iCloud Photos link not supported in Safari

[dave1 (Dave K)]

Maybe I’m doing something wrong here, but…

Lately when I share a link to photos in my
iCloud Photo Library with friends, they get the message below:

Then I tap on the link I sent them, and even I get the same message right in my
iPhone! Yes, using Safari, and it’s the same device I used to created the link and shoot the photos!

A couple more details: they can see the thumbnail in the Facebook messenger app, so that works. And all the photos have been synced to iCloud.

It’s so exasperating. Here is the link I shared today. It will only be good for 30 days:

iCloud.com

Does it work for you? On what device?

[markwmsn (Mark Williamson)]

It worked fine in Apple Mail on my iPhone 14 Pro Max and MacBook Pro 2021, both running up-to-date software (but not the withdrawn rapid response update).

Lovely photos!

[dave1 (Dave K)]

Glad you liked!

@markwmsn

It worked fine in Apple Mail

Do you mean Safari?

[jzw (Jolin)]

Loads for me with no problem. iPhone 12 mini, Safari on iOS 16.5.1 (20F75).

[dave1 (Dave K)]

Shared it with another friend clearly using an iPhone and she has the same problem. Her screen shot:

But literally even on my own device I can’t open my own link where the service, the browser, and the device are all Apple!

[ace (Adam Engst)]

What about iCloud Private Relay, some sort of VPN, or possibly some ad-blocking extensions? Could something like that be involved?

[dave1 (Dave K)]

@ace

What about iCloud Private Relay, some sort of VPN, or possibly some ad-blocking extensions?

Good questions. The first two are off:

But I see that if I paste it manually into Chrome, it works:

The only Safari extension I have is 1Password. I just tried disabling pop up blocker, cross site tracking, hide IP address, “privacy preserving”, and none help, assuming I was right to assume I don’t have to quit the app.

So I just tried in Safari private mode and it worked. (I think I tried that last time to no avail, as well as chrome). Maybe I’ll toss my cookies and see if it works in normal mode….

[dave1 (Dave K)]

@dave1

Maybe I’ll toss my cookies and see if it works in normal mode….

Apparently this did not help.

I used Settings > Safari > Advanced > Website Data > Edit > iCloud.com > delete

Didn’t help.

I could try Clear History and Website Data but that will blow away data for all sites…

[ace (Adam Engst)]

@dave1

So I just tried in Safari private mode and it worked.

That’s interesting. I’d have to research to learn what’s different about private mode, but the big thing is that you wouldn’t be logged in to anything.

And the fact that it works in Chrome suggests that it’s browser-specific rather than general to the iPhone. So you may be up to clearing all data from Safari…