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"Photos" tab missing in iMessage Threads

N

Nikefn2

macrumors regular
Original poster
Has anyone encountered an issue with they don't have a Photos option when they click the sender's/group chat icon? I know 100% that I've sent and received photos in these threads.

For reference, I just upgraded to the iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Screenshot 2025-09-21 at 9.58.22 AM.png
 
Came here looking for this issue. I even made sure the 1000+ photos under my contact were downloaded from I cloud. Maybe it’s a 17 issue as my 16 with iOS 26 worked fine.
 
Same on my Air, but appearing still on my 14PM. My Air is also not showing location under the contact name at the top unlike my 14PM.

I recall during one of the beta releases the Photos tab not appearing in Messages but it would come back after a restart of the app. Must be a bug that’s affecting the new iPhones only.
 
Just went through a bunch of my messages to check - both group texts and individuals. The ones that have photos in the thread have the "Photos" option, the ones with no photos in the thread don't. 16 Pro on 26.0.
 
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Set up my 17 Pro on Friday evening...still no "photos" tab on any iMessage contact, even from messages sent with images today. This is really annoying
 
How long is it taking before y’all are seeing the photos tab appear. I’m on day 3 and still not seeing my photos tab appear in any of my messages. 17 PM
 
Launch day iPhone 17PM and the photos tabs finally showed up this morning. Still missing some photos that are definitely in the thread, so I’m assuming super long indexing..
 
Can you tell if it’s actually indexing? My photos tab is there but it’s not updating as far as I can tell. I’m afraid I have the indexing bug that I’m reading has existed for some time.
 
Anyone found a fix for this yet? Set my 17 Pro up last Saturday evening (transferred from my 15 Pro); it is now Thursday. STILL no Photos tab in iMessage. Between this issue and the Wifi issues, Airplay issues, and other bugs, I'm starting to regret my purchase...
 
AppleInSlowDecline said:
Anyone found a fix for this yet? Set my 17 Pro up last Saturday evening (transferred from my 15 Pro); it is now Thursday. STILL no Photos tab in iMessage. Between this issue and the Wifi issues, Airplay issues, and other bugs, I'm starting to regret my purchase...
Click to expand...

Not yet. I’ve been with the 17 for a a week now and the tab doesn’t appear till now. Don’t know what to do.
 
I’ve had this bug for many iOS versions. Plug your phone in and turn on messages in the cloud. Wait for it to fully sync and then check the tab. Usually forces it to start indexing the photos within the threads.
 
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Finally - one week in, and my photos tab has shown up! Guessing the constant drops in WiFi have been the culprit to not quickly populating all the photos in my messages.
 
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