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User profile for user: whitogreen
whitogreen Author
User level: Level 1
8 points

Photos in iMessages/SMS are missing

Hi, Everyone!


I've noticed that since updating to iOS 8.0.2 but before updating to 8.1.0, photos are missing in text & iMessage threads.


Here's how I noticed it:

On Friday of last week, I was looking at old pictures dating back to October 2013 in the detail view on a text message thread on my iPhone 5S, running iOS 8.0.2. Everything was there -- no problems.


Fast forward to Sunday evening: I decided to forward a photo I had stumbled upon Friday night, but this time in detail view every few pictures in the same thread were replaced with two overlapping blue rectangles in a white box. When you click them you just see a grey background with the file name and file type in blue. When you look at the picture in the conversation, it appears as a white box with a blue question mark. (see attached screenshot of all three instances).


This is happening in iMessage conversation as well as strictly Text Messages, and files are missing from both sides of the conversations. There are even some photos that are missing in the conversation but are still sitting safe and sound in my camera roll!


No settings were changed between Friday to Sunday evening-no automatic updates, battery didn't die, didn't reset my phone or drop it, etc.

Messages have been set to save forever. I have iCloud turned on for Photos.


Any ideas on why this is happening?


I have since upgraded (last night 10/20/14) to iOS 8.1 AND have reset all settings to see if it would solve the problem. Space isn't an issue--I have 3 GB of free space currently. No such luck! 😢


User uploaded file

iPhone 5s, iOS 8.1

Posted on Oct 21, 2014 3:15 PM

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User profile for user: Rj4infinity
Rj4infinity
User level: Level 1
5 points

Posted on Dec 15, 2014 9:09 AM

Having the same issue on iPhone 5. I went to the Apple store and they did a iCloud backup restore and it didn't work. They said a few people had been in with the same issue. I think that since photos take up a lot of space that they might do this from time to time and just never address the issue. Oh, and for some reason the only iCloud backup I had available was after the problem started, the other older back ups were gone. If you get an important txt message picture be sure to save it to camera roll and back up on PC. I've turned off my iCloud and iMessage and going old school with PC backups.

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User profile for user: MStanic
MStanic
User level: Level 1
0 points

Dec 9, 2015 8:23 AM in response to whitogreen

Hey,

i have the same issue!

had to change my iPhone 6s and did the backup + restore from my iCloud.

after the iPhone was restored i figured out that all media (pictures / videos / voice msg) are missing at the chats on whatsapp (history) but my iCloud storage tells me that whatsapp is 1.2gb big. All the files are showing a question mark, only the new ones i can see.

THEN i checked iMessage and on my iPhone all the pictures are missing there too (only the new ones can i see)


i called apple care and they are checking the issue and told me calling me back.


i hope i can fix it because there are many pictures on whatsapp and i message that i haven't saved on my photo album!


anyone got a solution from apple yet?!

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Photos in iMessages/SMS are missing

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