Missing photos in iMessage after iOS 26 update

(Old iphone 16ProMax on the left, iPhone 17 Pro Max on the right - note missing photos tab for the same contact).

This is happening to me, but with a caveat:

I do NOT use icloud to backup text messages and only do it on my computer's hard drive.

This was never a problem previously -- I upgrade to the newest iphone every year, and just do the phone-to-phone sync and it all worked perfectly, until this year.

Note that I have done all of the following (everything except using icloud, which I do not want to do, and have never before had to do):

• Tried syncing phone to phone
• Synced phone from computer HD backup (this was worse)
• Turned toggles on/off in search, etc.
• Restarted multiple times
• Upgraded to 26.01, no help
• Waited ONE FULL week to see if it was just an indexing issue and it would eventually show up (it has not)
• Other random stuff

Note that I can SEE the images in the actual thread -- you can scroll forever and they appear -- so they ARE there in the memory, they are just not showing up with the little "photos" tab in the person's information.

Any ideas for my use case OTHER than activating icloud?

[Edited by Moderator]

I’ve been having the same issue but I can’t fix it. I’ve tried turning toggles on and off, restarted my iPhone 17, updated synching etc. Nothing has worked, still no tab to see photos in messages, very frustrating! Hopefully it’ll be fixed on the next update

This worked— thank you so much! I’ve been dealing with this for almost two months. Many calls to Apple, going in to the store and resetting my phone seven times didn’t do anything but this did!

forever grateful!

lzednick wrote:

This worked— thank you so much! I’ve been dealing with this for almost two months. Many calls to Apple, going in to the store and resetting my phone seven times didn’t do anything but this did!

forever grateful!

Glad it helped you out!

This still didn’t work for me. In my iCloud settings it says photos are fully synced and up to date. Messages are also fully synced and up to date in the cloud. This happened to me after the most recent update. The tab for photos simply isn’t visible in any of my messages.

I’m dealing with this currently- not photos tab in messages or no option to download photos in the info tab. I’ve had my iPhone 17 pro max for about a month now. Starting to get worried and have tried all of the options on here so far.

It began for me when I updated my 14 Pro Max from iOS 17.7 to iOS 18.7.1. I thought it was stable so I finally bit the bullet. I've got a brand new 17 Pro but I'm afraid to transfer to it because I'm afraid the problem will be replicated or even made worse with iOS 26.1. I'm at a loss.

Sorry this thread is specific to iOS 26, and since iOS 26 this issue began for a lot.

not negating the fact that you may have seen it previously, but than that should be in the appropriate separate thread. Even tho the issue behavior is the same, the underlying root cause could be different. Again considering this thread by op is specific to iOS 26 the topic should remain on that. That is just common practice in the software bug/issue reporting world.

I don’t have that option at the bottom of my info for my contacts. I don’t have my old phone anymore either. I’ve toggled on and off those options many times now.

the photos are clearly in the message thread when I scroll up, I can see them there on my computer too … but neither location will show them in them past the date of my new phone in the infor section of my messages. I’m so sad.

Same issue here on an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

I’ve dealt with this on and off for years, and it’s frustrating that accessing photos and videos in iMessage is still so unreliable.

I lost all my messages in 2020, so I’m cautious about trying half the fixes suggested. It’s annoying when you just want to revisit a memory in a chat and can’t because of this problem.

Honestly, I wish  focused more on core functionality instead of things like yearly Memoji updates. I’ve even had to reinstall WhatsApp — and as much as I don’t love it, it just works better for power-users.

Anyway, just adding my experience!

Scrolling back through the chat, my photos are still there. However, I found that the ability to go into ‘info’ and see all of the historical photos within that thread is no longer available.

Same here..no photos. Another friend has the photos showing in info. It’s random at this point I guess.

Did you figure this out? I'm having the same problem and can't fix it.