbartle (Mar 12, 2021)

Hi everyone,

Fairly new to LR & new to mobile.  Trying to figure out how to manage the family photos.

What would the best method be for allowing my family (of 4) to contribute photos to and view our collection?  Should I just have them download the app & use my log in?  Have them upload photos when they like and I sort them? 

Obviously lots of concerns, curious how other manage it.

Thanks
Mike


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 13, 2021)

A lot depends on the circumstances, such as:

- the location of the family members, i.e. in the same house or spread across different houses.
- what type of subscription you have (thinking about the amount of cloud space available).
- what you want the family members to be able to do, if anything, beyond contributing and viewing.

Personally, I don't like the idea of allowing other family members to use my Adobe ID. For one thing it's technically a breach of the license agreement, and for another it gives them total management capabilities across my entire online library. Knowing the computer literacy skills of some of my family members, no way is that going to happen!

At the moment, Adobe's solution is for one subscriber (i.e. you) to create an album and share that album with your family members, and giving each member the ability to contribute their own images to that shared album. They can do that by using the LrWeb interface in any browser on their computer or tablet or smartphone. When uploading their images they are stored in YOUR cloud space (hence the question about how much space you have with your subscription), but being in your library you have full control of them, i.e. you can edit and add metadata. They will also download into your Classic catalog if you have sync enabled there. The family members can at this stage only view the album (but that does mean they would see all the images added by all the family members).

But, depending on your own circumstances they are other ways to setup that single family album.


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## mbartle (Mar 15, 2021)

Thank you Jim, that was very helpful.  I'm going to start with that plan. 

 I'm currently using LR CC w/1TB cloud space (using about 20% now) with classic on a home computer.  

I'm looking to help my 13 y/o manage her pics from an early age, allow my 10 y/o to view pictures of family vacations, friends, etc & help my wife save her pictures off her phone.  I wasn't aware of the LR web interface, sounds like a great tool.   I saw that you could share just didn't realize the recipient could upload to that as well.

You're right I really don't want the kids in poking around looking at "pre-kid" pictures for example!


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## Replytoken (Mar 15, 2021)

mbartle said:


> You're right I really don't want the kids in poking around looking at "pre-kid" pictures for example!


That would be the least of your worries if you had shared access to your whole catalog with your kids.  LR is not an intuitive program that can be fully understood by just getting behind the wheel and starting to drive.  A quick look at the posts here and you will see that many come from new users who had assumed they knew what they were doing and then found themselves trying to sort out a mess because of bad assumptions.

If your kids are shooting jpeg, then you could go with Jim's advice.  But if they balk at using LR or just do not understand it, then I would consider other options that make sense to them.  Copying jpeg files and then adding them to your catalog is fairly easy and can be done from a variety of platforms.  And, I am assuming that you kids might be interested in using filters that you would not normally apply to your images.  So keeping two sets of them may be an option that you want to consider.  One for you and posterity, and the other for the kids to do as they see fit.

Good luck,

--Ken


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## Jim Wilde (Mar 15, 2021)

mbartle said:


> Thank you Jim, that was very helpful.  I'm going to start with that plan.
> 
> I'm currently using LR CC w/1TB cloud space (using about 20% now) with classic on a home computer.
> 
> ...


The fact that you are all within the same household makes the actual uploading simpler, as Ken says. Just use whatever is simpler for the kids to use....the collaborative contribution system is perfect for extended families spread across the world, but may be overkill within a single house. However, the benefit of subsequently *sharing *the collaborative collection via the LrWeb app is that the viewers will always be seeing the up-to=date edits, so no need for constant re-publishing/re-exporting/re-uploading. It's a really neat way to share images, and likely to get better in due course.

Regarding your wife's photos, you could consider setting up LrMobile on her phone (though that would give her access to your entire synced library, which could be a good or bad thing). Once setup correctly, any pictures she takes with her phone will automatically and seamlessly sync to the cloud and thus down into Classic.


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