Unable, or intermittent ability to send or recieve imessage photos

[Ronrlb53]

I have read both “bederson’s” thread from three weeks ago and “js20962’s” thread from October of 2019. I have been experiencing the same problems for some time hoping they would resolve. They haven’t. Some times they are a little improved but usually not.

On January 29, 2020 “Liz” the moderator stated that a fix was being rolled out for this issue. I was wondering if the fix has occurred or if it is still being worked on.

[Liz]

Hi Ronrlb53,

I see it's your first post here, so welcome to the community! Yes, the rollout to address that initial concern was completed a while ago. However there still are lingering issues with iMessage and iCloud that our engineers are currently investigating.

Does enabling low quality image mode in the iOS settings make a difference?

-Liz

[Ronrlb53]

No, low quality image mode doesn’t seem to make a difference. I’ve tried all the things listed in the earlier threads but to no avail. The image or video will partially download and then seems to stop and either never downloads or takes hours and hours to eventually download. I’ve checked download and upload speed and it seems ok.

[Liz]

Thanks for the details, I'll note this down. When I have an update from engineering I'll post back.

  Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

Thanks,

Liz

[Ronrlb53]

Also, as noted in other threads, I have no problems sending or receiving videos or pictures when I am in cell service or on another network when not at home. I have an iPhone 6s with iOS 13.4. My wife has same phone and same issues.

[Liz]

Hi Ron,

Our engineers would like to get some feedback from you, as this can help determine if their idea will help others in your situation.

Can you please try sending a ~3 MB picture via iMessage? 
 

Then let me know how long it takes for that picture to send. If it fails, let me know how long until that error message comes up.

If the ~3 MB picture sends successfully, try a bigger file sized picture and let me know if that sends as well. 

Also, so we're aware of your current iOS config during this test, please check your iOS settings for iMessage to see if the Low Quality image setting is enabled. You don't have to change it, just let me know if it's on or off.

  Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

Thanks,

Liz

[Ronrlb53]

Thanks for your response to my concerns. I did try sending different size pictures and short videos at different times. It should be noted that the sending and receiving of pictures and videos is very inconsistent.
I sent some 3 mb pictures which actually sent at about 128 kB due to low image setting being on. It took anywhere from immediately sending to 15 min to send. One 7 second video clip timed out and wouldn’t send at all. The possibly bigger problem is the receiving of pictures and short videos. The text part of the message comes through almost immediately but the attached pictures take a lot of time. A 2.6 mb picture was sent on low image mode. Size actually received was 115 kB. It took over an hour for this picture to download. As I’m writing this I’m trying to download an 800 kB video that was received about an hour ago. Thanks for any help resolving this problem.

[Liz]

Hi Ron,

Thank you for this feedback! I'm sending this to the investigating engineers. I'll post back once I have any news or additional questions if any.

-Liz

[Liz]

Good morning Ron,

Engineering has made an adjustment, can you please try sending pictures again in iMessage, just like before? 

Let me know if you notice a difference in performance.

  Your cooperation, patience, and understanding are much appreciated.

Thanks,

Liz

[Ronrlb53]

The adjustments that engineering made have apparently made a very positive change in sending and receiving pictures/videos on our iPhones. Pictures are now being sent much faster. The picture usually is received at the same time or shortly after the text part of the message.
Most short videos also seem faster. It usually takes only a few minutes to send and receive a short video, however one 13 mb video which was sent at 9:00pm last night was very slow. It was sent in just a couple minutes but receiving this video was slow. The text part of message was received almost immediately but the video wasn’t downloaded by the time I went to bed at 10:30 pm. It was there in the morning.
Time of day does seem to have an effect on the download/upload time.
Overall I am very pleased with the improvement seen. I will keep monitoring to see if the improvement continues. Thank you for you help with this matter.

[Liz]

Good morning Ron,

Thank you for your detailed update, this will be very useful for the engineers and perhaps to other customers who are also having the same experience. I'm sending your update over to engineering now. I'll keep you posted on any news.

-Liz

[Liz · Accepted solution]

Hi Ron,

Just letting you know that I got confirmation from engineering that they've rolled out the same optimization to all customers to improve iMessage/iCloud performance. Your feedback helped push this along and help others! I hope iMessage is still working well for you! Let me know how it's going. 

Please don't hesitate to come by the community again if you have any other concerns.

Thanks,

Liz