Graphics not displayed in Apple Mail when website hosted by Bluehost

Hello,


Since Nov 2021 anyone with Apple Mail App is not able to see graphics in our emails. Our website is hosted by Bluehost. Graphics can be seen in other email providers such as google mail however iPhone, iPad, Mac using Apple Mail App to view emails does not show graphics.

Apple Mail App still shows graphics for other emails from other websites, it seems specifically graphics stored in our website in Bluehost. We have spent a year going back and forth with tickets with Buehost and our email providers but we are getting nowhere. We think it could be something to do with the certificate, maybe Apple Mail is viewing the certificate differently and doesn't trust our website. All emails including those that used to show graphics before Nov 2021 also don't show graphics anymore. It is like there is a block between Apple Mail App and Bluehost. By Graphics I am meaning pictures and logos stored in our website. Text displays fine and links are fine.

I feel that we are the only ones with this problem and the main purpose of our website is to send invitations via email to our events so it is incredibly frustrating that graphics to promote our events are just a '?' when opened by Apple Mail App which a lot of people have.

Please help if anyone knows anything about this!

Thank you so much.

Our alternative is to change host at the end of our contract.

AP

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 13.2

Posted on Feb 27, 2023 6:30 AM

Reply
2 replies

Feb 27, 2023 8:01 AM in response to AlexandraAP

Your digital certificates or the associated web server DNS settings for what are commonly user-tracking images are probably incorrect, either overtly, or per what Apple requires.


Mail balks at loading images with invalid HTTPS responses for embedded images.


The people that work for Apple have not particularly documented their requirements here, so you’ll be doing some investigation with working servers and embedded images, of certificate vendors and certificate chains that do or do not work, or (easier) sending the images as attachments in the mail and avoiding what is commonly used for user tracking. (When enabled, Private Relay gets involved with masking user tracking here, too.)


There are some previous discussions of this around here in ASC; of mail and DNS and certificates and embedded images.

Feb 27, 2023 8:14 AM in response to AlexandraAP

AlexandraAP wrote:

I feel that we are the only ones with this problem and the main purpose of our website is to send invitations via email to our events so it is incredibly frustrating that graphics to promote our events are just a '?' when opened by Apple Mail App which a lot of people have.

You definitely aren't the only ones. The problem is that Apple Mail has very specific requirements for the secure certificate of the web site that hosts graphics. Those requirements aren't documented anywhere. If you are still using some old-school web host, and/or creating your own certificates, then it is unlikely that you'll ever get it working. In my own tests, I'm unable to find a web host that I can setup and configure where it doesn't work. But then I use popular, name-brand, off-the-shelf certificates or AWS. For people who complain about this problem, that approach seems to be a non-starter.


Another option would be to simply include the image data inside your e-mail. Again, easy solutions are non-starters in the modern world.

This thread has been closed by the system or the community team. You may vote for any posts you find helpful, or search the Community for additional answers.

Graphics not displayed in Apple Mail when website hosted by Bluehost

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.