Photos in iMessage disappeared after ios13 update

This is how I fixed mine:

1. Toggled Messages in iCloud, waited for all messages to download/upload.
2. Closed all apps, turned off iPhone and waited 30 seconds.
3. Turned the iPhone back on and toggled Messages in iCloud. You may have to do this once or twice until you have all your messages in iCloud, not local storage.
4. Waited till "Download Messages from iCloud" and "Upload Messages to iCloud" were no longer showing in Messages app. All messages were uploaded to iCloud.
5. Backuped up iPhone to iCloud and iTunes both.
6. Connected my iPhone to iTunes and clicked "Restore iPhone" (reset all contents and settings does not help here). This option will not only reset your phone, it also reinstalls your iOS, cleaning up all file systems along the way and fix any storage glitches.
7. After iPhone was restored and connected back to iTunes, I disconnected it from computer and followed on-screen prompts to restore from the latest iCloud backup I had just created with Messages in iCloud enabled.

Messages started coming in as well as photo thumbnails, links and other documents I had shared through iMessage.

Note that my restore messages/photos from iCloud took about 8-10 hours alone as oppose to the usual one hour or so it takes, so DO NOT interrupt the process as long as "Download Messages from iCloud" and "Upload Messages to iCloud" messages are showing at the bottom of Messages app.

I hope this works for you too - good luck.

hi all

just a recap, when you updated all imessage media/photo disappered

1. do you have a backup on itunes for the phone?

try to restore the phone from itunes backup, hope this helps

frankly never happened to me this issue, was using iphone 8 plus updated to ios 13 & now iphone 11

let apple know by:

1. clicking on "i have this question, too" for OP
2. call/chat/email apple

without enough ppl reporting this issue, its low priority. as more ppl are now reporting the issue, apple is working on fixing it

some things *may* work for you (but it looks like for most ppl these were unsuccessful):

• restart phone
• update to newest ios (some ppl say downloading./updating ONLY through itunes not via wifi)
• make sure your settings are turned on (if you had these turned off, then you wont get your messages back)
  • settings>messages
    • keep messages: forever (or however far back you want)
    • audio messages expire: never (or however far back you want)
  • settings>icloud (name)>icloud
    • icloud backup>ON (and dont forget to check last backup/manually backup if its been a long time)
    • apps using icloud> messages> toggle ON
    • apps using icloud> photos> toggle ON
• make sure you have enough space on both your icloud and physical phone
  • check icloud storage space (settings>name/icloud>icloud>icloud storage)
  • check device storage space (settings>general>iphone storage or about--iphone storage takes a while to load properly, but you can also check your message storage here)
• check phone storage settings
  • settings>general>iphone storage
    • if recommendations to review large attachments (then you havent deleted this from icloud)
    • if no recommendations to review large attachments (then you likely deleted some data from icloud and may not be able to get it back?)
• sign out of icloud, then sign back in. you may need to wait some time for everything to load back on
• make sure your device isnt in low battery mode/has >50% battery.
• check to see if all messages/photos have synced to icloud (only if those settings are turned on in icloud)
  • make sure >50% battery
  • messages app - there should be a status indicator (similar to iphoto optimization/syncing) showing "uploading" or "downloading"
    • you can force this by toggling OFF the message syncing in icloud (settings>icloud>icloud>apps that use icloud>messages> toggle OFF>wait some time/restart phone>toggle ON>go back to messages app and see if theres a status indicator)
• reset network settings (youll lose passwords, but no data)
• backup device, wipe device (erase EVERYTHING) and restore from an older backup. if you have your icloud settings turned on, then you shouldnt lose any messages/photos. but confirm w/ apple first. im not an expert) -- you should check to see the oldest backup date before wiping since your oldest backup may be from last week and may not contain what youre looking for
• DFU update/restore

you can try restoring from a previous backup. i got *some* messages/photos back this way.

before doing this, backup to itunes/icloud (but remember icloud only stores last 3 most recent backups so newer backups will override older ones)

if you have another device (ipad) or an old itunes backup (mac/PC) then you can wipe your iphone and choose "set up as new" and "restore from backup." then choose the backup that has your data. after restoring, it does take some time to load, so youll need to have your device plugged in and charging. engineers say it could take up to 5-7days. for me, it took 24hrs before everything populated. make sure your device isnt in low battery mode/has <50% battery power

another option is a DFU restore/update via itunes (mac/PC only)

there are 2 options: restore or update. in this case you want to UPDATE (not restore)-- you should contact apple to make sure you do this correctly

youre basically putting a fresh version of the ios on your device (updating ios). you can do this even if you already have the greatest and latest version on ios

this works in cases theres a corrupt version of the ios on your device (which IMO might happen w installing ios over wifi)

these are some of the things ive tried with the apple advisor. i STILL have the issue. until enough ppl notice and report the issue, it wont get fixed

i recommend reaching out to apple, trying the steps above since youre issue *might* get fixed. otherwise, just wait until apple fixes it with a new ios update/fixes a server issue.

good luck!

Hi Everyone-

I'm literally in shock right now because I've fixed this problem on my iPhone 11 (running iOS14.3). I have struggled with this (talked to Apple senior tech support/forwarding the issue to engineers, etc.) since updating to iOS13 and have stalked this forum as well as the internet in general to find a fix. Nothing that anyone has posted here has worked for me (even getting a new phone and setting it up as new) and I've really sort of accepted that I'll never get those photos back into "info" where I can easily access them. Anyway, I literally just happy cried and here's the fix that worked for me. It's super simple and I've done many variations of this over the past year but nothing has worked... this time with this combination of actions, it worked. I'll try to include everything, even things that may not have helped. Also, I have an iPhone 11.

1. Update my Mac to Catalina (no idea if this mattered, but it may have)
2. Update my phone to iOS 14.3
3. Go into Settings - iCloud - Messages - TOGGLE OFF (you'll get that annoying message about disabling and downloading that never actually works, click Disable and Download)
4. Hard reset phone (hold down power + volume up, when settings appear, hold down the X for 30 seconds)
5. Power off phone (hold down power + volume up, slide to power off phone)
6. Power phone on
7. Go into Settings - iCloud - Messages - TOGGLE ON
8. CHECK YOUR INFO SECTIONS (mine were there immediately, didn't have to wait)

I did all of this while my phone was plugged into my computer via USB. I know this sounds incredible basic, but I've never turned the phone off/done a hard reset between toggling the Messages "OFF" then "ON" in iCloud so maybe that made the difference? Anyway, I really hope this works for someone else because I've been on this board for over a year at this point and if someone else can benefit from this, it would make me so happy!

I’m pretty mad about this whole situation. I got a new iPhone 7 Plus and backed it up and I have no access to 10GB of photos and 5GB of videos because of this app issue. I know it’s still there based on the storage. However, I can’t access it due to “info” not showing any past attachments. I would have to manually scroll for hours upon hours just to get to some things. I really did not find out much or get any real solutions from Apple support. For the price of iCloud and the iPhone I am not sure it is worth keeping when such a vital feature of the app is not being fixed for those of us who need to access old attachments without too much hassle.

Hi,

I am going to try and perform another restore again this evening. This time a full restore on 12.2.2.

I had only performed a restore on 12.2 which seems to have fixed the indexing/the attachments not showing but I still see the full data has not downloaded to the phone.

I then did a over-the-air update from 12.2 to 12.2.2

"Messages have not been fully downloaded to this iPhone." when I disable cloud messages. It seems they are getting stuck somewhere.

When I check Settings > General > iPhone Storage:

I see: Messages: 3.55 GB but I have 13 GB in the cloud.

If I click Messages then Top Conversations the numbers are all over the place with non-nonsensical numbers.

I’m having the same issue. May 2020 now this issue first raised in sept 2019.

i followed everyone’s comments for troubleshooting and now I’m doing the last one to completely reset my phone and set up as new phone and then sign into Apple ID.

i know there are Hundreds of photos here in these messages and this is what comes up, no where to click the links at all or download any photos.

I don’t get the download option and if I scroll back through the message chain the picture is there for me to download but nothing happens. I’ve tried on wifi and mobile data!!

Currently on iOS 14.0.1

As I type this, it is a few minutes after my first message, and I’m seeing that my photos are reappearing. It really was kind of scary to not see my pics at first and I know anyone else would feel the same. The update is quite a beautiful one and I understand that things happen sometimes after the installation of an update, but not seeing my pics was upsetting at first.

Many thanks.

I’ve updated to 13.1.2 and all my pictures in my iMessages are missing and there is no place to scroll down. Really need these pics back.. any help would be appreciated. Already tried a hard restart and reset of all settings

I had to have my phone plugged in and connected to wifi before it would download from the cloud... it didn’t download every single picture, there are still lots on the cloud but one iMessage had 1490 photos and videos.. but I can download them if needed

Has anyone tried resetting/erasing their phone and then restoring from backup? I have been reluctant to try this as a last resort. I thought each iOS 13 update might resolve this issue, but it hasn't. Wondering if possibly now that my phone is running 13.1.2 it might be worth a try. No other method has worked.

Same problem here. Touching "info" in a conversation takes me to details with PHOTOS at the bottom. But when I touch "See All Photos" it shows one or two and does not offer the ability to download more. Some conversations show no photos or even have the PHOTOS option at the bottom. If I go to the same conversation on my Mac - often the photos are there. But some conversations have no photos either. Some conversation don't even show the entire history. It is very inconsistent across my iPhone, Mac and MacBook Pro.

I feel your pain. If I scroll up a conversation on my phone it shows all the photo's, but like you stated they are not indexed in the view after hitting info.

wgile it was first restoring it showed how many items were in the cloud to download but when it was done with the restore the ability to download had disappeared Mine are however on my Mac and iPad the way they are supposed to be so I know they are there, but Apple needs a toggle at least to turn off and on messages so it repopulates. I have spent way to much time on with Apple Sr Techs etc and am sick of this but really wish someone had a fix for it.

I just purchased the iPhone 11 and am having the same issues. The amount of bugs with this phone is ridiculous. Nobody in Apple support was able to help with this and nobody seemed to care either. With all the time Apple spent focusing on improving photos in this phone they clearly overlooked the importance of photos in messages? It’s a shame they won’t fix this issue :(