Email photo as attachment, not embedded, in iOS 14

First, Mo7805 and @All, as has been pointed out, here, to y’all, multiple times: all photos and other files are attached, regardless how it may appear due to formatting of rich-text (using HTML, by the way, just like for web-pages).

If you are using email strictly for file transfer, you are using the tool for a purpose for which it was not actually designed.

Sorry. Simply the truth of the matter.

There are other tools that were designed more specifically for file transfer purposes.

Especially for business uses, one should learn to use the right tool for the job, rather than simply using the wrong tool just because that’s what you’ve been doing, ‘till now.

I’ve use email for business-like purposes since the early ‘80s.

For business purposes, since the ‘90s, we tended to only use plain/text emails in responding to correspondence using that format. Otherwise, we always used rich-text (HTML).

As time passed, the plain/text usage diminished rapidly.

(Incidentally, while I have worked for many different companies, during my “career” [so-called], I have never worked for Apple or any of its suppliers, or other associated companies. At this point, I’m retired, and glad of it.)

Well, JasonB5963, while Apple Mail shows the attached photos as inline (what you and others are calling “embedded”), both at the sending and receiving end, the attached photos can all be saved at once, if one desires.

As to what Outlook does or doesn’t do, that has nothing to do with Apple, but with Microsoft.

(When I was working in the corporate and government realms, we used Outlook all the time: again, except with plain/text emails, the attached photos would show inline [what you and others are calling “embedded”], both at the sending and receiving end.)

Back when I was working in the corporate and governmental sectors, we, too, used Outlook as the client to Exchange servers, Richbosc.

As has always been the case, files are attachments to the emails.

The only difference, in all cases, has only ever been how such were displayed (rendered) by the client software (Outlook, in this case).

In fact, for our combination of software, the only time such would not be displayed with inline images (what far too many people are mistakenly calling “embedded”) was when the email format was plain-text.

How the email client (Outlook, in this case) displays (renders) rich-text (HTML, actually) is entirely a function of the email client! (Just as rendering of webpages is a function of your web-browser.)

Perhaps you have had your primary experience with only plain-text.

In the case of my work, we only used plain-text if the client used plain-text.

Otherwise, we used rich-text (HTML) for our correspondence.

Even back in the ‘90s, plain-text was on its way out.

It’s use only diminished into the twenty-first century.

had this problem ...if you have multiple email accounts - go , settings , mail , accounts , icloud , icloud , make sure mail is ‘on’ ...then , go back to accounts , go into other email accounts , make sure mail is ‘off’

this should solve the problem - apple tech guy couldnt solve it , took hours of frustration to figure it out !

I found if you send the pictures “old school” by selecting message instead of mail, and type your email address in the To field it will send as attachments to the email address. In some cases though, if your company tries to prevent spoofing of email it may get blocked. If this happens, go to settings > messages and uncheck your email address. Works like a charm. The only difference is the email will have your cell number instead of email address. If that’s a big deal forward the email back to yourself.

Try these:- The first method I used was to accompany the pictures with a VERY short (1-2 second) video. This makes the photos also go as attachments. You then discard the video. Seems mad but it works. Secondly, I have three e-mail addresses. One is on a Microsoft Exchange Server, the second is standard g-mail and finally the iCloud address which I think everyone has?. Sending emails from my iPhone, using the first address, Outlook on my PC shows them in-line (embedded). Using the g-mail or the iCloud address, they are shown as attachments as was the case before iOS 14, when any sending address was used. So I have just changed the default e-mail sending address on my iPhone to g-mail. No idea why!! But problem seems to be solved. I do hope this is helpful.

TopHatBill:

Have you taken the time to read through this discussion?

I know it is long and dominated by non-answers.

Are y’all using Microsoft Outlook email client, like everyone with this issue?

Are y’all sending from Apple Mail through a Microsoft Exchange server, like (most) everyone with this issue?

Of course, if Outlook would not disallow users from bulk saving/downloading attachments, for both plain-text and rich-text emails—since both formats attach the photos and other files in exactly the same way, by Internet standards—this entire issue would be mute.

I just about went bonkers trying to email photo's as an attachment.

I now go into the photo library and select up to 4 photo's at a time.

Then share via my Gmail account which is different to my work outlook account on the laptop.

Bingo - they arrive as Jpeg attachments of approximately 3mb each.

Happy Days - Stewy

What I'm saying is that right now if I email myself pictures through iPhone email... they are now embedded into the body of the email. In order to save each picture, you need to right-click each picture and save as... huge pain.

Now if you use the Messages texting app and put in your email and send pictures that way, they show up as actual attachments... where you can save all pictures at one time.

There's a difference.

I’m not missing a thing, SCamp1575.

This issue is, most definitely, not an attachment vs. “embedded” or “inlined” or “in the body” issue, because, in all cases, regardless the format of the email, or how it is displayed (rendered) by any particular email client, it is an attachment, pure and simple, as it has been for something going on four (4) decades, now.

Note: if you send the email through almost any other email server (besides a Microsoft Exchange server), the resulting email, on your Microsoft Outlook email client, will allow you to bulk-save your attachments (pictures). Otherwise, Microsoft Outlook will disallow you, the user, from performing a bulk-save of your attachments (pictures).

This is actually a Microsoft Outlook issue, not an Apple issue.

Sure. There was a change in how Apple Mail creates and/or transfers emails to SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) servers.

Perhaps there is a newer SMTP standard, that Apple has adopted: such changes occur. (Microsoft is “notorious” in not adhering to standards.)

Regardless the change that triggered the resulting change in behavior at the Outlook email client, there would have been no issue, whatsoever, if Outlook would simply allow you the same privileges, with your email attachments, regardless how Outlook chooses to render (display) your email messages.

On the Apple side of the “equation” you could request, by way of Apple Feedback, as you and others have suggested, that Apple provide users an option to create authored emails as plain-text, as I’ve seen in some email clients. Note: plain-text email has been going the way of the “Dodo” for at least a couple of decades, now.

However, at this time, there is no guarantee that this change will affect a solution, in this matter.

(If there was a change to a newer Internet email standard, Apple will not back out of that change.)

On the other hand, all it would take, to solve this issue—guaranteed—is a long overdue update to Microsoft Outlook, to allow users to perform the same bulk attachment operations, regardless how Outlook may choose to render any given email!

However, text2:

1. Regardless how any given email client may render (display) any given email, the associated files (including photos) are, indeed, attachments: this has been built into the Internet email protocols for as long as one could include attachments to emails!
2. It’s up the the viewing email client how it renders (displays) any given email, regardless whether the email is plain-text or rich-text (which uses HTML, just like a webpage).

There’s simply nothing for Apple to resolve.

As I wrote:

«On the Apple side of the “equation” you could request, by way of Apple Feedback, as [SCamp1575] and others have suggested, that Apple provide users an option to create authored emails as plain-text, as I’ve seen in some email clients. Note: plain-text email has been going the way of the “Dodo” for at least a couple of decades, now.

However, at this time, there is no guarantee that this change will affect a solution, in this matter.

(If there was a change to a newer Internet email standard, Apple will not back out of that change.)

On the other hand, all it would take, to solve this issue—guaranteed—is a long overdue update to Microsoft Outlook, to allow users to perform the same bulk attachment operations, regardless how Outlook may choose to render any given email!»

This same guaranteed answer goes for any and all other email clients that, similarly, «disallow you, the user, from performing a bulk-save of your attachments (pictures).»

The real question, JessamineInLondon, is not how they appear (or are rendered or are displayed).

The real question is whether your email client permits you, as the user, to deal with the attachments as the attachments they truly are, or does your email client restrict your use of your attachments, simply because the email client has chosen to display your attachments in some particular manner. (That’s why the language matters: it helps the way people see the issue, by understanding the underlying reality.)

Ask yourself: Is my principle issue in how things appear in my email client, or is my principle issue in how my email client restricts my use of my attachments?

If your principle issue is the former (how things appear), then you are in the wrong thread.

If your principle issue is the latter (how your email client deals with attachments differently, based solely upon how it chose to display your email), then I have provided the most correct long term advice.

(Anything else, is a short-term “bandaid”. As such, it will, almost undoubtedly, “break”, again, before long.)

Here is an email with 2 photos I sent from my iPhone to my iCloud account on my Mac. While they appear in the body of the message, there is also an icon to download the images if you hover over the address section of the message:

Further, if you click in the body of the message and Select All (CMD+A) then right-click on any image you will see a menu that includes:

Thus demonstrating that they are actual attachments that are also displayed embedded.

JessamineInLondon:

There is absolutely nothing preventing you from pointing out, in the body of your Feedback, that you are using iOS 14.2.

I’ve seen many times where the Feedback form was not up-to-date on Operating System (OS) or App versions.

In such cases, I simply include the corrected information in my Feedback.

text2:

As with JessamineInLondon, is the principle issue in how things appear in your email client, or is the principle issue in how your email client restricts your use of your attachments?

You ask «am I missing something here»?

If your answer to the first question is «how things appear in your email client», then you have missed the entire point of this entire discussion.

If your answer to that same first question is «how your email client restricts your use of your attachments», then the only thing you’ve missed is the explanation and identification of the issue.

Once identified, the long-term solution is quite clear, though there are “stopgap” measures that provide workarounds, for now (until something else changes and breaks the workarounds).