Why am I receiving Tiny Low Quality Videos on iPhone via iMessage on iPhone to iPhone over 5G Mobile Data

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Level 1

32 points

Why am I receiving Tiny Low Quality Videos on iPhone via iMessage on iPhone to iPhone over 5G Mobile Data

I keep receiving tiny videos on my iPhone (not all the time, and seems to happen when I am NOT on WiFi); however, they are much higher quality on my MacBook. I do not understand why and it is driving me nuts.

Here was a scenario that happened today

A Verizon 5G sender sent me a video. It was received on my mobile phone and was TINY little thumbnail that I could barely click. I eventually clicked it and it went full screen and the quality was horrible.

Received on my iPhone as:

128 x 224

1.8MB

H.264

15 FPS

Absolutely horrible! However, it was received on my MacBook, in a totally higher quality

Received on MacBook as:

720 x 1280

28.6MB

HEVC

30FPS

iPhone Specs and Settings

iPhone 13 Pro Max

iOS 16.5.1

306GB Free Capacity

AT&T 5G

iCloud Photos Settings (Settings >> Photos):

Download and Keep Originals: Enabled

Messages Settings (Settings >> Messages):

MMS Messaging: Disabled (It does NOT matter if enabled or not, the same behavior is present.)

Low Quality Image Mode: Disabled

Cellular Settings (Settings >> Cellular >> Cellular Data Options):

Data Roaming: Disabled

Voice & Data: 5G On

Data Mode: Allow More Data on 5G

MacBook Details and Settings:

MacBook Pro

14 Inch

2021

Apple M1 Pro

MacOS Ventura: 13.4 (22F66)

Messages >> Settings:

Enable Messages in iCloud: Disabled

AT&T Plan Details and Settings:

AT&T Unlimited Premium (https://www.att.com/plans/unlimited-data-plans/)

AT&T Carrier Options (must log into AT&T account to toggle):

Video Management: Off (https://www.att.com/support/article/wireless/KM1169198/)

I cannot think of any other settings to change since I have experimented with this settings as soon as this but this was never an issue until about a couple of months ago and now it is irritating.

My iPhone and MacBook are both connected to the same iCloud.

AT&T mobile user. When driving around in sending videos to people on any carrier (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile) this is happening.

I am NOT on WiFi, the sender also is not on WiFi. We are all on 5G.

Something tells me this has something to do with the carrier. If it does, how do I get around this?

iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 16

Posted on Jun 26, 2023 9:45 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

SravanKrA

Community+ 2024

Level 10

413,802 points

Jun 26, 2023 11:34 PM in response to thesurg3on

If you are receiving tiny, low-quality videos on your iPhone via iMessage, there could be several reasons for this issue. Here are a few potential explanations:

Ask the sender to check their iMessage settings to ensure that the "Low-Quality Image Mode" or "Low-Quality Video Mode" option is not enabled. These settings can reduce the quality of images and videos to reduce data usage. To check this, ask them to go to Settings > Messages > Low-Quality Image Mode or Low-Quality Video Mode, and make sure they are toggled off.
If you are using cellular data instead of Wi-Fi to download videos, your iPhone may be optimizing the quality to reduce data usage. To address this, you can go to Settings > Cellular (or Mobile Data) > Cellular Data Options > Enable LTE (or Voice & Data) and select "Voice & Data" or "Data Only" to ensure high-quality videos are received when using cellular data.
iMessage has limitations on the maximum file size that can be sent and received. If the videos being sent to you exceed these limitations, iMessage might compress and reduce their quality automatically. This is particularly common with longer or high-resolution videos.Share long videos on your iPhone - Apple Support
1. There are iMessage limitations on file size for videos. The maximum file size for an iMessage video attachment is 25MB. Here are some additional things to keep in mind about iMessage video file size limitations:
2. The file size limitation applies to all iMessages, regardless of whether the recipient is using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
3. iMessage will automatically compress videos that are larger than 25MB to meet the file size limitation. However, this may result in a loss of quality.

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Answer 2

ukm_or

Level 1

8 points

Jun 25, 2024 1:45 PM in response to thesurg3on

iPhone 12 mini running latest iOS 17.5.1 on AT&T unlimited plan. Video management (stream saver) is off, cellular options are "5G Auto" and "Allow More Data on 5G" (these are default AT&T settings). Camera "Formats" set to "Most Compatible". iMessages "Low Quality Image Mode" off and "Send as SMS" off.

What I found is that AT&T compresses video files (sent as iMessage) with *.mov extension. This is a bug in their

system. They so far refuse to acknowledge this as their problem and are not fixing it. When I just change the extension to *.mp4 and send it (iPhone/Mac knows what the file really is) it goes through without compression. I'm sure most of you have verified if the recipient is on a WiFi network, the video file is received without compression. Only when received in AT&T network the compression problem happens.

Changing *.mov to *.mp4 on a Mac is straightforward. If you want to do this on your iPhone, you can first save the video to Files. From Files (after enabling viewing extensions in the options) change the extension from *.mov to *.mp4 and copy that video, then paste in iMessage to send.

This is still ugly (AT&T needs to fix this problem!) but it's a workaround (if you want to go through the trouble). Best wishes to everyone. I've never posted in this Community Forums before. This has annoyed me so much and so much time invested that I'm going around many different/old posts I could find and putting this out there.

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Answer 3

thesurg3on Author

Level 1

32 points

Jun 27, 2023 4:11 PM in response to SravanKrA

hi @SravanKrA,

thanks for the reply. there are some points you touched on which do not match the behavior. i have three iphones on three separate mobile plans which i can replicate this behavior.

senders have same settings as me. low quality mode is disabled.

2 high quality video options you indicate are not in the latest version of ios l. see images below.

id iMessage was compressed, as you mentioned, to 25MB, why is the image 28.6MB received on my MacBook? Also, why is this behavior not all the time. sometimes the videos come through full quality and sometimes they are horribly compressed.

my tech experience and troubleshooting has led me to the carrier is doing packet inspection and altering the message. if ios encrypts message, how is packet inspection able to inspect and resize a payload?

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Why am I receiving Tiny Low Quality Videos on iPhone via iMessage on iPhone to iPhone over 5G Mobile Data

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