Email photo as attachment, not embedded, in iOS 14

I am a professional Windows and Android user.

At leisure I only use Apple devices.

Honestly, I'm getting more and more frustrated with the limitations of iOS and MacOS. There's no reason for Apple to DELIBERATELY REMOVE a feature, just to hamper the user experience!

After reading the 63 pages of this forum, I'm getting tired of Apple!

AntonioMarcos:

I didn’t present any “solution” (since the only solution I know is to replace the use of non-standards compliant email clients [Outlook and its derivatives, which haven’t seen substantive updates in over a decade]).

I was commenting upon a “solution” presented by another user, asking that user whether their found “solution” was on Apple Mail, or some other email client.

As it turned out, their “solution” was on another email client (“gmail”).

AntonioMarcos wrote:

Sorry again! I didn't install Gmail on this iPhone, …!

Then. Of course the suggested “fix” didn’t work!

I'm referring to Apple Mail, native to iOS and MacOS. In it, the photos become embedded in the text and not as attachments.

As I have explained, here, many times, there is no such thing as “embedded” photos not being “attachments”: such are only attachments with an (optional, and ignorable) formatting “suggestion”.

You need not believe me.

You can perform the definitive test, that I have shared the link to, multiple times, and check the standards documents I linked to (within the comment giving the definitive test).

It’s not Apple’s fault that there is a very tiny subset of email clients (consisting of a single email client and its derivatives, from a certain [non-Apple] company, that haven’t seen substantive updates/upgrades in over a decade), that have trouble allowing their users to perform bulk email operations (such as bulk-saves) when they receive such standards compliant emails.

Additionally, I can’t blame Apple for not wanting to “chases” fragile “compatibility” with a (wanton) non-standards compliant software, from such a standards violating company.

Of course, you can always provide Apple your Feedback, on such matters.

AntonioMarcos wrote:

Has such an inelegant feature been around for years and years and was recently removed? That was what happened?

What “inelegant feature” are you referring to?

The inability for users to perform bulk operations (such as bulk-saves) using email clients in that very tiny subset (consisting of a single email client and its derivatives), when they receive standards compliant emails for which they don’t properly respond?

Or the (inelegant) feature of manually changing attachment “formatting” directives? (Which may or may not get the previously stated very tiny subset of email clients to “do the right thing”™️?)

The recent “issue” with that very tiny subset of email clients started with iOS 14 (as per the Original Post [OP]). However, similar issues kept cropping up, and being “worked around” for many years, and many iOS versions, previously. (Back to, at least, 2010.)

I can’t blame Apple for no longer wishing to pursue such one-sided stratagee.

Philosophies aside...

I think the forum question here is simple:

a) files like .pdf, .cdr, .xlx and any other, Mail Apple user has the "right" to attach;

b) image files, Mail Apple user has the "NO RIGHT" to attach in their emails.

AntonioMarcos wrote:

Philosophies aside...

I think the forum question here is simple:

a) files like .pdf, .cdr, .xlx and any other, Mail Apple user has the "right" to attach;

b) image files, Mail Apple user has the "NO RIGHT" to attach in their emails.

They are attached, regardless. The only possible difference pertains to (completely optional, and ignorable by any email client that chooses to) formatting options.

This is pure fact. Hence, no “philosophies” involved.

hilyshaf wrote:

From what I understand the formatting options are no longer available we have no choice. The photos are only embedded and we cannot choose to have them be attached as separate JPEG files. I do not want our photos to become part of the actual message formatting, but separate and attached.

The true point, hilyshaf, is that the photos, and other files, are always attached as separate files, regardless of Formatting. In fact, there is no such thing as “embedded” photos, or other files: they are simply attached, but (optionally) Formatted inline with the text.

The only problem is the very tiny subset of email clients (consisting of a single client and its derivatives, from a third-party developer, which haven’t been updated/upgraded in over a decade), which prevent their users from performing bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves) based purely upon standards compliant Formatting: Formatting, in fact, which is specifically specified, by the standard, to be ignorable by any email client, whether because the client doesn’t understand the directive, or, for any other reason, chooses to ignore such.

There is no “technical” solution because Apple doesn’t think there’s a problem. However, if you attach a document along with your photo, both attachments are available in the usual manner. You cannot make up things like this, in fiction it would be rejected as too far fetched. And yet, here we are.

Tantalite wrote:

There is no “technical” solution because Apple doesn’t think there’s a problem. However, if you attach a document along with your photo, both attachments are available in the usual manner. You cannot make up things like this, in fiction it would be rejected as too far fetched. And yet, here we are.

Quite true.

Of course, with a little checking, it is provable that Apple Mail produces standards compliant email structure (MIME structure), whether one includes only a set of a single type of file attachment (such as photos), or a mixture of file types (like some sort of document, along with the images/photos).

While, on the other hand, there is but a very tiny subset of email clients (consisting of a single email client and its derivatives, all from a single [non-Apple] company) that seem to have some difficulty “doing the right thing”™️ with these standards compliant emails.

Hence, the only “technical” solution is to have that very tiny subset of email clients correct their functionality.

Unfortunately, that very tiny subset of email clients doesn’t appear to have seen substantive updates or upgrades since before 2010.

This is not an Apple screw up. For the benefit of anyone who hasn’t bothered to read this thread, let me explain:

All photos in an email are attachments. ALL, EVERY PHOTO is an attachment. In addition, the email contains a link in the text to the image(s). But the images are not “embedded”, they are just displayed in the body of the email in most receiving email clients because of the included link to the attachment.

Any properly written email client has an option to download the attachments. Apple mail does on Macs. Gmail webmail interface does. Most 3rd party email clients do. If yours doesn’t you are using a brain-damaged email client.

A "very tiny subset of email clients"? I've tried 3 different (but common) email clients and they all behave the same with incoming email from ios14+ devices, or outgoing email from ios14+ devices. So I guess the 3 common email clients that I've tried just coincidentally fall into the "very tiny subset of email clients." I haven't been able to find an efficient way of sending photo ATTACHMENTS when ios14 or higher is involved.

SMH.

@LawrenceFinch. I HAVE read your note. I use Gmail from Google, and Outlook from Microsoft. Further, I didn't just take a cursory look and give up. I did confirm you were correct about an inline text message not being a truly embedded file -- thank you for that -- but that was as far as I got after trying to adjust my settings. It remains the case that I cannot download a photo from my iPhone (the source of my pictures), not from any of my email clients could download the photo.

I don't mind refraining from calling this a defect, but do us a solid here, given you are obviously quite knowledgeable, can you share with us the setting and/or default we should be looking for? Whether this was a defect or a bad idea, or even a good one, there are thousands of us who are aggrieved.

So, if you don't mind, please fill us in on what obvious fix we're missing?

ejberg wrote:

A "very tiny subset of email clients"? I've tried 3 different (but common) email clients and they all behave the same with incoming email from ios14+ devices, or outgoing email from ios14+ devices. So I guess the 3 common email clients that I've tried just coincidentally fall into the "very tiny subset of email clients." I haven't been able to find an efficient way of sending photo ATTACHMENTS when ios14 or higher is involved.

As Lawrence Finch wrote, above: “Any properly written email client has an option to download the attachments. … If yours doesn’t you are using a brain-damaged email client.”

I only know of three (3) email clients (all from the same [non-Apple] company: OutLook and its derivatives) that have this problem.

What “3 different (but common) email clients” are you having this issue with?

(There is a possibility that some other email client has been added to the “brain-damaged email client” list, though I wouldn’t expect this.)

Tantalite wrote:

@LawrenceFinch. I HAVE read your note. I use Gmail from Google, and …

That’s new, having Gmail (from Google) now having this issue!

Gmail used to work well.

I wonder what happened to them?

I wonder why they “broke”?

Lawrence Finch wrote:

I just tested the gmail web client. I was able to download several attached “embedded” images just by clicking the Download All icon.

That’s good.

What about the Gmail application, particularly running on Windows (if you have access to such)?