Is your iPhone's Messages app not loading up images you received over iMessage or MMS? This is a fairly common problem, but it's pretty easy to resolve. Follow these troubleshooting steps to get the Messages app on your iPhone to show photos again.

1. Enable MMS Messaging on Your iPhone

Since photos are a form of media, the Messages app sends them as an MMS message instead of an SMS message when iMessage is unavailable.

So, if you haven't, go to Settings > Messages and toggle on MMS Messaging to ensure that your iPhone is able to send and receive MMS messages.

If you don't see this option, it's possible that your carrier doesn't support MMS messages.

2. Turn On Cellular Data

To send and receive a photo as an MMS message through the Messages app, you need to enable cellular data on your iPhone.

While iMessage and other messaging apps like WhatsApp or Messenger can work with either cellular data or Wi-Fi, the conventional MMS still relies on cellular data, not Wi-Fi.

To enable cellular data, go to Settings > Cellular and toggle on Cellular Data. If you encounter problems turning on cellular data, try these solutions when cellular data isn't working on your iPhone.

3. Check Your Phone Signal

If you're in an area with a poor cell signal, your iPhone will likely be unable to send and receive photos and texts. You may also face similar issues, such as being unable to make calls on your iPhone.

You can check your phone signal by looking at the bars displayed in your iPhone's status bar at the top of your screen. The more bars are filled in, the stronger the signal, and vice versa.

Moving to a different room and removing your iPhone case are a few methods you can try to boost your cell signal.

4. Review Content Restrictions in Settings

The above solutions generally cover situations where you can't even receive photos, and the pictures are not showing up in Messages completely.

Now, if you can receive pictures, but the issue is that they're not loading in Messages and are instead blurred, it might be because of a content restriction setting.

Go to Settings > Privacy & Security > Sensitive Content Warning and see if it's enabled. If it is, you can either disable it just for Messages or turn it off altogether.

5. Reset iMessage

If the photos you received in your iMessage conversations before are suddenly not loading properly, and elements like a white box and a question mark are displayed instead, try resetting iMessage on your iPhone.

Go to Settings > Messages and toggle off iMessage. Afterward, restart your iPhone, then head to Settings > Messages again and toggle on iMessage.

If you're an iPhone user who's facing issues messaging your Android contacts, try other fixes when your iPhone can't send pictures to Android in the Messages app.

6. Restart Your iPhone and Reset Network Settings

If you don't want to reset iMessage, we still recommend restarting your iPhone. Although it's a generic fix, there are reasons why restarting your smartphone helps to fix most problems.

Besides restarting your iPhone, you can also try resetting the network settings on your iPhone. Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPhone > Reset > Reset Network Settings.

In the end, if you still find that your photos are not loading in Messages on your iPhone, it's best to reach out to your carrier, Apple Support, or an Apple Authorized Service Provider for further assistance.