iPhone Won’t Send Pictures [SOLVED]

There are lots of individuals who like to take pictures with their iPhones. You might have amassed a collection while on vacation, at a family reunion, or maybe you just want to document life around you for your various social media accounts. But what if your iPhone won’t send those pictures to the recipients of your choice? There are a few things that you might try that could solve the problem.

Try Restarting Your iPhone

It’s best to begin with the simplest solutions, and that means restarting your iPhone. This is what you should do if you have an iPhone 8 or earlier.

1. Press and hold down the side or the top button until you see the Power Off slider.
2. Drag the slider, thereby turning off the device.
3. Once it turns off, press and hold the side or top button again until the phone powers back on. Now, try sending the pictures again.

If you have an iPhone model X or later, then follow these steps.

1. Press and hold the side button. At the same time, hold down either of the volume buttons.
2. Drag thePower Off slider when it appears on screen to turn off the phone.
3. Once it is off, press and hold down the side button again until the Apple logo comes up. When the phone is operational again, try sending pictures. 

iPhone Won’t Send Pictures – WiFi Problems

If you do not have a secure Wi-Fi connection, then that could be stopping the pictures from going through. If there is no Wi-Fi available, then you will need to have cellular data if you want this functionality on your phone. If you’re at home and the signal is shaky, then try turning your router off. Wait for a couple of seconds. Then, turn it back on again andsee if that worked.

Carrier Issues That May Prevent Sending

When you send pictures, you’re doing so using a network. You can see this network’s symbol on your screen when you’re using cellular data. It will be called LTE or something else, depending on where you are in the country.

Most networks should be able to send pictures with no problems, but there are exceptions. If you’ve tried the solutions we mentioned already and they haven’t worked, then it’s not a bad idea to contact your carrier to make sure that sending pictures to a recipient is not an issue for some reason.

What About if You’re Sending Pictures through MMS Messaging?

It could be that you’re trying to send pictures through MMS messaging to someone, or multiple people. Group MMS messaging will not support pictures, or anything else, for that matter, unless you specifically turn on this feature.

You may do this by going to Settings, then Messages. Where it says Turn on MMS Messaging (or Group Messaging), you can do so. If you do not see this as an option, then your carrier does not support that feature. You can look into getting a new carrier, or else you can figure out another way to send the pictures, like as email attachments, for instance.

Make Sure that the Correct Email and Phone Number is on Your iPhone

It could also be that you’re trying to send pictures to someone via your iPhone through email, or by text message based on their phone number. Either one of those will only work if what you have for that person is accurate. One wrong digit in the phone number or a misspelled email address could be enough to render the attempt unsuccessful.

How About if You See a Waiting for Activation Alert?

Maybe you’re trying to send pictures to someone via your iPhone through iMessage, and you see an alert come up that says “Waiting for Activation.” It also could say “Activation Unsuccessful.” If you see either of these, then make sure that you are either connected to Wi-Fi or you are using cellular data.

The other thing that you can do is to make sure that your time zone is set correctly, as that can sometimes interfere with the ability to send anything via iMessage.

1. Go to Settings.
2. Head to General, then Date and Time.
3. Look for the proper time zone, and click on it. That might be what it takes to activate iMessage, which you can then use to send messages with picture attachments.

What if You See a Red Exclamation Point?

If you are trying to send pictures via text message and you see a red exclamation point in a circle come up, then that means the picture did not go through as you intended. If that happens, you’ll first want to check your network connection. Tap the red exclamation point, then tap Try Again when it comes up at the bottom of the screen.

If you still aren’t able to send the message, tap on the exclamation point icon again and hit Send as Text Message when it comes up at the bottom of the screen. Messaging rates might apply if you do that, though. Contact your carrier as soon as you can to discuss the problem with them. They might be able to propose another solution.

See if the Other Recipient has iMessage Turned On

If you are sending the pictures via text message to someone else who has an iPhone, then you should ask them the next chance you get whether they have iMessage turned on. If you’re sending them the pictures and they have something else besides an iPhone, like an Android, for instance, then they might not have signed out of iMessage, and that could be causing problems.

If that’s what is happening, then the iMessage server and your device could still think that the person has an iPhone. They’ll keep trying to send the pictures through iMessage, and that is why nothing is happening, even if the recipient’s phone number has not changed.

The solution is to tell them to go to Apple’s support page, where they can disable iMessage. They will do so by sending themselves a text message and then typing in a confirmation code online saying that they’re opting out. Once they do that, you should have no trouble sending pictures to their new phone.

Try Resetting Your Network Settings

The one other thing that you can try is to reset your network settings. Once you do this, you’ll have to connect to your Wi-Fi again, so make sure that you have the password handy.

1. Go to Settings, then General.
2. Go to Reset, then Reset Network Settings.
3. You’ll have to enter your passcode, then hit Reset Network Settings again. Once your phone reboots, then try sending pictures again to see if that did the trick.

If none of these possible solutions have worked for you, then you should strongly consider either contacting Apple Support online or taking the device into an Apple Store with a Genius Bar. Perhaps they will be able to come up with a different, more unusual option.