Email photo as attachment, not embedded, in iOS 14

I had this same problem, but I am able to send photos as attachments if I share the file using the Outlook app.

Found a new work around that came from Microsoft- download the Outlook app and when emailing photos share to that app instead of the Apple mail app.

add also another type of file, like a pdf oder something to the mail and it will send the pictures as an attachment.

this is not a solution, but it works as a work-around.

I have the same problem. I'm using hotmail and sending photos to gmail and all the photos are embedded in the email body. Very tedious to download each one individually.

I have discovered a slight work around with a minor drawback. Not sure if someone has mentioned it as I haven't read through all the replies.

If you send the email using gmail, the photos should be sent as attachments and should allow the recipient to "save all" or "download all." The minor drawback is that you can only send 10 photos at a time (or there's some other attachment size restriction).

Hope this helps until Apple fixes this issue.

Just in case this provides a little clarity, I have two e-mail addresses. One is on a Microsoft Exchange Server and the other is standard g-mail. Sending emails from my iPhone, using the first address, Outlook on my PC shows them in-line (embedded). Using the g-mail address, they are shown as attachments as was the case before iOS 14, when either sending address was used. So I have just changed the default e-mail sending address on my iPhone to g-mail. Problem solved. I do hope this is helpful.

I repeated the demonstration sending to an MS Exchange account, and opened in Mac Mail, and the results were exactly the same. I could download all the attachments using the paperclip icon or Select All/Right click on any image.

Next I tried opening the same email in Outlook for Web. The only way to download the attachments was one at a time.

Demonstrating that the problem is in the mail reader app, not the way it is sent.

I have recently encountered the same problem with my pics now being embedded in my outlook email versus being sent as attachments. I have used the same workaround described that includes creating a small video and sending it along with the pics to outlook and I can confirm this works too. I have called Apple Support and have expressed my concern about this issue. I was not happy with their canned response. To paraphrase: the situation we are encountering is now the the current standard. Basically, it is what it is. I then escalated this to a supervisor and received the same response. I believe that the best way to draw attention to this matter is to contact www.apple.com/feedback and leave feedback regarding this issue. It is my understanding that this concern will be escalated to the correct technical group that might be able to rectify this situation. I am hopeful that more dissatisfied iPhone users will share this feedback via this method which will create even greater awareness. There is strength in numbers. Hang in there.

Welcome, PamelaSW, to Apple Support Communities!

«image attachment for email» hasn’t changed since attachments were first introduced to email (back in the ‘80s, or earlier).

It still hasn’t changed.

Regardless how any given email client may choose to display (render) any given received email, photos and other files are attached! Pure and simple.

The only problem is that a tiny subset of email clients (with Microsoft Outlook being the only instance, that I’m aware of, so far) choose to preclude users from performing bulk-operations, such as bulk-saves, on certain received emails, simply based upon how said email client chooses to display (render) said received email.

Yes. Y’all are encouraged to send Feedback to Apple, via their Feedback webpages.

However, there is simply no guarantee that changing the default authoring format (from rich-text formatting [which uses HTML, by the way, just like webpages], to the older plain-text format) in Apple Mail, will actually solve the issue. (That is the only change Apple could make that wouldn’t violate an Internet standard.)

It might, but no guarantee!

Guys my IT guy just discovered a solution with me, few more clicks involved but solves having to save photos individually!

On Outlook, double click the email so it opens in a separate box. Then click ‘File’ then ‘Save As’ then choose the location where you want to save then under ‘File Name’ you will find ‘Save as Type’, change this to HTML and click save.

Your photos are all now saved together and all you will need to do is tidy a few extra files it creates.

For iOS (and iPadOS), carynfor, there simply was no change in «attachment’s option», since regardless how any particular email client may choose to display (render) any given email, files are always attached to the email: this is a very old part of the email Internet standard, and is highly unlikely to change in the foreseeable future.

The only problems are:

1. An apparent change in the interaction between Apple Mail vs. Microsoft Exchange servers over the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): if the transfer of email uses just about any other route, the “issue” seems to be avoided.
2. An apparent change in the default formatting of authored emails in Apple Mail. However, there has been, absolutely, no change in the way files are attached to such emails.
3. The simple fact that Microsoft Outlook prevents users from performing bulk operations on attachments (such as bulk-saves), purely based upon the way Outlook chooses to format (render) a received email: no other email client seems to have this problem!

The first item, if there was an actual change in the SMTP, it would have only been in accordance with the SMTP Internet standard, which gets updated, now and then, and, unlike Microsoft, Apple, and others, tend to stay current with such standards.

Eventually, Microsoft will “get with the program”, as they usually do, even though they tend to “drag their feet”.

The third item will only be fixed if people properly complain to Microsoft, about how Outlook is improperly interfering in their use of email attachments.

The second item is the only one that y’all may be able to talk Apple into changing: they could provide an option to change the default email authoring format to the (very old and “dying”) plain-text format.

Be aware that the old plain-text email format was going “extinct” even back in the ‘90s!

Likewise, due to the issues with Microsoft software, there is simply no guarantee that such a change will actually solve the Outlook issue. It might, but there’s simply no guarantee.

(The only affect that the plain-text format has on email attachments, is that there is no way to render [display] email attachments “inline” with the email text, since it cannot contain any formatting, whatsoever.)

I've seen this explanation from yourself and others in this thread. It's obvious that you (collectively) know much more about email protocols and history than I do, although I do understand, in a basic sense, what you're explaining. The confusing part is that your explanation blames Microsoft for the issue (I'm no stranger to blaming MS for many things, so I'm simpatico there), but the issue seems to be happening with many platforms. I've sent photos from my iPhone to Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail accounts all with the same results-the pic is received in the body of the email instead of a separate attachment, with this only happening since iOS 14. I believe what you're saying, except that it doesn't seem to be solely an MS issue. On the surface, it looks like Apple made a change that they (maybe, probably) knew would affect multiple email platforms. They only way I've been able to get by at work is to text pics to my email. MS and other platforms do render the pic as attachments that way. It's not a perfect workaround, because I can only send 2 or 3 pics at a time this way without the text failing to send, and I have to take and send dozens of pics a day at work.

steeve130 wrote:

• This is exactly what I’m talking about.

You select photo from your camera roll.

• You send them via email from there.

before it was sending them as attachment[s]

now it’s sending them [so they appear] embedded in the email. If you want to save them on your computer [using an email client like Microsoft Outlook {actually, the only email client know, so far, to force you to do this}] you now have to right click them one by one, rename and save them. This is cumbersome.

…

As many of us have been saying for quite some time, there is only one known culprit in this issue.

The problem is that any workaround, even the previous behavior on iPhones, are fragile: they are subject to being easily broken, so long as the actual issue—Microsoft Outlook’s misbehavior based solely upon how Outlook chooses to render (display) a received email—remains unaddressed.

That is not something Apple can fix!

Halliday wrote:

terrapinny wrote:

This is so frustrating! I send images to my work email, then have to go into the email, save each image in paint... ridiculous.

And forget about composing an email for a work colleague with pictures.

thanks apple, I now do double and triple the work.

You are only having to «do double and triple the work» due to the particular email client you are using at the receiving end: no other email clients prevent their users from performing bulk attachment operations (such as bulk-saves) based only upon some vague internal choices of the email client.

Unfortunately, somehow, that email client has got many users “convinced” that the failing is not that email client, but the sender of the email. 🤦🏻‍♂️

Worse still, this problem will never be actually fixed until the creator of that particular email client (and its derivatives) fixes this misbehavior.

However. That will never happen, so long as such users continue to misplace the “blame”.

You are 100% wrong. And I say it with such confidence because I have done extensive testing, which I will share below, in case I am missing anything.

This is not a problem that is restricted to MS Outlook. This is an Apple-created a problem.

If I send an email to my Exchange account with 2 pictures, they are embedded within the body of the email. I have tried this using 3 different Mail servers (Exchange, yahoo, Gmail). As soon as I add the small video, all 3 show up as attachments.

And just to double check this is not a Microsoft only problem, I repeated the above by sending emails TO my Yahoo address. In other words, any time I sent the email from the 3 servers without a movie attached, both pictures would be embedded. That includes sending an email from Yahoo to myself.

6 different tests total. Exactly the same results.

Open TEXT messaging (not mail)

put in email address, then pick the pictures from your album.

they will come as attachments.

I have shared this and some of the “hi tech” guys don’t get it (too simple of a work around”

montesa1 wrote:

Open TEXT messaging (not mail)

put in email address, then pick the pictures from your album.

they will come as attachments.

I have shared this and some of the “hi tech” guys don’t get it (too simple of a work around”

The actual «”high tech” guys» do «get it».

It’s a workaround that relies upon the more primitive character of the Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).

For the others, they simply want to find “blame”, and don’t want to change anything about how they are doing things.

(Basically, they want someone else to “fix” the issue for them, and don’t even seem to want to pay attention to what actually is “broken”.)