1. A method for operating a plurality of image sharing devices each having a memory with image content files stored therein and a communication system to provide an image sharing system, the method comprising the steps of: identifying image sharing devices to be included in the shared image sharing system; establishing a communication link between the identified image sharing devices, said communication link providing the ability to transfer image content files; identifying sharable image content files in each of the image sharing devices; determining manifest data useable in copying the sharable image content files from one of the image sharing devices to at least one other of the image sharing devices so that each one of the shareable image content file is stored in at least two of the image sharing devices in the image sharing system; automatically copying sharable image content files from one of the image sharing devices to at least one other of the image sharing devices according to the manifest data; creating index data indicating the at least two image sharing devices in which each sharable image content file is stored; subsequently monitoring the content of each of the image sharing devices to identify any image sharing device that has a sharable image content stored therein that differs from the sharable image content that the index data indicates should be stored in the image sharing device; and copying image content files from other image sharing devices with the copied image content being selected so that each sharable image content file in the index data is stored in at least two of the image sharing devices.