Missing photos in iMessage after iOS 26 update

Hey, I completely understand your frustration. Reading your post felt like reading my own notes — our cases are almost identical at a technical level.

I’ve been troubleshooting this for years across multiple devices and OS cycles. I’ve replicated the issue on every iPhone I’ve owned (I upgrade every launch day), and like you, I’ve gone through every documented and undocumented reset/workaround imaginable. At one point I even bought a second iPhone just so I could run side-by-side tests with fresh installs, different restore paths, and isolated variables.

Here’s the short technical summary:

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• Device → device transfers: No change
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• Fresh iCloud restores: No change
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• Fresh setup with Messages redownload: No change
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• iCloud Messages off/on cycles with multi-day indexing windows: No change
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• Full erase + set up as NEW (no restore): No change
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• Turning off optimize storage: No change
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• Debug logs + sysdiagnose + screen recordings multiple times: Done
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• Different networks (fiber, private, enterprise, 5G): No impact
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• Multiple Apple IDs / test profiles: Same behavior
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• Different storage levels, power states, and network conditions: No effect
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Exact same failure mode every time:

Messages appears to sync, but the local photo/video grid for contacts never fully rebuilds, even though the iCloud corpus contains all media. iPad and Mac pull down the complete library instantly. iPhone never does. It stalls at some arbitrary subset (for me ~10GB visible vs 155GB actual).

This is despite the iPhone staying plugged in overnight, forced indexing periods, manual rebuild attempts, and the usual “leave it plugged in on Wi-Fi and wait” recommendations. In my case:

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• 858,000 messages total
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• 155GB of Messages data
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• iPad + Mac = perfect, complete media grids
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• iPhone = partial, inconsistent, never completes
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• No correlation with remaining device storage, network throughput, or power state
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The worst part is the support cycle. Every time a new senior advisor gets involved, it starts strong for the first week, and they genuinely try. By week three the communication drops off. Engineering repeatedly returns the same response: “Known issue. Sufficient logs captured. Monitor future OS releases.”

And like you, I check Software Update daily because every advisor promises, “It should be addressed in a future release.”

After years of this, and hundreds of hours spent collecting diagnostics for Apple, I can confidently say this is not a user-side configuration issue, nor is it related to corrupted backups or network environments. This is a reproducible sync/indexing bug that only affects iPhone — likely in the photo-grid metadata rebuild process or the Messages daemon responsible for reattaching media locally.

Until Apple addresses it in the OS layer, there’s nothing left for us to try.

I wish I had better news. Your story is my story — down to the hours invested. Hopefully Apple prioritizes this, because for power users with large message histories, this is a core functionality issue.

Same. After updating to 26.0.01 and a reboot all my missing photos in messages are back.

I updated to ios26.0.1. it did not fix the issue.

i watched this video and my messages app shows “syncing with iCloud” at the top. This was not there before. Nor do it say syncing was paused. https://youtu.be/G3NwQO0A3Dk?si=zXiOCUl3AvxWJkT3

i think the steps that worked for me:

settings > messages:

1. disable imessage
2. click back button and wait 10 seconds
3. enable iMessage

force quit messages app

settings > iCloud > messages:

1. disable use on this iPhone
2. i got an alert saying not all messages are downloaded. I clicked “download and disable”
3. wait 10 seconds
4. press back button
5. Select Messages (again)
6. enable Use on this iPhone

I have not confirmed that this has fixed the photos tab issue because it’s not fully synced and is going very slow. But because it shows the syncing progress bar in Messages app, I’m hopeful.

Derrickbell79 wrote:

I’m having the same issue but I do not have download messages under info. I’ve tried resynching. Have any other ideas?

Try going to Settings > Search > Messages and turning both toggles off, then back on. That should trigger an update.

Had the same issue. I looked into this thread last week (week of Nov. 17), after receiving my iPhone 17 PM and setting it up on Nov. 6. I saw that most of the comments talked about backing up my old phone to iCloud, but I didn't want to pay for that since I already pay for Google One. For backups and keeping ips files from my old phone, that probably would've been best, but I'll survive.

Well, needless to say, today all my photos from all conversations are there. I do not delete messages, except with people I'm inactive with, and have conversations backed up through several generations of iPhones. My earliest dated text and photo is like 2016.

It took a little over two full weeks for the iOS to backdate all my photos. Hope yours has returned or will soon!

I’ve been experiencing the same sporadic behavior with my iPhones for the past three years. Sometimes, it works perfectly, and other times, I lose data. I have 165GB of messages, and I’d say about 80% of my photos are visible in the “Info”/“Photos” tabs. However, there are instances where I send a contact five pictures, and they remain visible in the chat thread but not in the tab. Then, randomly, they become visible on my Mac but not on my iPad. I’ve spent over 100 hours with tech support, and it’s been a complete waste of time. It’s a bug that they just can’t seem to fix. They keep telling me it’s a known issue and to check the next update. I’m beyond frustrated!

I've found that all of my photos are there if I go back through the text thread, and I do see a photos tab when I click on the information for a specific text thread. However, the photos tab only shows photos from when I upgraded to the new iPhone (17 Pro Max). The rest of the photos are unable to be seen unless I scroll back through the text thread.

Update: so I turn off iCloud on messages and turned it back on and the photos tab finally appeared. Didn't take the first time around. Must be a glitch. Also all the photos & videos from the text messages are all gone, only ones from when my iOS was updated appear now. Not sure what happened

This is my problem-Sent this to Apple :

I am reporting a persistent iCloud Messages issue that appears to be an attachment-indexing defect. Below is a concise summary of the problem, troubleshooting to date, and reproducible steps.

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Issue Summary

• What happens:

• When I send a camera-roll photo (with or without text), the image appears in the conversation on all devices but does not appear in the Info → Photos gallery on my iPhone or Mac.

• Screenshots I send index correctly on all devices.

• Photos I receive index correctly on all devices.

• Affected devices: iPhone [model] on iOS 26.x and Mac [model/macOS version].

• Not affected: iPad [model/iPadOS version], which indexes both camera-roll photos and screenshots properly.

⸻

Troubleshooting Performed

• Toggled Messages in iCloud off and on with “Disable & Download Messages” multiple times.

• Signed out and back in to iMessage on all devices.

• Erased and Set Up as New iPhone (no restore from backup).

• Clean, brand-new iPhone running iOS 26 showed the same behavior as my previous phone.

• Maintained ideal conditions (ample free storage, strong Wi-Fi, plugged in and unlocked for extended periods).

Despite these steps, the issue persists.

⸻

Reproduction Steps

1. From my iPhone, send:

• A camera-roll photo (with or without text).

• A screenshot.

2. Observe on iPhone and Mac:

• Both images appear in the chat thread.

• Only the screenshot appears in Info → Photos.

3. Observe on iPad:

• Both the camera-roll photo and the screenshot appear in Info → Photos.

I have attached screenshots and timestamps documenting these tests.

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Why This Is a Bug

• The fact that the iPad indexes all images correctly proves that iCloud is storing and categorizing the attachments properly.

• Two different iPhones (including a brand-new iOS 26 device) and a Mac consistently fail to index outgoing camera-roll photos, which points to an iOS/iCloud indexing defect specific to my Apple ID.

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Requested Action

Please escalate this case to iCloud / Messages engineering for analysis and resolution.

I would appreciate confirmation that this is filed as an engineering issue and notice when a fix is planned for an upcoming iOS 26.x release.

⸻

Thank you for your time and for reviewing the attached evidence.

I am happy to provide diagnostic logs or conduct additional tests if needed.

Exactly the same, it started with my iPhone 14 Pro, when downgrading from 1TB of storage to 512GB because of price hikes that year. Ever since it's been a mess with no solutions. I spent the same amount of time with Apple Support, maybe more, so many of them "senior" advisors being clueless or rude because they had no solution but tried to pretend it wasn't an actual issue. So many of them promised to follow up but never did. 

I have 205GB of iMessage data in iCloud, and never able to get it on my iPhone no matter what I try. 

When going into iPhone storage, the information I see is false. It says iMessage is only a few GB, but if I turn off iMessage in iCloud, all of a sudden I have 100GB of messages data. The storage appears different if I connect to my Mac in Finder vs what I see on my iPhone settings. 

On my Mac I'm able to see all photos/videos in the Messages app, although it only downloads around 150GB of data, not the full 205GB. 

On iPhone the behaviour changes each time, but overall the "download" button is useless, it says it downloads but it doesn't, or maybe it does in the background but nothing appears in photos. The number it gives is also false, usually 30% or less of the actual amount of photos I've exchanged with said people. If I scroll indefinitely I may be able to find some photos, although some never want to download. 

It's so frustrating to have been paying for many years for that iCloud+ 2TB storage and I can't get a decent service. Also frustrating that WhatsApp ALWAYS backs up and restores content perfectly, each year I upgrade, while Messages remains a mess. 

I don't know what to do anymore. 

Yes, some users have reported similar issues after upgrading to iOS 26, especially related to missing media and chat history. Apple often releases minor updates to fix such bugs, so keeping your device updated is recommended.

I started a new question last night but have since been trolling this one. It's so absolutely frustrating and irritating! I feel as if I'm being held hostage! I've got a brand new iPhone 17 Pro but I'm afraid to make it any worse by transitioning from my iPhone 14 Pro Max. The only other thing I've done since I made my post is a hard reset which did nothing. This is what I posted but it's basically the same old refrain:

How do I fix missing photos in iMessage conversations after upgrading to iOS 18.7.1?

Please help. I'm not as technologically advanced as I used to be. I updated my 14 Pro Max from iOS 17.7 to iOS 18.7.1 on Nov. 4th. Ever since then all the photos/images in iMessage that were in the conversation threads prior to Nov 4th are not being displayed. All there is is a HEIC/JPEG or PNG image file. It doesn't matter who the message comes from. It doesn't matter if they're HEIC/JPEG or PNG. If I click on the download icon next to it nothing happens. If I click on the file image they'll appear but as soon as I scroll to another message they revert back to the black image square with the white square it. The texts where I have sent a picture to someone prior to November. 4th is just a black space. However if I click the space the picture displays and I can see it until I move to the text part of the message then it goes black again. If I go to a contact, choose photos and select all it appears as if some of them are there in the photos tab. I've searched forums and Apple Support articles and it appears as if there's a known issue that's ongoing in iOS 17, 18 and 26. So far I've done what was suggested to try:

settings>apps>messages>search>show apps in search and also show content in search and toggled them them both off, waited a minute or so then toggled them both on. It appeared as if the messages were indexing but now that process has finished and I still have no images in the body of the message conversations. I've got messages saved forever. I purchased a new 17 Pro the other day but I'm afraid to try to transition to it because of the issue with the iMessage photos. I'm also assuming that I'm going to have to update my 14 Pro Max from iOS 18.7.1 to iOS 26.1 before I try to transfer to the new phone, which I'm dreading. I haven't tried to switch iMessages off in iCloud, power off the phone then power it back on and turn iMessage back on in iCloud because I have over 25K of messages. At this point I'm afraid to do anything because I don't want lose them. If y'all have had the problem and resolved it what did you do?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Photos in iMessage texts only have a file icon on all those that were posted before upgrade to iOS 18.7.1 A redundant question but I need a resolution.

Same! After updating to iOS 26.0.1 and a reboot- the photos tab is now in all my message threads.

hope it’s the same for everyone

Adjust contacts settings to enable iCloud account. Was disabled after update.

Yes. Apple is aware of this bug. They said they hope to have it fixed in a future update. Seems isolated to iOS 26 or later. The case ID they gave me was 10********3.

[Edited by Moderator]