Messages finish indexing

I’m having the same issue. Has anyone figured out a solve or is this a bug?

so I left my mob over night & hoped the pics would download. Strangely I have one txt message / contact & his pics have all appeared. Not for everyone though. If I scroll up through the txt msg then the pics are downloaded but still do not appear in the media list. I don’t have the time to sit & scroll up through all my txt msgs to find a pic! 🥵

This is the same thing for me. Photos are there if I scroll back through the thread, and for a couple threads, they appear when I click on the i but most have the message that they will be available one messages finishes indexing. This needs to be fixed Apple!

I noticed this when I switched from my iPhone XS to 11 Pro, as well as on my iPad when I upgraded to iOS 13. I have been back and forth with Apple support since September 25 when I first noticed the issue. I’ve been through every troubleshooting step they’ve asked of me and still nothing. I’ve spoken to multiple Senior Advisors and nothing. If you have figured out something that has worked for you, please let me know.

This is insane. I woke up this morning and my phone automatically updated which i have turned off. Photos that were sent to me 3 days ago are missing and not downloading. I get the same "indexing" message at the bottom and when i click to download nothing happens. I've tried the steps below but nothing is helping. Apparently this is a new issue?

Same issue although under the info button I git an option to download images from the iCloud . Clicked that then nothing .. no pics loaded! I hope the images have not been lost!

me too!!!! please help!!!

I’m having the exact same issue there if anyone knows please do tell how to fix the problem I have no photos

Mine too! Then there is a picture under someone’s text that I am trying to delete and it deleted from the texts but not the attachments.

Exact same thing for me and I've had a running conversation with my wife and friends for years across all parts of the world. I can't lose those memories.

I have tried toggling on/off Messages in iCloud at least a dozen times with no luck. All my messages are there....but photos/attachments sent prior to iOS 13 do not show in "i"nformation.

Thank you so much. This actually did it. I had to be on wifi and plug into a power for it to download but it works. Thank you again.

What if I already did a master reset on the old phone? Where do I go from there? I have so many photos of my kids in my message history that I'd love to retreive!!! PLEASE HELP

I used the “Turn on iCloud” method just for messages and it worked for me. You may have to buy more iCloud storage (is there a conspiracy here?) but it only cost me $.99. It does take a while (18 GB of messages) so I just let it run all night and got everything back, except the indexing error message, the next morning. Just made an iTunes backup of the fixed phone and will now get off iCloud and save $.99 a month, lol. Have patience with this method; someone said “I have tried toggling on/off Messages in iCloud at least a dozen times with no luck” but that’s not how it works. Follow the tip above... good luck.

I had this same issue after I utilized my most recent iCloud Backup for my new iPhone 11 Pro. Try going to Settings > Phone > My Number. My phone number was not entered under the 'My Number' tab. I entered my phone number and immediately everything repopulated (photos, links, etc).