Missing photos in iMessage after iOS 26 update

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]

iOS 26.2 does not fix this iMessage photo gallery bug. Apple engineers have confirmed it is a known bug. Hey, Apple, please fix this!!

It’s because the messages app isn’t “seeing” any photos in the conversation thread. If the person starts sends you some photos, the app MAY see those. IF it does, then it will show the photos tab but only those few photos will appear; not all of the photos that are in your conversation thread. It’s a very annoying bug that I hope gets resolved soon.

I’ve been told this for years as well and it got worse after updating. I can see everything on my MacBook and iPad but not my phone. Someone suggested searching there name and seleting photos, some do show up for me but not nearly as many photos I have sent with people.

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. 

It's not iOS 26. It's related to an issue between iCloud and iPhone (but not only as I have this partially happening on my Mac too). I've had this issue since my iPhone 14 Pro in 2022, so for generations of iOS have carried this issue for me.

I can confirm that none of these steps have worked for me in the past. I've also done fully clean install:

• Restored to factory settings on a Mac
• Re-installing iOS from Mac
• Not doing a restore from iCloud backup but choosing the "new iPhone" option, which meant manually downloading and reinstalling my hundreds of apps, which took countless hours to re-organise.

There is NOT A SINGLE SOLUTION from Apple Support that's worked for me. Hundreds of hours spent talking to them and trying everything for 4 years. And they still tell me there are no known fix for this at this stage.

Just got my iPhone 17 ProMax on Black Friday and I'm having this same issue to no avail. I rebooted, switched settings, even reset the phone to factory settings, called Apple Support twice and all they can tell me is they're aware of the issue and to "just wait for iOS 26.2 update, it should be coming soon enough." After calling again & talking to a supervisor, they said there's nothing they can do at the moment and I just have to wait for the solution "which will come in the form of an update."

Installed iOS 26.5 today. The iMessage bug in the photo gallery is still not fixed. I did try various things again but it makes no difference. UGH!!!

Don’t waste your time trying to fix it when you update to iOS 26.5.

It’s not about iCloud, it’s about iPhone storage. The point is to clear the “Documents & Data” in Messages. Without iCloud, messages simply can’t be restored.

After restoring to new iPhones from backup, the Photos tab in iMessage contact info is missing or incomplete.

Steps to Reproduce:

Restore new iPhone from iCloud/iTunes backup.

Open iMessage → select a contact → tap name at top.

Check for Photos tab.

Expected Result:

Photos tab should appear consistently and show the full history of shared photos (hundreds dating back to 2016).

Actual Result:

On some contacts (including mine), the Photos tab is missing entirely.

When it does appear, it only shows a partial set of photos.

Same behavior observed on both my phone and my wife’s, and also reported by other contacts.

I don’t think that’s accurate from the advisor. I have an iPhone 17 Pro with iOS 26 and the photos tab is missing for me. However, I also have a iPhone 16 Pro Max that is updated to iOS 26 and the photo tab is there. Maybe it’s a iPhone 17 issue? I’m not sure why that would matter though

This did not work for me.

I can scroll back in my conversation thread and see the photos. But they don’t appear on the photos tab. It does have all links and documents though. Very strange.

Photos sent after my restoring from backup are visible in photos tab. I was on iOS 18.7 when my initial backup occurred. If people have or don’t have issues, can you put in your comment what phone and version your iCloud backup was.

iPhone 14 Pro, iOS 18.7

-> iPhone 17 pro iOS 26

also, the search idea from a different comment didn’t work for me.

Have been messaging the same person only since updating to iOS 26. When I click on the photos button in their contact in messages it is missing a lot of photos that have been sent. On the info tab there is no attachments to download from iCloud, they are all downloaded.