Photos in iMessage disappeared after ios13 update

I've had a support call with Apple. It's still an issue. What I can say is if you have another device iPad or Mac, you can clearly see the missing items on those devices (at least I can). I know the information is there, it just seems this is a bug in showing the information. I'm going to reach back out via my Support ticket number and let them know it's still not fixed after I followed their instructions.

I completely understand. Do you remember how much GB you had originally in your iMessage? Go to settings > iPhone storage > iMessage. See how much GB it shows you having. If you have iCloud, also look at the amount of GB are attributable to iMessage. If it’s a high amount (I have 84 GB in iMessage) it is likely the data isn’t lost but isn’t being displayed. iMessages is not indexing properly and clearly has issues with the app in users like us. I have been very angry as well and they’ve likely lost me as a customer. They won’t care though since they’re filthy rich. It is a matter of ethics at this point.

I also have a ticket open with engineering. Just call them again, don’t wait for them to call you. Explain this issue and you will have a case manager assigned to you right then and there.

This issue appears to only affect phones that are wiped and newly syncing to the cloud. We have a household of 6 iPhones. Everyone else upgraded OTA without issue. I wiped and restored and encountered this issue.

With every release from 13.0 to 13.2 I did a full restore / recovery install but was not able to get this to work.

Call support (not chat) and open a ticket for engineering. I have been working with Apple for over 2 weeks on this still without success. If you haven’t opened a ticket and do not have a case manager assigned you cannot complain here.

There are steps and procedures to bring us to a resolution and if we don’t follow them we won’t get there. Empty threats to go else where and buy other products will not get us there.

Make your voice heard. We all spent a lot of money on these devices and we need to press Apple senior advisors to find a solution. This is their job.

The data is still in the cloud. It hasn’t gone anywhere. Check your iCloud storage. If the size matches what you think it should be then it’s there.

A test you can do is try do a search in messages for a word you know will find and click “see more” you should be able to see conversation dating years back. Click a result and scroll around and see if you can see attachments in the message thread.

I think something is just not playing right. Being negative and freaking out isn’t going to get us anywhere.

Once we have a fix I suggest you go make a iTunes backup somewhere and keep it. You never know when it will come in handy. As I mentioned before, messages in ICloud does NOT back up your messages. It simply keeps them centralized in the cloud. One wrong swipe and the message will be deleted along with attachments. Messages are not stored in your iCloud backup when ICloud Messages are enabled.

If you have not opened a ticket for this yet please call Apple support, escalate to a senior advisor and get a case opened as level 1 will not be able to resolve this for you.

The more attention we bring to this the better.

I am going to read your comments again soon. What I can ask is this: can you log into iCloud from going to the iCloud website on the internet on your computer? If so, when you click photos, does it show all of your photos and videos on there? Now this is direct access to iCloud, not the nonsense your phone is showing. If you can do this and you see the correct number of photos and videos in your cloud, I can explain to you how to back up to a flash drive. First you’ll have to get a flash drive that has the same amount or more of GB that your photos and videos in the cloud has. Then I can tell you how to copy everything onto it.

1. If you have an Apple computer, go to preferences on safari.
2. Select General.
3. On “file download location” you click it then you select the flash drive while it’s plugged in. Under this also select “manually” on the Remove download list items.
4. While on safari in your cloud on the photos and videos, manually select them - up to 1,000 items at a time and click the cloud with the downward arrow at the top right (it is right next to the trash icon. The cloud with the downward arrow will download the items directly to the flash drive). I’ve found that sometimes I have to do less than a 1,000 at a time for it to properly download. This will take a long time but ensures you have extra back up of images and videos in case you need it.

Hi,

I posted the fix above.

you need to do a full recovery restore to the latest. Not a over the air update.

once you have restored, load your backup and it will take 24-48 hours. If not appears in 24 hours reboot your phone and confirm.

Jmpls, question:

do you use iCloud for Messages?

if so, if you go to settings, click your name and go to messages how much storage are you using?

then if you go to: settings - general - iPhone storage - messages

are they are same?

if you check under messages under the iPhone storage and click “top conversations” does it look normal?

If you didn’t explicitly delete anything, they are still in the cloud.

you may need to restore to 13.2.3 then wait. It did take 2 days and a reboot for mine to come back.

do you see any messages about indexing?

Here’s the sad truth. It can’t be fixed if you (like me) are unlucky enough to have the issue. I did a hardware swap and it didn’t help. I’ve setup the phone as new and it didn’t help.

I can see the missing info in other devices I have, but not my phone. So I know it’s in the cloud.

Apple is aware of the issue - they’ve confirmed that to me, but also said it’s not super high priority to fix - it’s relatively uncommon.

I’m hoping iOS 14 will fix it, and if not maybe a new model phone, whenever I decide to upgrade again (probably a couple years).

It is annoying, having purchased the top phone they offered two years ago and paying for storage - but I won’t spend anymore time trying to sort out. Only some sort of class action would get them to address at this point as it is an important function that we’ve paid for and are not getting - but honestly who has the time or energy to pursue the issue to that level.

When you go to iMessage and see all photos it’s a tab at the top that says photos and screenshots.

Exact same issue. When click info only photos from past few weeks exist but when scroll through the messages all the photos are there. Seems like a simple fix to iOS 13.1 - who knows if they read this?!?

BS, it is the update. These complaints weren’t made until the new update. I didn’t have the problem until the update. There have been over 200 people to bring this up on Apple Discussions. Anyone reading this right now, you need to send feedback to Apple:

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Contact Apple support and voice your concern and the fact no one has been offered any real help or solution to this problem. Also, everyone, check your iMessage storage. In settings go to General > About > iPhone storage > Messages. You will see there it shows you how much GB of photos and videos are in the app. Mine shows over 15GB of media. This proves it is a display/access problem in iMessage. Everyone with the issue needs to keep contacting Apple and not give up. For their pricing this is unacceptable. And if they never help with this I will be complaining about Apple to everyone I know and will switch to another company for phone business.

That is weird. I know it’s been over 200 people based on what’s been online. Have you tried logging out of iCloud then logging back in? I went to iCloud, toggled iMessage off, and it said something like “This iPhone isn’t finished downloaded messages. Disable and download?” I have done this several times. I toggle it off for a minute then back on. Each time it makes my app have “downloading messages from iCloud” pop up. It lasts for an hour or more, then stops, then I repeat the process. I’m not sure it’s doing anything though. Tomorrow I’m going to fully log out then log back in. When you log out it doesn’t delete data in iCloud.

I'd recommend calling into Support, being patient, and sticking with it. I ended up with upper level support. Get your case number and when fixes don't work. Call back again. Keep referencing your case number.

when I was working with Apple I was given a special logging profile to install on my phone for 24 hours, I was required to go in to the photos pane multiple

times over the 24 hours and then submit all the logs to engineering.

anyone with this issue call Apple get a ticket and keep on top of them.