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Send pictures as attachments and not embedded with iPhone

When I send a photo it becomes embedded in the message. When recipient opens the message there is no attachment just the photo in the body of the email. is there a way to make the photo an attachment so it can be saved when opened with outlook or another email program?

iPhone 4S, iOS 6.1.3

Posted on Jun 22, 2013 5:59 PM

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54 replies

Feb 28, 2017 7:33 PM in response to bnb2235

I've read this entire conversation and changing or deleting my signature, whether in the email itself or in mail settings, doesn't make a difference - images are still in the body of the email. They were always attachments in my previous iPhone. Yes, i know in outlook I can right click each pic and "save as," but I used to just right click and "save all attachments," so it now takes 5 times longer.

Jun 13, 2017 10:27 AM in response to J145

I have the same problem. I called the support desk, spoke to Senior Support Technician, spent 45 minutes on the phone explain the issue and at the end they blamed Microsoft. I showed how it attached images to email on my IPhone 6 and 6 Plus and how IPhone 7 didn't supported. Still no resolution. If they are unable to find a resolution, will consider switching to Android OS.

Jul 25, 2017 9:07 AM in response to wholisa85

Strange, I just deleted my signature and it's not working for me.


I tried to send the image as original size, and to send it form the mail app, or from the photos app but nothing worked. It always embeds the photo instead of an attachment.



What model of the iPhone do you have? @vdarias seems to suggest it's an iPhone 7 thing that it now only does HTML emails?

Sep 1, 2017 1:40 AM in response to SnakeDog

I have the same issue and it is very much dependant on the email account. I'm running an iPhone 6s with iOS 10.3.3.


If I send an image from an account with no signature other than Sent from My iPhone, the images arrive as proper attachments.


If I send the same picture via our Corporate Office 365 account which automatically appends an HTML signature to the end of our emails, the images arrive inline, i.e visible within the body of the email.


A number of users with different versions of iOS say they have experienced different results even though they are all sending through the same Office 365 service with the same appended signature. I would need to check this as I don't think this is the case.

Sep 1, 2017 2:43 AM in response to mrwrighty

Further to my last reply, I can confirm that emails created using Gmail or Exchange on the iPhone appears to send images inline. Email created using an Outlook.com account sends them as attachments. Whether you have a signature or not does not appear to influence the outcome so it appears the email service can influence the outcome.

Oct 1, 2017 10:35 AM in response to J145

I assume by now that this question has been answered, but in case not, here's the simplest solution. Send the photo (to yourself or anyone else) as you normally would. Don't worry about signatures, HTML, or anything else. Then go to you folder of Sent emails, and there you will find a true JPG attachment to your email.

Oct 17, 2017 7:33 AM in response to MarkC1951

I finally got mine to work by entering signitures manaully (Not using the copy and past feature). I hope apple is reading this. The reason why they don't fix it is because THEY ARE LAZY!!!! They also don't care how things work with Microsoft products. Hey why make your product work well for your customers though, even though they may be using microsoft.

Oct 17, 2017 7:58 AM in response to Csound1

This has nothing to do with microsoft.


I just tested 3 emails, one from my corporate (office 365), one from gmail, and one from icloud.


I sent the 3 emails to both my office 365 and my gmail accounts.


I sent a single photo, original size.


All 6 of the photos came in as in-line photos instead of attachments.


This is clearly an apple thing. They think it's prettier to have in-line photos instead of attachments, so that's what they do. and while I agree that it is a pretty feature, it's also very annoying if that's not what you want. Basically emailing photos from an iPhone in order to share the photo files is useless. You need to use iCloud sharing, or Dropbox, or photostream or something like that. But if you want to add a photo to an email with a (See photo below:) or with a caption etc. this works great.


(Just for fun, I also used the Outlook app, and they have decided on the same method of image embedding. So no, it's not just apple)

Oct 17, 2017 8:10 AM in response to SnakeDog

Not sure SnakeDog if your response was to my comment or not. I wasn't saying it was a microsoft thing. I was saying it's apple not willing to work with microsoft software, so to make it clear I am blaming apple for not fixing the issue. Being a long time apple user, I've been very disappointed in apple and there not fixing issues with their product.

Oct 17, 2017 8:28 AM in response to iamspartacus23

Nope, I was responding to @Csound1.


Csound1, are you suggesting that how a photo is sent in an email from my Apple iPhone 7 using Apple's mail app, using Apple's iCloud mail account to Google's Gmail account is Microsoft's doing?


Look, just for fun, I now sent another email from my Apple iPhone 7 using Apple's mail app, using Apple's iCloud mail account to Apple's own iCloud email account and it's doing the same thing... is Microsoft to blame for that too???


Note, on both the iphone and in apple's mail app it does recognize in-line photos as attachments, so there is a little paperclip beside the email for all cases (Even when I send an inline email from outlook to my iphone), but the photo is still in-line for all cases that I've tested. This is a design choice by apple to not allow for regular attachments sent from their devices. It's not necessarily wrong, it's a design choice. I just personally don't like it as I prefer attachments. I'd like to see Apple offer a choices to their customers, but I guess this is another example of how Apple always knows best.

Nov 16, 2017 2:59 AM in response to Csound1

I've been using my iphone 6s for a year and sending photos that used to go as attachments, these could be saved easily as jpegs. Now i've updated the same phone to ios 11 it wont send as attachments, only as an embedded image in the email body. Despite selecting "add attachment".
If I open the sent email in outlook I cant save the image, drag it, or anything. It seems it's not a jpeg??

Nov 19, 2017 12:11 PM in response to bnb2235

Thanks, it did help me too, as soon as I read about the sognature it triggered an alarm as I recently played with it i.e copy/pasted business signature which only partially worked to be honest, images weren’t visible in most cases.


I developed routine of sending myself picture to an email as only then it gives me option to resize and they arrived as attachments which is handy, lately the arrived embeded or whatever else someone called it, which isn’t exactly what I wanted. As another user rightly noticed one having to save as each picture manually...


I wiped out the signature and they arrive as attachments yet again the moment you select photos and sending you see them embedded still but they arrive as attachments uffff.

Make sure you delete your signature property, select all and delete. I guess txt signature is permited, I’m yet to try.


Now, I know I’m going to expose myself here but I will do it anyway, I come from Blackberry World only switched to iPhone just 18months ago, having had brand new 6s in my desk drawer for six months I wouldn’t let my Q10 go, until I dropped it and damaged my screen, it still worked fine and guess what, I was about to order new screen and then I paused tinking it’s now or never!

My adventure with iPhone began, oh boy it was painful, my wife by then iPhone pilgrim was about to stop talking to me as I could couldn’t stop banging on about how pattetic ios is how many things it is missing and so on...

Year and half later I’ve still got ny BB Q10 in my drawer, charging and playing with it every now and again I desperately wish B10 was, I nearly lost my hope. Don’t get me wrong, iPhone works great for what it is, I came to like it, and make use of every bit of it I find usefull, yet I yearn the days when I had BB in my pocket it was the only truely business phone and it’s what I need phone to be a workhorse, office in my pocket, the right size device. I refuse to accept iphone going forward, it has introduced many features BB had all this years ago, however latest software upgrade has so many issues and focuses more and more on consumer needs it will never be proper business device. I’m going to hold to my 6s for as long as it gets as there is nothing to look forward to in newer models.

Apple, will you accept the chellange to build business device, simple, solid machine, sparing us all unnecessary clutter, and make it pocket size please, I think SE is as close to the right size as one can get. Till then I will keep move my 6s from pocket to pocket desperatly trying to find least uncomfortable place.


I know, I’m in the wrong place...

Send pictures as attachments and not embedded with iPhone

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