It is the absolute worst feeling. You're trying to find that one specific photo of your niece’s birthday or a screenshot of a recipe your mom sent three months ago. You tap the contact name, scroll down to the "Photos" section, and—nothing. Or maybe just three blurry shots from last week. Where did the rest go?
If you’ve noticed iMessage not showing all photos, you are definitely not alone. Honestly, this has become one of the most persistent, annoying bugs in the Apple ecosystem over the last few years, especially for anyone who just updated to iOS 18 or the newer iOS 26 builds.
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It feels like your memories just evaporated. But they haven't. They’re usually just "stuck" in a digital waiting room.
Why the Photos Disappear in the First Place
Basically, your iPhone doesn't just "show" photos; it indexes them.
Think of indexing like a giant library card catalog. When you update your phone or move to a new iPhone 17, the system has to go through every single message you've ever sent and "re-read" the attachments to categorize them. If that process gets interrupted—say, by a weak Wi-Fi signal or your phone getting too hot—it just stops.
The Storage Catch-22
There is also a weird thing with iCloud. If your iPhone storage is nearly full, iOS will sometimes offload the high-resolution versions of your message attachments to the cloud. You'll see the text of the message, but the "info" pane where the photos usually live will look like a ghost town because the phone hasn't "called" those files back home yet.
The Search Indexing Trick (The "Nuclear" Option)
Most people will tell you to just restart your phone. That's fine, but it rarely works for this specific issue. You need to force the phone to realize it’s missing data.
One of the most effective ways to jumpstart the system is through the Siri & Search settings. It sounds unrelated, but the search index is exactly what populates that photo gallery.
- Open Settings.
- Scroll down to Apps (or Siri & Search on older versions).
- Find Messages.
- Toggle Show Content in Search to OFF.
- Wait about thirty seconds. Seriously, count it out.
- Toggle it back to ON.
What this does is essentially tell the phone, "Hey, stop looking for these," and then, "Okay, start from scratch." Many users on the Apple Support Communities have reported that their photos started trickling back in within an hour of doing this.
iMessage Not Showing All Photos After a New Update?
If you just finished an update, your phone is likely working overtime in the background. It’s doing facial recognition in the Photos app, indexing mail, and trying to sort your iMessages.
Wait 24 to 72 hours. I know, that’s a terrible answer. No one wants to hear "just wait." But indexing is a low-priority background task. It only really moves at full speed when the phone is:
- Plugged into a charger.
- Connected to stable Wi-Fi.
- Locked (screen off).
If you’re using your phone all day, the indexing pauses so it doesn't drain your battery or lag your apps. Try leaving it plugged in overnight for two nights in a row. Usually, the "More photos will be shown once Messages finishes indexing" message at the bottom of the gallery will finally vanish, and your pictures will reappear.
The iCloud Sync "Toggle"
Sometimes the handshake between your iPhone and iCloud gets "gunked up." If the search trick didn't work, you need to refresh the sync.
Go to Settings > [Your Name] > iCloud > Show All. Tap on Messages. You’ll see a switch that says Sync this iPhone.
Turn it off. Your phone might ask if you want to disable and download messages. Choose Disable and Download. Give it a minute, then flip it back on. This forces the device to re-verify the "manifest" of what’s in the cloud versus what’s on your local storage. It’s like hitting the refresh button on a browser that’s stuck.
Face ID and "Shared with You" Glitches
Here is a weird one that almost nobody talks about. If you have "Require Face ID" enabled specifically for the Messages app (a feature added in recent iOS versions), it can occasionally break the "Shared with You" and "Photos" indexing.
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There's a strange bug where the encryption layer for Face ID prevents the background indexing service from "seeing" the attachments. If you’re desperate, try disabling the Face ID requirement for the Messages app temporarily.
Go to Settings > Apps > Messages and see if Require Face ID is on. Flip it off, restart your phone, and check the thread again. You might be surprised to see the Photos tab suddenly populating.
Check Your "Keep Messages" Setting
This is a "facepalm" moment for a lot of people, but it’s worth checking.
Navigate to Settings > Apps > Messages. Look for the Message History section and tap Keep Messages. If this is set to 30 Days or 1 Year, your phone is literally deleting your photos on a schedule. If you want them to stay forever, make sure Forever is checked. If it was set to 30 days and you changed it to Forever, unfortunately, the old stuff is gone—but you’ll stop the bleeding for future photos.
A Quick Checklist for Troubleshooting:
- Low Power Mode: If this is on, indexing stops. Turn it off.
- MMS Messaging: Ensure this is toggled ON in Message settings, especially for photos sent from Android users.
- Internal Storage: You need at least 5-10GB of free space for the phone to even attempt indexing a large database.
Actionable Next Steps
If you are staring at an empty photo tab right now, do these three things in order:
- Force Restart: Quickly press Volume Up, then Volume Down, then hold the Side Button until the Apple logo appears. This clears the temporary cache that might be hanging the indexer.
- The Charging Routine: Plug your phone in, make sure it’s on Wi-Fi, and leave it alone for the night. Do not use it as an alarm clock if you can help it—just let it sit.
- Check the "Info" Pane: Open the specific conversation, tap the contact icon, and scroll to the bottom. If you see text saying "indexing," you just have to be patient. If you see nothing, try the Siri & Search toggle mentioned earlier.
Most of the time, the photos aren't "gone." Your phone is just being a bit lazy or overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data it's trying to organize. Give it the right environment (power and Wi-Fi) and a little nudge in the settings, and they usually come back.