Photos in iMessage disappeared after ios13 update

It is low on the priority list because it’s not affecting most users. They should still find a solution though considering what’s paid for iCloud and the devices, regardless of if it is just a few hundred people.

I have done what you have tried 10 times and nothing happens. I get the same message that it still needs to finish downloading but then after a min it’s complete. Then it says downloading messages from iCloud but that goes for about 12 hours. The only thing i haven’t tried is logging out of iCloud as i don’t know what other damage i will do and aside from this issue that is bugging the xxxx out of me i don’t want to make things worse. Let me know not you try.

thx

The thing about my situation was I had 13.1.2 on my other iPhone 7 Plus and there was no problem. I didn’t have a problem until setting up my new iPhone 7 Plus it updated to 13.1.3 and when I chose to back it up from iCloud that’s when it didn’t work properly. It hasn’t indexed any older photos and still shows it is downloading from iCloud when I toggle iMessage on and off in iCloud. This is what it says at first:

Im having this same issue as well since iOS 13 and was told they will fix it with the update and nothing yet. How many people have to experience this before Apple can tell us they are at least looking into this matter.

Apparently it has to be a huge number of users for them to do anything. I pay for iCloud and see no point considering I can’t even access iMessage attachments. It never indexed them. I won’t be getting iPhones anymore after this.

Yeah, I have about 40gb of messages in iCloud. I can only access 12gb that it considers “important conversations”. Even those are missing significant amounts of data/messages/photos. I’m flabbergasted. I specifically upgraded to a new device to increase the storage space to 512gb, and pay 2TB of iCloud, just to ensure that my data wouldn’t be lost. Leave it to Apple to release a broken software that wipes out my data because it is trying to implement some garbage indexing algorithm to combine message chains, truncate data, & overall make the software worse. Glad I already switched back to PC. Maybe they’ll read this support chain if I write that I’ll be selling my brand new IPhone 11 Pro Max to get a phone from Samsung/Google. At least their software is more reliable when it comes to not losing data under the guise of making it “more secure” or “user-friendly”. Why fix something that isn’t broken? Why not give people the option to implement certain aspects of these software changes?

Messages with a family member that passed away? Can’t find it. Photos I put off downloading to my photo app? Gone. Thats another frustrating aspect. This software is “getting rid of duplicates” on its own. I would rather do that myself not have some algorithm mistake an original photo for a duplicate. I’ve lost original photos, too.

I can’t even begin to describe my level of frustration. I don’t think these “software gurus” realize how many people I’ll be able to push from Apple to their competitors. I can’t even tell you how many people I’ve convinced to get apple over Samsung. It will be the opposite now. I may not matter to them since I am one user, but I’ll bet $ that I’m one of the biggest single users for income on a monthly basis.

They may be filthy rich now, but they won’t stay that way forever with the **** software they keep dropping for computers & phones. Seriously, why change something that works well? Why implement these garbage changes to messages & photos? Why make something worse than it is? This goes beyond planned obsolescence. This is pure creative destruction - and to what end?

I will do that but I doubt this is really going to go anywhere. I’ll see what they have to say but there again I’m not very hopeful anything will be done about this if it’s only affecting a certain number of users. Either way, paying for iCloud and an expensive phone only to not have access to this data - yes, this is a good enough reason to be done with Apple iPhone. It isn’t whining either. Many of us have lost sentimental photos and messages. I’ve had my iPhone say “downloading messages from iCloud” for 10+ hours and it still isn’t.

I never had this issue before when getting new iPhones and backing them up/syncing to iCloud. It was this update. I suppose those of us affected simply have to be devastated by the loss of access to our data and move on to other phones considering the level of this issue.

Everyone has the right to complain here when they don’t have access to what they pay for. This is a major inconvenience. You’ve been waiting two weeks and still haven’t had success. I don’t foresee anything really being done about this since it’s not affected a really large number of people.

What do you mean you doubt they are going to do anything? Do you really think there are only 10 people having this issue all of who are in this thread? This is obviously part of a bigger issue that either:

1) Most users have done OTA upgrades and have not experienced this issue yet, but will at some point when they do a full factory reset

or

2) People haven’t noticed yet or just don’t care

or

3) they have this issue and are quietly watching this thread waiting for updates.

You are jumping to conclusions that nobody cares at Apple yet you haven’t reached out to anyone let alone the appropriate channels to get the needed diagnostic data to engineers.

if you don’t like to follow proper channels and just want to whine about this thinking a magic solution will just fall from the heavens then get rid of your Apple stuff, go to android and don’t come back.

I will even take the L for you and purchase alm Apple hardware you have laying around so that you can peacefully take the money and switch to what ever other manufacturer you like who has 100% bugfree software, bullet proof hardware and provides you personalized 1 on 1 technical support at your door step daily without you asking.

I shared iPhone analytics and noticed my iCloud analytics is off - so I wonder if that should’ve been sent as well. If they’ve known of this issue and have worked with you for a while I wonder why nothing has been done/found yet.

It’s whatever; I guess I’ve lost access to my data, if it’s even there. I’ll be done with Apple products after this mess.

I had a phone call today but never received any emails for a ticket number. The person is calling me back next week and submitted my diagnostics data to engineering. I have a case ID from the last time I spoke to an advisor though, which is what this Apple advisor looked over.

Is this an iCloud issue, iPhone, or just the iOS? I wonder. It wasn’t an issue on my other iPhone 7 Plus. The issue arose when I got a new iPhone 7 Plus and tried to back up from that. But some people had this issue even just updating the phones they already have, so there is some individual variation.

So no luck?

I don’t think anything is going to come out of me contacting them either. Probably done with Apple. My tech friend use to brag on the products he bought (as compared to Apple) and he told me this is what I get for trusting their products. Guess so...

Not a chance I’m going to wipe out my phone to recover partial data from iCloud only for them to say “oh sorry, but when YOU wiped your phone... The data was permanently lost.”

Don’t have any intention of being a guinea pig with my data & devices.

[Edited by Moderator]