Can’t send photos from iPhone to Android

I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max. It 98 percent of the time won’t send a photo to an Android phone. I have tried troubleshooting settings (SMS/MMS/text) and tried with and without wifi and bluetooth. SO frustrating!

Posted on Jul 10, 2023 2:45 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Jun 19, 2024 4:21 AM

This should fix it.


  1. Go to photos app and select photos that you want to send.
  2. Press the share button.
  3. At the top of the share menu press options.
  4. Select iCloud link in order to send to android devices as they do not support iMessage.


Then send to the person as normal either through messages or email.

They will then be able to download the photos from iCloud.

57 replies

Jun 14, 2024 8:29 AM in response to austin979

Same problem here now going on a month. Can’t send a pic to an android or non iPhone device. Also can’t respond to a group chat with a noniphone user involved. I’ve done everything! Spoke to apple, spoke to AT&T. Whiped my phone and reset it 3 times now. Nothing works. Apple blames AT&T and AT&T blames apple. So incredibly frustrating!

Jul 6, 2024 1:39 AM in response to austin979

Hello everyone. I’ve tried everything in the suggestions and links attached. Still not working. Can’t even send a screenshot to an android ph which I used to be able to before only iPhone Xmax and before the iOS update. I have a new iPhone 15 & still having the same issues- very annoying ! The only way around it is I send the pics & screenshots in what’s app! APPLE FIX THIS ALREADY !!!

oh & how smug are the android uses now with their “we don’t have this issue”

and our voice commands work much better then Siri ! Hate to admit they do !

Jul 13, 2024 1:40 PM in response to Hogstir

Same issue for me; I have AT&T and only 1 bar of signal at my house. Cannot send message from my iPhone to Android if it contains a picture. Turned of cellular data and still no success. Set my router ports for 'port forwarding' in accordance with AT&T advanced tech support, still no success. I probably need to invest in a cell booster. AT&T should supply one for free since I am not receiving services I pay for, yet they keep saying I need to shell out $229+tax for the booster.


Note: my 'other' phone is my work iPhone which is on Verizon, and at the same house has no problem sending a picture message to an Android phone. So while people claim it's an Apple issue, my experience is that it is squarely an AT&T issue.

Jul 21, 2024 1:08 PM in response to austin979

CANNOT SEND PUC MESSAGES TO ANDROID!!! This has been an ongoing issue for me my MMS setting is on, iMessage is on, my service area is good, and VPN is not connected. Apple and my carrier have done troubleshooting NOTHING seems to resolve this issue. What is the issue? How can this be fixed I know other apple users that do not have this issue. How do I fix this?????

Jul 24, 2024 6:49 AM in response to austin979

Same ongoing issue for me and it is very frustrating! I have Spectrum Mobile (using eSim) and an iPhone 15. Can not send any type of Meme or GIF to any of my Android contacts. I got "Message Send Failure" and the red exclamation mark and Not Delivered! Spoke to Spectrum Mobile support yesterday and they setup a new eSim for me, upon testing to send a Meme the same issue occurred. The rep asked if I had a RCS option under messages in settings and I told him I have only saw that option on my Android phone. He stated that he has an iPhone and has a RCS option, and they he is currently at iOS 18 point something on his device. I am currently at 17.5.1 and my phone says it is up-to-date.


The rep also stated that it may be a setting on the Android user's end that they do not have enhanced messaging activated or something. I looked under my Android message settings and I only see RCS chats. But saying all that to say that this occurs with EVERY Android user, not just a few. So I can not imagine that all my Android friends do not have that setting in place.


I am not an expert or a master of anything....but I do not believe this is a carrier issue. I have read these comments and I see multiple carriers.


Just my 2 cents!

Aug 24, 2024 4:16 AM in response to austin979

Why is it that Apple products are absolute trash?! Why would they make pictures different so we cannot send or receive from Android? EarPods randomly disconnect and just don’t work.

I’m done, after 10 years of fighting Apple trash phones, I’m moving to Android, Apple is absolutely the worst product and company out there. None of the products ever work and their tech support can’t fix anything.

Can’t send pics to your friends? Oh well, that’s Apple. They just won’t work and you can’t do anything about it.

I’m going back to Android, they have better products that uncle tech work 5+ years before Apple ever “discovers” it. I’m done wasting my time begging Apple for a working product.

Aug 24, 2024 5:20 PM in response to austin979

Unfortunately none of the solutions above work for me. The issue happened with my iPhone XR & is still happening with my brand new iPhone 15 Pro. It’s so frustrating and has been happening to me for years. I have AT&T & 1 bar of signal in my lower level apartment. I’ve literally tried every trick mentioned here and more and still it says message failed to send / not delivered . So I’m forced to send any pix or gifs to my (android) sister via Google photos. So embarrassing. And no. Just switching to another provider doesn’t help. I’ve literally had all my friends try from my apartment and nothing sends for them either from here. Sigh.

Aug 24, 2024 7:06 PM in response to Danhatesapple

Danhatesapple wrote:

Why would they make pictures different so we cannot send or receive from Android? EarPods randomly disconnect and just don’t work.


The new compression formats are more efficient. They allow the creation of smaller files for the same level of image quality, or the creation of files with a higher level of image quality for the same file size.


Can’t send pics to your friends? Oh well, that’s Apple. They just won’t work and you can’t do anything about it.
I’m going back to Android, they have better products that uncle tech work 5+ years before Apple ever “discovers” it. I’m done wasting my time begging Apple for a working product.


Actually, if Google had had this compression technology working as part of Android distributions "5+ years before Apple ever "discover[ed]" it," Android phones would have no problem displaying high-efficiency images sent by iPhones. Apple might be an early, and enthusiastic, adopter – but this is not Apple-proprietary technology.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Efficiency_Image_File_Format

Sep 28, 2024 1:40 PM in response to samisalwaysmad

iOS 18 now supports RCS messaging, which you can enable in the Messages app to send texts to Android users. but only a few carriers in the US, like Verizon and AT&T, currently support it I have Mint Mobile carrier and it also didn't support RCS You can check if your carrier is on the list here. for traditional SMS/MMS having issues with sending or receiving pictures, you might find this helpful: Hope it helps!


[Edited by Moderator]


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Can’t send photos from iPhone to Android

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