Email photo as attachment, not embedded, in iOS 14

What you call «the new Apple way», RichardTS, has been available on practically all email clients since the ‘90s, when it became an Internet standard!

(At about that same time, the old plain-text [text/plain] email format began to go extinct.)

In all cases, by the Internet standards, added files (including images and photos) are attachments!

The issue is that only a single email client (and its derivatives) prevents its users from performing bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves) based only upon how that email client chooses to display (render) your received emails.

(I challenge anyone to find another email client [that is not a derivative of the aforementioned errant email client], with this errant behavior.)

This means that anything any other email client may attempt, in order to try and make that single, errant email client “do the right thing”™️, is doomed to being fragile: easily broken by tiny changes anywhere within the web of interactions involved in transferring emails.

The only guaranteed means for solving this issue is for the manufacturer, of that errant email client, to correct it, to allow you, the user, to performing bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves) regardless how that email client chooses to display (render) your received emails.

This is what all other email clients (that are not derivatives of that single, errant email client) allow their users to do!

Actually, Mystified-OZ, when you use iCloud for the photos, using iCloud email, they are given as links, only (currently).

This is likely to change, in the not too distant future, since text/html emails have the ability to reference images by address (just as with webpages). In fact, this is how attached images are rendered inline with the text (what so many here call “embedded” images): they reference the “address” of the attached images within the HTML.

All the change would require is to use the iCloud addresses of the images within the HTML that is already being used.

This will only change the appearance!

The images would still be within iCloud, but would now appear inline with the text, like any other images, and other web-like content.

If this minimal change “messes” with how certain email clients allow users to interact with the images, then the problem is not in this minimal change, but in the email client that messes with your ability to work with the attached/included images, and other files.

You say it’s not Apple, yet I am using a very old Outlook 2010 Pro, and never had an issue until IOS 14. I am sure you realize that my Outlook version has not had any updates in years, and thus the change must have come from Apple.

I find it hard to believe that this has not been addressed yet. I have been a faithful iPhone user since inception (2007) and I have never had this issue using Apple Mail. It always attached the photo to the email, not embedded it. Now, it slows me down and is a hassle to change every photo to a picture, rename it, etc., in order to work with it.

Apple... PLEASE get this fixed. It seems rather simple to me and I know it's an iOS14 issue, because this has never happened while using any other iOS version on any other Apple device I have ever used.

So, CJCragg, you, like Mystified-OZ, are judging based only upon circumstantial evidence.

The only actual solution is the same as we (those of us that actually understand the entire “picture”) have been always recommending: asking the creator of the very tiny subset of email clients (consisting of a single email client and its derivatives, so far as any that have actually tested, and reported on Apple Support Communities, can determine)—that have any problems allowing their users to perform bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves)—to fix their email clients, so they, like all other email clients, can allow y’all to perform bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves) on your received emails.

Anything else is a mere “workaround”.

The vast majority of the «multitude of mail clients out there» have no such troubles!

The fix for this is quite simple (actually a work around). Make sure you have no signature with anything but plain text. Don't use anything such as color or bold type and your outgoing email from an iphone will not be HTML and the picture will show up to others as an attachment

CJCragg wrote:

What’s with the subset stuff.

My Apple mail worked fine until IOS 14. Then all of a sudden it stopped attaching multiple photos and embedded them instead. The mail client never changed, nor did the Outlook in the computer where I sent the photos. Something went away with IOS 14. Final answer.

With months worth of research, by many experienced users, here on Apple Support Communities, it was found that:

1. Images/pictures/etc. continue to be included as attachments, as required by the International Internet Standards governing email creation and interchange, by Apple Mail. There is no such thing as «embedded» forms. (The closest thing is that such may be formatted such that images/pictures may appear inline with text and other email components.)
2. Only Outlook, and its derivatives, have any problem allowing its users the ability to perform bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves) under some set of International Internet Standards’ compliant conditions. This has been true at least since 2010.
   1. (Rather than always referring to Outlook and its derivatives, I have been alluding to such simply as the very tiny subset of email clients that exhibit this particular issue.)
3. Under a small subset of International Internet Standards’ compliant conditions, this very tiny subset of email clients may actually recognize the attached files and allow users to, then, perform bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves).
   1. This is the reason why there have been some (few) times when the emails created by Apple Mail have been properly handled by that very tiny subset of email clients. (Such has broken many times, even well before iOS 14.)
   2. Unfortunately, since this subset of International Internet Standards’ compliant conditions is both small and known only to its creators (Microsoft), such leads to a far too fragile “workaround” for the sake of such a very tiny subset of email clients.

If all the people experiencing this issue would provide Feedback to the creators of that very tiny subset of email clients, we may, finally, have these email clients working properly with all other International Internet Standards’ compliant email clients (including Apple Mail).

(After all, not having their standards’ compliance updated since 2010, or earlier, it would seem the time is long past for a standards’ compliance update/upgrade.)

Welcome, Coatsy35, to Apple Support Communities!

Have you read much of the 57 pages of this Discussion?

With months worth of research, by many experienced users, here on Apple Support Communities, it was found that:

1. Images/pictures/etc. continue to be included as attachments, as required by the International Internet Standards governing email creation and interchange, by Apple Mail. There is no such thing as «embedded» forms. (The closest thing is that such may be formatted such that images/pictures may appear inline with text and other email components.)
2. Only Outlook, and its derivatives, have any problem allowing its users the ability to perform bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves) under some set of International Internet Standards’ compliant conditions. This has been true at least since 2010.
   1. (Rather than always referring to Outlook and its derivatives, I have been alluding to such simply as the very tiny subset of email clients that exhibit this particular issue.)
3. Under a small subset of International Internet Standards’ compliant conditions, this very tiny subset of email clients may actually recognize the attached files and allow users to, then, perform bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves).
   1. This is the reason why there have been some (few) times when the emails created by Apple Mail have been properly handled by that very tiny subset of email clients. (Such has broken many times, even well before iOS 14.)
   2. Unfortunately, since this subset of International Internet Standards’ compliant conditions is both small and known only to its creators (Microsoft), such leads to a far too fragile “workaround” for the sake of such a very tiny subset of email clients.

If all the people experiencing this issue would provide Feedback to the creators of that very tiny subset of email clients, we may, finally, have these email clients working properly with all other International Internet Standards’ compliant email clients (including Apple Mail).

(After all, not having their standards’ compliance updated since 2010, or earlier, it would seem the time is long past for a standards’ compliance update/upgrade.)

JoshuaVl wrote:

[SOLUTION]

Created an account just because this gave me the biggest headache.

You can send photos as attachments if you have the outlook app installed and signed in.

Just need to go to settings > Camera > Formats and change the format to "Most Compatible"

Then when you go to share photos from the Gallery just send them with Outlook (instead of Mail) and it adds it as at attachment.

Enjoy!

The photo or photos are always «sen[t] as attachment[s]», never as «embedded», with «Mail», as well as with «Outlook». (There is no International Internet Standards compliant way to send photos in emails as «embedded».)

You need not take my, or anyone’s, word for this.

You can check for yourself by performing the definitive test found in my comment at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251807601?answerId=254806789022#254806789022.

However, «Outlook», on the receiving end, seems to be limited on what Standards compliant «attachment» methods it recognizes: So, the use of «Outlook», on the sender side, simply avoids the use of those Standards compliant «attachment» methods «Outlook» doesn’t seem to understand correctly.

Minashiro wrote:

Same issue here, it boggles my mind that there’s still no easy solution for it. Will leave my “feedback” to Apple and look for suitable workaround.

Sounds Good, though not complete: You should also provide Feedback to the creator of the very tiny subset of email clients (consisting of a single client and its derivatives, all from Microsoft) that prevent users from performing bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves) on perfectly standards compliant emails, for reasons known only to the developers.

No other email clients have this issue.

Velkoon wrote:

Saving the email as HTML was the only thing that worked in Windows Outlook

Yep. This workaround is one of the ways we know that Outlook actually understands the attachment structure of emails from Apple Mail.

(i guess it sounds like we gotta wait on Microsoft to get back up to compliance with their attachment handling(?) )

Unfortunately, this seems to be the case.

Even more unfortunate, however, is the apparent fact that Microsoft hasn’t updated Outlook’s «attachment handling» since sometime before 2010.

Who knows how long people will have to wait.

Perhaps people providing Microsoft their Outlook feedback may help speed Microsoft’s response.

I found a workaround. Send photo to your gmail account. Open gmail in a browser (not in Outlook, etc.). The email message summary will show with a jpg attachment. Click on the attachment and the photo will open. Then click on the down arrow in the upper right of the screen. This will download the jpg file to your local hard drive. On Windows, you'll see the jpg file in the lower left of the screen. Click on the up arrow to get a menu, then select "Show in Folder." Now you can see the file on your local hard drive, at which point you can rename it, save it to another folder, etc. Truly ridiculous that it requires this much effort.

Lawrence, your statement is only partly correct. I just discovered this problem today when receiving photos in Yahoo web-mail using a Chrome browser, and found this thread, which seems to have evolved into more recriminations than solutions.

In some technical sense all photos are attachments because all attachments are encoded information that is included in the email packet in some form. BUT, there really is a distinction both for the end-user experience and in the actual MIME encoding in the message for "in-line" images versus ones that typically (when sent using other non-ios systems) show up as listed attachments for the user to save.

To illustrate this, take a look at this extract from the "raw email" containing several images -- note that the encoding is, yes, described as an attachment (as all MIME and similar content is) but is ALSO described specifically as "in-line"! The in-line display is not just arbitrarily chosen by the client software: the image was specifically labeled to be displayed in-line by the sender's iPhone.

--000000000000ad33ff05caf45d68--
--000000000000ad340005caf45d69
Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="IMG_2994.jpg"
Content-Disposition: inline; filename="IMG_2994.jpg"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-ID: <17ba2e831f8e5828e8f2>
X-Attachment-Id: 17ba2e831f8e5828e8f2

/9j/4Ql2RXhpZgAATU0AKgAAAAgADgEPAAIAAAAGAAAAtgEQAAIAAAAJAAAAvAESAAMAAAABAAYA
AAEaAAUAAAABAAAAxgEbAAUAAAABAAAAzgEoAAMAAAABAAIAAAExAAIAAAAHAAAA1gEyAAIAAAAU
AAAA3gE8AAIAAAAJAAAA8gFCAAQAAAABAAACAAFDAAQAAAABAAACAAITAAMAAAABAAEAAIdpAAQA
AAABAAAA/IglAAQAAAABAAAIcgAAAABBcHBsZQBpUGhvbmUgOAAAAAAASAAAAAEAAABIAAAAATE0
LjQuMQAAMjAyMTowOTowMSAxMzozMjo0NwBpUGhvbmUgOAAAACOCmgAFAAAAAQAAAqaCnQAFAAAA
AQAAAq6IIgADAAAAAQACAACIJwADAAAAAQBQAACQAAAHAAAABDAyMzKQAwACAAAAFAAAAraQBAAC
AAAAFAAAAsqQEAACAAAABwAAAt6QEQACAAAABwAAAuaQEgACAAAABwAAAu6RAQAHAAAABAECAwCS
AQAK ...

The Base64 encoding goes on for pages and pages.

I have not had this problem of images not even displaying in-line with anything other than some sent from iPhones. I can see that there *IS* a JPG file, I just can't VIEW the JPG. If I can view images from other people, then yes, this is an APPLE problem.

May I offer this solution as described at 'Appleinsider'.

https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/09/28/how-to-share-icloud-photos

Works if the photos taken on your iPhone are stored in iCloud.

In Photos, tick the images you wish to email then from the SHARE button menu

select 'Copy iCloud Link' This is saved to clipboard and can be pasted into an eMAil

or any messaging app.

I do agree though, inline photos in mac OS Mail have been annoying me and countless others

for years.

I have the issue when I send from my Outlook email, BUT I can send as an attachment whenever I use my Gmail account!!