Photos in iMessage disappeared after ios13 update

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!

13.1 is ready and fixed it! My pictures are all back!!

Make sure to check in your iCloud settings that your iMessages are on. This happened to me and I flipped it on and all the pictures are showing back up.

So I have been experiencing it myself I downloaded new software and then deleted my phone after doing one last back up to iCloud and my computer just to be safe and then started the new phone process and downloaded/signed in with my iCloud account and loaded my recent back up. I let everything load and then plugged my phone into my MacBook and opened messages in the computer went to messages top left clicked preferences then Imessage tab in blue and clicked enable messages in iCloud.

once I did that all my phone conversation loaded into my computer messages app I then went into each individual conversations clicked detail and click download messages from iCloud I stood in each one until it was completely loaded as I saw pictures I couldn’t see on my phone once’s downloaded I saved all the photos by clicking the photos and choosing “add to photo library” once there I uploaded back to my phone. Now yes this is a huge inconvenience but as of right now that’s the only way I found to obtain my photos back

I had the same problem, though I think it actually happened before my update to 13.2. It seemed to have something to do with iCloud automatically managing my storage space - removing photos from the info part of iMessage to save space on my iPhone. I have now managed to retrieve photos, but only by going through the conversation (a long one over several years with many sent and received photos) and tapping on each grey xy.jpg to individually download them. The photos then also appear under Info again. At some point iMessage was disabled in iCloud(have no idea how), which is why I couldn't initially download pictures from the conversation. Once I worked that out and reactivated storage in the cloud, I was able to retrieve my pictures - albeit in a very lond-winded way.

Update:

I now see a message under the info pane of contacts that says “shares links photos and more will be shown when messages finishes indexing”.

This is the first time seeing this since I updated to 13. The way I got here is I did a backup and did a full System Restore on 13.2. Originally I did only a OTA upgrade.

This is worth a shot. Backup and do a restore on iTunes. When the phone comes back, login to iCloud and restore from your iCloud backup and don’t touch anything. Don’t click “download” on the Info tab, don’t reboot. just let it restore and keep it connected to power source overnight on wifi. I had checked last night but there were no attachments at all and no indexing message. When I woke up I saw 2 images in one info pane and a message about indexing on all threads.

I guess I will just leave it and see over the next few days. Maybe worth a shot?

Yes same with me. I was doing a setup from scratch too.

ensure you’re cloud messages are enabled.

then do a backup.

then connect your phone to the computer and click “restore” in iTunes.

it will redoubled the entire 13.2 and will format the phone and reinstall

the whole operating system from scratch.

once it’s done, restore from the iCloud backup you created and leave it.

it wasn’t until 12 hours later of leaving it connected to power and locked overnight I started seeing indexing.

I left it for another 24 hours connected to power but the message did not go away and there was still no progress with indexing.

then I did a reboot and everything popped up.

the storage on the phone still shows 3.5GB when I have 13GB in the cloud but it seems pictures are now appearing.

I do use iCloud for Messages

My iCloud Messages storage and Messages on iPhone storage numbers were not matching. I noticed this before contacting Apple Support which lead me to conclude that I was not missing any data, but it was not properly indexing with my phone.

When I look at top conversations now it does appear normal. It appeared off before I did the restore and the photos indexed properly.

Since the issue resolved itself with a restore from backup stored on my Mac, it would seem I had some sort of issue with my iCloud backup that was preventing iOS from indexing previous photos. Who knows what it was, but I've dealt with this since iPhone 11 launch day because my 11 Pro Max came with iOS 13. I had tried to restore from iCloud backup more than once, but the locally stored backup seems to have done the trick for me.

I had issues with 13.1 syncing photos as well. 13.2 resolved that for me. Seems like 13.2.2 resolved the indexing sort of. I guess you can sit around and wait.... but I didn’t have any luck after doing over the air updates, what wasn’t working continued not to work, it wasn’t until I did the restore on 13.2.2 kicked indexing and faster sync of iCloud photos.

if you are afraid to restore I don’t think this will get resolved for you...

unless you are willing to try the recommended fix by doing a full restore on the latest 13.2.2 there’s no point sitting here humming and hawing about a future fix.

this is the fix.

restore your phone to 13.2.2 and try again.

the fix is a a restore. There won’t be any future fix from Apple as the fix has already been provided.

you do not have a leg to stand on running an old version of iOS complaining about a bug that most likely has been addressed.

once again:

YOU MUST RESTORE TO 13.2.2 NOT OVER THE AIR UPDATE.

you people keep saying you are worried about losing your cloud data and the data is in the cloud. It needs to be re downloaded it’s simple as that.

the fact of it being a new phone is irrelevant. If it’s a new phone with a bad version of iOS 13 it’s the software, needs to be restored.

My messages are taking up 20GB in iCloud storage and mine just populated from a restore done roughly 36 hours ago.

to be clear.. I DFU restored (not updated) to iOS 13.3 with iTunes, setup my phone as a new phone and logged into iCloud.

I did NOT restore from a backup. After getting to the home screen I toggled all my usual iCloud settings on and waited/ used the phone as usual.

However it is odd, my phone storage says messages is taking up 7.5GB, but iCloud says 20GB

either way, everything is now downloaded and the info section of messages now works

thanks th1ef!

I’ve tried everything and the only thing that finally worked was erasing my entire phone. I restored it to factory settings, but set it up as a new phone. I tried many times to erase it and restore from back up and that messed it up every time. It’s kind of a pain setting up as a new phone, but it’s the one and only thing that worked for me. You just need to sign into your iCloud and everything will come back. You’ll have to manually add your apps, but I just screenshot each screen and added back the ones that I frequently use. I actually got rid of a ton of them. Hoping that in the future they’ll fix this bug because it seems to be an obvious problem. I did get this suggestion from someone else on this thread but can’t remember who, so I certainly can’t take all the credit. I believe it was the only it her person that suggested this before myself, so give them props if you can. :)

do you have the newest iOS 14.0.2? try installing that, then restarting your phone.

if that doesnt work, then you must reach out to apple. ive been working with them since sept 1, 2020, trying to get my photos back in the "details" section of messages. this is a known issue (since sept 2019) that hasnt been fixed because not enough ppl are experiencing it. i think ppl just havent noticed it so its underreported.

if you want apple engineers to fix it, you need to contact apple. otherwise, theyre not going to waste time/money fixing it.

I believe there is a solution in this thread. You have to backup your iPhone to a computer. Reset the iPhone and do a restore from the backup - this solved my problem.

I finally figure this out! I went into “Contacts” and shut off the contact sync from all accounts except for iCloud. Boom. All my pictures showed back up!