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You are here: Home / iPhone / Are your iPhone photos sent via iMessage or text blurry? How to fix

Are your iPhone photos sent via iMessage or text blurry? How to fix

By Andrew Myrick 17 comments Last updated January 27, 2020

Arguably, the iPhone gives its users the best photo-taking experience on any mobile device. From using the stock Camera app, to using a third-party app like Halide, what you can do without a DSLR is crazy. But after the pictures have been taken, you want to send them off and share them.

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This can be through something like Instagram or Facebook, or maybe through iMessage. Ever since the release of iOS 13, some folks have been stating that images are showing up as blurry. This is obvious causing frustration, but there’s a good reason.

Why are my iPhone photos sent via iMessage blurry?

For years, Apple decided to stick to the old days and release devices with low storage capacities. Thankfully, the days of 16GB or even 8GB devices are gone, but there’s still no way to expand this storage.

However, another reason for this was due to the fact that carrier’s moved away from unlimited data. The newly-implemented data caps hindered users from being able to comfortably use their devices as intended.

Because of these reasons, Apple implemented a “low image quality” mode. This was designed to help save some storage space, while also sending the images to save your data.

How to fix blurry images

Even if it takes a few updated versions of iOS, Apple usually gives users ways to fix annoying problems. This is true with the new Low Quality Image mode, that was released with little to no fanfare. In fact, this may have been one of those software additions that Apple didn’t publicly make known.

Disable Low Quality Image Mode

Apple’s inclusion of this Low Quality Image Mode is extremely useful. Regardless of whether you are running out of storage or bumping a data cap. But if you don’t have concerns for either of those, here’s how you can turn it off.

Disable Low Quality Image Mode 1
Disable Low Quality Image Mode 2
  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone
  2. Scroll down and tap on Messages
  3. Scroll all the way to the bottom
  4. Toggle Low Quality Image Mode to the Off position

In plain sight, Apple states “When this is on, images sent will be lower quality“. It would have been nice for there to be a bit more information provided to users, other than worrying that something is wrong with their messages.

After turning this off, your images should be sent and received in the same quality that they were taken. Plus, you won’t have to worry about your friends (or yourself) getting annoyed about low-quality pics.

Try cropping the image or screenshot

Until the option for Low Quality Image Mode was discovered, some folks found other ways to share better quality pics. The primary method was to just screenshot and crop the image and then send it to its destination.

Here’s how you can screenshot and crop images on iOS 13 and iPadOS:

Crop Screenshots 1
Crop Screenshots 2
  1. When viewing content you want to screenshot, press the Power Button and Volume Up button.
  2. Tap the preview of the image in the bottom left-hand corner.
  3. On the edges and corners, there are some “hooks” that allow you to crop.
  4. Drag these to show the portion of the screen you wish to display.
  5. After set, the image preview will change, showing you the newly-cropped image.
    • Tap Done in the top left-hand corner if you want to save it to Photos.
    • If you want to share the screenshot, tap the share icon in the top right hand corner.

Now, if you have already taken a screenshot, but want to go back and crop it later, here’s what you need to do:

Crop Image from Photos App 1
Crop Image from Photos App 2
Crop Image from Photos App 3
  1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone
  2. Locate the photo you wish to crop and open it.
  3. Tap Edit in the top right-hand corner
  4. At the bottom, there are three different adjustment options.
  5. Tap on the icon on the far-right with the square and arrows.
  6. Grab the aforementioned “hooks” to choose what you want the screenshot to show.
  7. Tap Done in the bottom right-hand corner.

Once completed, you’ll be taken back to the Image Preview in Photos, where you can tap the Share icon to send it. Otherwise, the cropped image will remain in Photos so that it can sent later on.

Conclusion

It’s really great to see Apple give users even more control over devices and settings. However, it would be nice to be given a notification that a new feature is turned on by default. Or even an extra explanation as to what this feature is and how to enable/disable it.

If you continue experiencing issues with blurry images and screenshots showing up, let us know. In the meantime, let us know what you think about the new iPhone 11 camera sensors and if they have replaced your traditional DSLR camera already.

Andrew Myrick

Andrew is a freelance writer based on the East Coast of the US.

He has written for a variety of sites over the years, including iMore, Android Central, Phandroid, and a few others. Now, he spends his days working for an HVAC company, while moonlighting as a freelance writer at night.

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Show 17 Comments

  1. Thomas Alan Bennett says

    March 12, 2023 at 1:01 PM

    Hi Andrew, Re: The issue with poor quality photos recieved/sent on iphone 11. My wife and I both have iphone 11’s and both take good quality photo’s however when I send photo’s from my phone to her’s using messages and signal messanger the images are nowhere near the quality of the original.
    I’ve gone through the procedure you’ve suggested above ie; “low quality mode” and both phones are set to toogle off, do you have any further suggestions please.

    I think transfer of the photos are of poorer quality when I send using Signal Messages

    Regards
    #Tom

    Reply
  2. Grace Sparks says

    November 12, 2022 at 8:40 AM

    I upgraded to the IPhone 14 and when sharing videos to social media it is terribly blurry and shaky compared to my original in my photos. I’ve updated my iPhone version this did not help and I’ve went through settings and made sure low quality photos is off. Even texting a photo to others is blurry. I’m going to have to down grade my iPhone if I can’t get this fixed. Please help

    Reply
  3. Amy says

    March 8, 2022 at 9:37 AM

    NONE of this does anything, it doesnt work. Everything still gets received blurred. Why does apple not fix this crap?

    Reply
  4. Brian says

    January 24, 2022 at 3:49 PM

    Turn off iMessage on BOTH sides (sending & receiving). Your carrier is compressing the hell out of the pictures.

    Reply
  5. Sam says

    January 15, 2022 at 3:55 PM

    My iphone continues to send blurry images to other iPhone users. If I send a group of 4+ pictures, they’ll send them blurry. And if I immediately (same battery life and everything) send them individually, they send fine with perfect resolution. Any ideas? I have the iPhone 13 pro

    Reply
  6. Vee says

    August 21, 2021 at 2:57 PM

    Images are received blurry weather sent through iMessage or email. None of the fixes that you recommend work. They always look clear to the sender, it’s the receiver that gets the blurry image.

    Reply
  7. Bob says

    December 12, 2020 at 10:27 AM

    Why screen shot a photo before sending, to avoid blur. Screenshot is low res. If you want to crop before sending. Hit edit then crop. If you want a crop and original hit duplicate then edit then crop.

    Reply
  8. Russ Hudon says

    October 11, 2020 at 3:00 PM

    I have an iphone 8p. when I take pictures with it ,they look great. When I load them to my computer, they look great. When I send them to my friends either from my computer or directly from my iphone , my friend say they are blurry, dark, and all out of focus. Low quality mode is off. HELP!!!! oh I’m running IOS14.

    Reply
  9. Joanne says

    September 21, 2020 at 11:46 AM

    Same as the others, still crap when uploaded to social media or sent as a message. Even after changing settings. So frustrating!

    Reply
  10. Kathy Palmer says

    September 20, 2020 at 1:21 PM

    Hi,
    My photos are still blurry sending from my 11pro to a 10 iphone. Even when turning the quality off.
    Help please!
    Thanks
    Kathy

    Reply
  11. Kathy says

    August 21, 2020 at 5:29 AM

    I tried all of these on iphone11 and they still blur when emailing.help!

    Reply
  12. Elizabeth Jones says

    April 20, 2020 at 8:05 AM

    Hi Geoffrey,

    Try tapping on the image to see if it downloads–you might be seeing a preview.

    Reply
  13. Kristi says

    March 9, 2020 at 2:47 PM

    I’m on iOS 13:3:1 and still experiencing blurry images.

    In my album they’re perfectly clear, some even HDR.

    But as soon as forwarded via WhatsApp or social media, they blur.

    Strangely if you go into WhatsApp for example, add a photo it’s slightly blurred. If I go into album first and forward to Whatsapp from there, it’s twice as blurred.

    The only way I can get close to original is by saving as a file first. Which doesn’t help my social media from blurry images

    I have checked all settings including the above with no success 🙁

    Reply
    • Kristi says

      March 9, 2020 at 2:48 PM

      iPhone X

      Reply
    • Jazmin says

      May 8, 2020 at 9:16 PM

      same! my friends keep telling me that it’s blurry every time i send a screenshot

      Reply
  14. Monique Karadimos says

    February 20, 2020 at 8:33 PM

    My iPhone XR still sends blurry messages and is also receiving them too.

    I have tried all the steps above, called Apple and the best they could do was restart my phone.

    I don’t want to restore to factory settings and lose everything because I’ve tried it and it still happens.

    I’ve only had the phone for 9 months

    Reply
    • Elizabeth Jones says

      February 21, 2020 at 2:21 PM

      Hi Monique,

      Try temporarily turning the Messages app in iCloud setting off. See if that makes any difference

      Reply

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