Have you never cleaned out your texts and iMessages because they contain precious memories and pictures that friends and family sent over the years? Wondering how to save all images from text messages?
If so, you are not alone, in fact, you are in the majority! One of the most frequent questions we get from our readers is how to save all images from text messages, iMessage, or SMS conversation thread.
Follow these quick tips to save your message app photos & videos to the Photos app!
For iOS 13.1+, open a message thread and tap on the sender(s)’ name, choose the “i” info button, scroll down to the Photos section and tap See All Photos. Then tap Select and choose the photos you wish to save. Once done, tap Save
For folks using earlier versions of iOS 13 and iPadOS, update your iOS or iPadOS to the latest version to save multiple images. Or, if an update is not possible, save each image one-by-one
For iOS 12 & below, open a message thread and tap on the sender(s)’ name, choose the “i” info button and long press on one photo to select the More button. Then select all the images you want to save and tap Save Images or Save Attachments in the bottom
For Macs, tap a message thread’s Details button, select the photos you want to save, and right-click on those selected images choosing Add to Photos Library
Quite a lot of us save and store our texts for years because they contain important memories from our friends and family, including photos, videos, and other attachments.
Unbelievably, some of us have never cleared our Message history for all SMS/iMessage/Messages!
Because it relies on you regularly backing up your iPhone’s (or other iDevice’s) via iCloud or iTunes. And of course, all those texts and messages take up a considerable amount of space on your iPhone or iDevice, often leading to the dreaded “Storage Almost Full” pop-up.
So if you are asking what’s the best way to archive all those photo attachments from all those years of text messages, read on!
Using iPadOS or iOS 13?
We don’t know why, but Apple did not include the option to save multiple photos in the Message app in the first release of iOS 13 and iPadOS. But the good news is that Apple included this feature in later iOS 13 and iPadOS versions! So if you can, update your iOS or iPadOS.
If you cannot update your iOS/iPadOS version at this time, you must follow the steps to save each photo individually.
How to save multiple images in the Message app with iOS 13 and iPadOS
Open Messages
Open a conversation that has photos you wish to save
Tap the name(s) at the top of the message and then tap on the “i” button
Scroll down to the Photos section and tap See All Photos
Tap Select
Choose which photos you wish to save and once you select them all, tap Save
You can also save each photo individually. When Seeing all your photos, do not choose Select and instead long-press on each photo and choose Save
How to save photos individually in the Message app with iPadOS and iOS 13
Open the Messages app
Choose and open a conversation that contains photos you want to save
Long press on a photo you want to save to the Photos app
Choose Save
Repeat for each photo you want to save
6 steps to save all images from text messages for iPhone, iPad, and iPod (iOS 12 and lower)
For iOS 12, open a conversation and tap a profile icon or picture at the top of the message thread–then tap the “i” button
For iOS 11, open a message thread and tap the blue “i”
Scroll down to see all the images, video, and attachments in that thread
Deep press on one of the images to open a pop-up menu and select More
Select all the images you want to save using the selection button next to each image
Tap Save Images (or Attachments) in the bottom left corner
Open your Photos app to confirm you saved your pictures
Repeat for each message thread
Want to save just a single or a few images from a text message?
Just follow the same steps!
Open the text with the image(s)you want to save
Locate the image(s) in the message conversation thread
Tap and hold the image until the menu with Copy, Save, and More… appears
Select Save
Your image(s) save to your Photos App
Can you save your Message App images in bulk?
The short answer is no.
iOS doesn’t currently allow you to save images from multiple conversations in one step.
So the bad news here is that you need to follow that 5 step process for each message thread. For folks with a lot of stored texts and images, this can be quite a tedious task!
Can you automatically save pictures from iMessage and the iOS Message app?
A big change in iOS 12+ is that all photos you attach or take while IN the Messages app are now saved to your Photos app automatically.
So if you like to snap or attach pictures when using Messages and sending those to someone, that picture is now saved automatically into photos app. Those pictures even auto-save to the camera roll before you send the message.
When you tap the blue arrow to insert a photo into the message, iOS saves it.
However, any pictures sent to you are NOT automatically saved
So for now, there is no automatic way to save all the photos folks send you in texts to you. But images from you are indeed automatically saved–to the pleasure and displeasure of users.
Use a third-party…cautiously
If that seems like too much, there are some third-party apps for your iDevice or your Mac that can help you to save photos and other attachments you received via text messages or iMessages.
Some of these require a Mac often using Terminal to save iMessage photos to Mac. These tools usually use your iCloud or iTunes backup(s) to extract the information.
We don’t recommend any particular app, but rather encourage you to look at both the iDevice and Mac App Stores, search for apps that extract iMessage photos, and be sure to read all the user reviews first!
5 steps to save all images from text messages for Mac
Open the Message app on your Mac and choose a conversation
Tap the Details button
Choose Photos from the tab
Select all the photos you want to save by using the Shift or Command key or select all photos using Command+A
Right-click and select Add to Photos Library
Drag and drop photos from your Mac’s Messages app
In the Messages app, select the text thread that has the image(s) you want to save
Press and hold on the image(s) and drag and drop the image to your desktop, a folder, or hard drive–anywhere you see a green plus sign next to the image is a place you can save it too!
Using iOS 11.4 and above? Try Messages in iCloud out!
Messages in iCloud update automatically, so iMessage always shows the same texts!
That means when you delete a message, photo, or conversation from one device, it’s removed from all devices (using iOS 11.4 and above or macOS Mojave) signed in with the same Apple ID.
To use Messages in iCloud, you need to turn on a few features first
Sign in with the same Apple ID on all of your devices (including Macs using macOS Mojave)
For Your Apple ID, turn on two-factor authentication
Enable and set up an iCloud Keychain
Enable iCloud messages on your iPhone and iPad
Go to Settings > Apple ID Profile > iCloud
Turn on Messages
Messages in iCloud for your Mac
Open Messages and go to Messages > Preferences
Choose iMessage
Tick the checkbox next to Enable Messages in iCloud
Press Sync Now to force an immediate syncing
What about iOS below iOS 11.4? iCloud does not support your Message app
This may come as a surprise to some, but in earlier versions of iOS Apple does not support syncing the Message App with iCloud.
That means that your messages are only stored locally on your device(s) and NOT in the cloud.
Apple released Messages in the Cloud feature in iOS 11.4. When you turn this feature on, it automatically backs up and stores nearly all of your messages except for your most recent ones in the cloud instead of your device.
Since earlier versions of iOS, do not support the Message app in your iCloud account, all those photos, videos, and other Message App attachments are not included in your iCloud Photo Library.
By keeping all those images etc. in your Message App, you are placing them at a large risk should your iDevice ever fail, encounter a problem, or need set-up as new.
That’s why we always recommend saving any important text message photos, videos, and other attachments to your Photos App.
For most of her professional life, Amanda Elizabeth (Liz for short) trained all sorts of folks on how to use media as a tool to tell their own unique stories. She knows a thing or two about teaching others and creating how-to guides!
Her clients include Edutopia, Scribe Video Center, Third Path Institute, Bracket, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Big Picture Alliance.
Elizabeth received her Master of Fine Arts degree in media making from Temple University, where she also taught undergrads as an adjunct faculty member in their department of Film and Media Arts.
Actually many of you will be glad to know apple did not overlook the need for people to mass import their photos and videos from iMessage. Sadly this cannot be done on iOS or iPadOS. This can only be done via macOS from Apple > About This Mac > Storage > Manage . This will open the storage manager for macOS, here you will see a section named “Messages”, select that section and click “open in finder” and.. voila you have access too every piece of image data stored currently in iMessage. Now I’m going to do a write up on how to import this folder into iPhoto’s so that every image you receive is automatically imported into iCloud and Photos app 😉 wink wink… its not hard to setup. SO all you lazy folks in 2018-2019 pretty sure could have done this, as apple doesn’t tend to change file system structures that often considering its BSD *Unix based OS. Anyway good luck!
iPad Air2, iOS 13.3.1. imessage > contact info> Go to photo section, and bottom left of the section you will see “See All Photos”. Select that link, click Select top right of next screen, and tap each picture, quickly, acrolling to the bottom, now select Save.
Isnt that freaking ridiculous?
Im so happy to hear im not just an idiot and cant figure out to save my newest photos.
ITS SO FRUSTRATING THOUGH. How can we get them to fix this like asap?
I send photos from photoshoots from my computer to my imessage and now i have to save each one individidually — which is 30+ photos. Im in awe @ this apple flook.
I just downloaded iOS 13, and while all of my pictures are still technically in my text conversations, I cannot view any pictures by clicking the info portion under the persons name. The only photos that show up there, are photos send to me after I downloaded iOS 13. Please help as I purposely did not delete photos from text conversations so that they would be saved.
This is likely due to the enhanced indexing that iOS 13 performs of all your photos.
We suggest waiting a day and then checking again–it took a few hours for our iPhone to show all the photos in the message app “history” area but it eventually did populate.
If you have a lot of photos, it will take some time. So be patient, keep your phone on so it can perform this task, then check in a few hours or tomorrow.
Please close all open apps and then restart your iPhone/iPod. See if that jump-starts the indexing process to complete.
Close an app
1. On an iPhone or an iPad with no home button from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen
2. On an iDevice with a home button, double-click the Home button and swipe right or left to find the app that you want to close
3. Swipe right or left to locate the app you want to close
4. Swipe up on the app’s preview to close it
5. Repeat for all open apps
I have the same problem. only photos that were taken on my phone after I activated my new 11 Pro max with IOS 13 show up in the info portion of the message.
I’ve waited almost a month and just did a full restore last night and guess what?
Now only photos I’ve taken or received since I restored it yesterday evening are showing up.
On the other hand my wife just got her new 11 Pro and all of her photos showed up instantly in the info portion of the imessage.
It sounds like your Message app index is not working or completing as it should. First, toggle on Messages in iCloud by going to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Messages.
We can try forcing Messages to re-index by going to Settings > Siri & Search > Messages and toggling everything off. Then restart, return to that same Setting and toggle everything on.
See if that works.
If problems continue, contact Apple Support.
Electrystsays
Besides synching to a Mac, why is there no way to save an entire message thread with attachments, like one long story book to export elsewhere?
Actually many of you will be glad to know apple did not overlook the need for people to mass import their photos and videos from iMessage. Sadly this cannot be done on iOS or iPadOS. This can only be done via macOS from Apple > About This Mac > Storage > Manage . This will open the storage manager for macOS, here you will see a section named “Messages”, select that section and click “open in finder” and.. voila you have access too every piece of image data stored currently in iMessage. Now I’m going to do a write up on how to import this folder into iPhoto’s so that every image you receive is automatically imported into iCloud and Photos app 😉 wink wink… its not hard to setup. SO all you lazy folks in 2018-2019 pretty sure could have done this, as apple doesn’t tend to change file system structures that often considering its BSD *Unix based OS. Anyway good luck!
thank you. just recovered my deleted text messages by using icloud to push deleted messages to my phone thanks !
Hi, how do I save a video from a text & add it to a album
Thanks for your help
iPad Air2, iOS 13.3.1. imessage > contact info> Go to photo section, and bottom left of the section you will see “See All Photos”. Select that link, click Select top right of next screen, and tap each picture, quickly, acrolling to the bottom, now select Save.
Isnt that freaking ridiculous?
Im so happy to hear im not just an idiot and cant figure out to save my newest photos.
ITS SO FRUSTRATING THOUGH. How can we get them to fix this like asap?
I send photos from photoshoots from my computer to my imessage and now i have to save each one individidually — which is 30+ photos. Im in awe @ this apple flook.
I cannot believe they removed “more” from iOS 13. How many steps back does APPLE need to go with each update?!
This is working in iOS 13.
You CANNOT bulk save or delete in the attachments section in iMessage anymore.
The ability to SELECT is now gone.
In fact, you cannot select anything anymore.
The “More” option is dead. You have to tediously push each picture one at a time to save and repeat the same steps for the delete.
his is a huge oversight by Apple and am now in the process of putting the phone back to 12.4.1. This is ridiculous.
I just downloaded iOS 13, and while all of my pictures are still technically in my text conversations, I cannot view any pictures by clicking the info portion under the persons name. The only photos that show up there, are photos send to me after I downloaded iOS 13. Please help as I purposely did not delete photos from text conversations so that they would be saved.
Hi Matt,
This is likely due to the enhanced indexing that iOS 13 performs of all your photos.
We suggest waiting a day and then checking again–it took a few hours for our iPhone to show all the photos in the message app “history” area but it eventually did populate.
If you have a lot of photos, it will take some time. So be patient, keep your phone on so it can perform this task, then check in a few hours or tomorrow.
If the problem persists, let us know
Liz
I am having the same problem as Matt and I upgraded 2 days ago. I still do not have my photos in the info tab.
Hi Donuell,
Please close all open apps and then restart your iPhone/iPod. See if that jump-starts the indexing process to complete.
Close an app
1. On an iPhone or an iPad with no home button from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen
2. On an iDevice with a home button, double-click the Home button and swipe right or left to find the app that you want to close
3. Swipe right or left to locate the app you want to close
4. Swipe up on the app’s preview to close it
5. Repeat for all open apps
I have the same problem. only photos that were taken on my phone after I activated my new 11 Pro max with IOS 13 show up in the info portion of the message.
I’ve waited almost a month and just did a full restore last night and guess what?
Now only photos I’ve taken or received since I restored it yesterday evening are showing up.
On the other hand my wife just got her new 11 Pro and all of her photos showed up instantly in the info portion of the imessage.
Hi Jeffrey,
It sounds like your Message app index is not working or completing as it should. First, toggle on Messages in iCloud by going to Settings > Apple ID > iCloud > Messages.
We can try forcing Messages to re-index by going to Settings > Siri & Search > Messages and toggling everything off. Then restart, return to that same Setting and toggle everything on.
See if that works.
If problems continue, contact Apple Support.
Besides synching to a Mac, why is there no way to save an entire message thread with attachments, like one long story book to export elsewhere?
I followed all the steps but the photos still don’t transfer from imessage to my photo.