Photos missing from contact info in iMessage after iOS 26 update

Had the same problem here 🙋‍♂️.

IOS 26 -> opened a conversation in Messages -> tapped the name of the person I have been messaging (for years). Saw tabs for “info”, “backgrounds”, “links”… but no photos!

Found the solution 🥳

I noted that the Settings -> Messages -> “Shared with you” area was all greyed out. After giving this some thought I realized I had “Require Face ID” turned on for the Messages app.

I turned this off and the “Shared with you” settings area became usable again!

I had someone send me a test photo and the “Photos” tab showed up for that conversation again!

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One note. I did toggle “Shared With You” -> “Automatic Sharing” off then back on once it was available again. Perhaps try this fix WITHOUT DOING THAT. I say this because I only see the one new “test photo” in that conversation now.

Instead of performing that toggle off->on, just see if it’s working after disabling Face ID to open the Messaging app. If it’s not working right away, maybe reboot your phone.

The Photos are still there, but the location has since been moved. When you tap on someone's contact photo in a message conversation, there should be a Photos section. The same is for Links.

To address your second question, certain sections will only appear depending on the person, such as Location will only show if you and your contact are sharing location through Find My. And the Backgrounds menu won't show for unknown senders.

toggling “shared with you” on and off completely fixed the issue. thank you thank you!!

Been dealing with this almost a week sometimes you can resync and it will bring it back or also go all the way down in contact and download attachments. But i still have some problems did spend time on phone with Apple they are working on the fix a lot of people has same issue

I’m having the same issue as the original Author. I updated to iOS 26. No messages were deleted or anything. And specifically mine and my girlfriend’s messages, which go back 3 years, are all there. I can scroll back through our messages and see every link, photo, video, attachment sent in imessage(or text message), but when I’m on our messages and click to her contact to view all attachments, it doesn’t even give me the option to view photos, links, etc. the only option blocks I have are “Info”, and “Background”. Is there anything that can be done to put the option blocks of “photos”, “links” or just overall “attachments” back under the contact info when clicked to from our message feed?

My friend and I are having the same issue. The pictures are there in the threads, but there is no "photo" tab to see them all. My other friend on iOS 26 has that option. My iMac and Macbook has the option as well. Frustrating.

i am having the exact same issue as the author. went to the apple store today and no one could help me. they couldn’t figure it out. hopefully a new update will solve the issue.