Apple Mail Signature images loading as Question Marks after updates on desktop and iOS

I just converted the images to base64 data urls. This way the url is the image and won't have to be downloaded, saving tons of trouble (i.e. it just works).

You can convert this online, like here:

https://base64.guru/converter/encode/image/png

https://base64.guru/converter/encode/image/jpg

https://base64.guru/converter/encode/image/svg

The hosting is important. I've just been though this for a client. We had the images hosted with other Wordpress assets and they were working fine but after upgrading to Monterey, all images stopped working. I tried an experiment where I had two identical snippets of HTML with the only difference being the hosting location of the images. The ones hosted on Imgur worked fine, the ones hosted where they had always been were broken. I also tried dropbox and google drive and neither of those worked for me.

Interestingly, running the same HTML code in Safari displayed all images perfectly. It's Mail that's being fussy about where it gets its images from. I read somewhere that it's to do with the SSL certificate in the hosting location but I can't find that reference any more.

Well you can always just use both, try this:

<a href="https://mywebsite.com" title="Visit my website" style='
color: transparent;
width: 600px;
height: 150px;
display: inline-block;
background:#fff7dd;
background-image: url("data:image/png;base64,xxx"), url("https://urltomyimage.jpg");
background-size: cover;
'>invisible text for screen readers, like your name</a>

You'll need to hard code the image size. The background color is for in case both images fail so you at least see a box, (since you can't use alt here). Title is shown when you hover the image, is good for accessibility too.

I recommend to make the actual image double the size of what you enter here so it looks sharp on retina displays. So 1200x300 in this case. Consider using svg to save space.

thecrapple wrote:

Looking into an email Signature issue with apple mail thats has always worked.

I Have seen a few other posts looking into 3rd party programs conflicting which I will look into and This seems to have started after Monteray update.

this is an html signature, Images are all hosted online and have not been moved.

The signature works properly through a browser and outside apple mail just not through apple mail after Monterey or iOS after it's update to ios15.

The best tutorial on HTML sig—

How to Make an HTML Signature in Apple Mail for macOS ...

The upgrade has not effected my multiple HTML Signatures/images sitting on remote server..

try making some changes—

If you see 'Unable to load remote content privately' at the top of ...

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212797

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/mail/mlhl03be2866/15.0/mac/12.0

Use Mail Privacy Protection on iPhone - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-mail-privacy-protection-iphf084865c7/ios

*ref: What's new in the updates for macOS Monterey - Apple Support

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212585

iCloud mail add email—

https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/change-internet-accounts-preferences-on-mac-mh35705/11.0/mac/11.6

I’ve found that while the images in the signature show as broken when composing the email, once it’s sent, if you open the email from your sent items you’ll see the warning about loading remote content directly, and confirming that option shows the image correctly. So people receiving your email will see the image, or see this warning if they have the new Mail Privacy feature, but they won’t see the broken image without the attached warning. It would be better if the composition window explained why the image was broken, however.

The issue of this topic is that images from http urls in signatures don't work in Apple Mail, so that's why we use base64. In other clients like G-mail these base64 urls don't work so we also add a http url on top of it (which does work unlike in Apple Mail).

So the image is both referenced ánd embedded (as base64 string) for compatibility.

Oh wow, thank you for your reply! That's such an elegant solution and works perfectly in email clients that preserve HTML (tested in Apple Mail and Spark)—but Gmail web is a pain and seems to strip background attributes in their signature setting (clients use Gmail web). I got the background formatting to work with this css shorthand workaround, but it still drops the base64 version, regardless of whether it's first or second https://stackoverflow.com/questions/20400762/gmail-removes-background-size-in-my-newsletter

I finally found this solution for Gmail which worked (upload image to Dropbox for hosting):

https://support.google.com/mail/thread/125896222/email-signature-imaged-disappeared?hl=en&msgid=131497014

Now the image appears in all email clients. Who knew there were issues on both the Apple and Gmail side and the solution would be Dropbox.

My company is having the same problem with images not loading in signatures after updating to Monterey. But here's an important point: one of our employees uses Outlook rather than Apple Mail, and she can see signature images as usual (including in messages from those of us who are using Apple Mail). So the HTML is working, and is being transmitted correctly, even in messages sent from Apple Mail under Monterey.

This suggests that the issue is entirely with Apple Mail (since Monterey). Disabling the new privacy features has made no difference, but I suspect that something related those changes are causing the problem. I keep hoping that an update will restore the longstanding behavior, but as of 12.3 the problem persists.

Not yet.

I am not sure it's the image hosting. Mine is on DropBox and some of the images appear and most don't so I can't see it being a black listing of sites.

I also read that the actual signature appears to others not using Mail on MacOS. So if you had the HTML signature set up and it used to have images, then people in OutLook would see the images as before. So this must be either a Mail issue or a Monterey issue.

Let's hope for a fix!!

Similar problem... Only on Desktop though.

Created a signature file with sourced images on a remote server. Images are in PNG format. I don't experience broken links but all the images are white since the Monterey update. I called Apple support (the more of us doing this, the better chance they'll work on it). I've tried a few things on my on but I'm still SOL. Hoping for an update to fix this.

Base64 works beautifully in Apple Mail (finally!) but now the images are broken in Gmail. Seems like Gmail doesn't support Base64:

https://powerusers.microsoft.com/t5/Building-Power-Apps/Sending-emails-to-Gmail-account-with-embedded-images/td-p/1001615

Is there a way for an email signature image to load on both Apple Mail and Gmail?

In previous OS versions, the signature files were located here: /Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Signatures But now the Mail folder is gone.. I think that is causing an issue with images no longer showing in the signatures. Has anyone been able to get this issue resolved?