Photos in iMessage disappeared after ios13 update

Yes I have the same issue.

i have 13.3 GB in the cloud. But it’s only downloading 4.5 GB. If I toggle the Messages in iCloud off it says they are not fully downloaded. if I proceed they never do download however When I turn off Messages in the cloud and check my IPhone storage, Messages instantly jumps to 10Gb....

also what you are saying is normal and goes back to what I explained earlier. When you have ICloud Messages enabled, they are excluded from your iCloud backup.

so technically you actually don’t have a true “backup”. One wrong slip and delete a message you need, it alone with attachments will be deleted from the cloud and all your devices instantly.

There is no recovery procedure. It’s gone.

this is why you also need a off iTunes backup just in case.

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'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.

I’m happy to hear that finally this thread is getting vocal. I have been on with Sr Level Techs for over a month. Sent in 4 diagnostic reports and still waiting for a resolution. I really think

most people don’t know this is an issue but based on the increased activity hopefully they will finally solve this unreal pain. I have been obsessed with every workaround and have not been successful. 9 restores and two new phones and setting up different scenarios on a spare phone. Seems like something somewhere is not playing nice. My pictures are all there in the thread but no indexing except the photos taken and sent since my last restore. Wish I had better news but my tech wants to run more diagnostics

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.

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.

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.

Everyone viewing this page that has this issue, you MUST contact Apple support and continue to press the issue. They at some point should ask you to send in diagnostics information. If enough people contact them maybe something can be done about this. Don’t just read from this discussions page.

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...

I have restored 6 times since the release of 13.0 trying to resolve this. Nothing is helping. There are also multiple people reporting this on Reddit as well.

I’m not sure why this is only affecting some of us. Out of 6 phones in the house only mine lost access to the photos. However mine was a fresh install/restore while all others in the home were OTA updates.

I continue to tell everyone reading, call Apple. OPEN A TICKET. Reference this post. Insist you are not the only one.

The indexing would be a stellar feature if it didn’t break our photos tab.

We are all monthly subscriber customers, Apple needs to make this work. We cannot settle for less.

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]

All good points. I see nothing coming from any of this either. I’m waiting on a call but since others have also been in the same boat with this and got no help it’s doubtful anything will change. I deserve a refund for iCloud. This phone of mine (iPhone 7 plus) was about $1,000 when I got it and now look at the situation it has gotten me in. I should have used another product. Our data is definitely nothing to play with especially when it’s being paid for. This is just not okay.

Not only are none of my attachments indexing but my iPhone won’t download more than 36GB from iMessage even after it saying it’s downloading for 15+ hours. I can’t believe I trusted them. I’ll wait for the call and see what is said but it will most likely be nothing of use as they are clueless.

No you would set up your phone as usual but instead of backing up from the cloud hit don’t transfer apps and apparently it works.. I’ve reset mine maybe tome but but like this. If you try it let me know if it works!