Trying to send a photo from your iPhone or iPad but discover your Message app missing from the list in your Photos App or other App’s Share Sheet?
Several readers report that their Message App is missing in Share Sheet and that they are not able to text Photos, Safari and other Browser Links, Notes, Screenshots, and other apps from Messages within the Share Sheet. They see that their Message app is missing and not listed with the other sharing apps, like Mail, Notes, etc
So if you don’t see your Message app in the share sheet, you’re not alone!
The problem seems to impact people with work, school, or company iPhones and iPads who have Mobile Device Management (MDM) profiles installed on their work iPhones and iDevices.
These devices are often referred to as supervised, meaning a company or school administrator can apply additional restrictions, such as turning off AirDrop or preventing App Store access.
Supervised iDevices often have unique business configurations and features, such as internet filtering and incognito app updating.
And MDM allows a remote administrator to configure settings and perform other tasks on the device without user interaction.
Contents
Quick tips
- Toggle iMessage on in Settings > Messages
- Verify that Send as SMS is turned on in the Message app settings
- Remove any management profile, if possible
- Reset your network settings
- Reset all settings
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Does My iPhone or iPad Have MDM?
The easiest way to tell if your iPhone has MDM is to check if an MDM Profile is installed. Go to Settings > General > Profile and check if anything is there. If you can’t find a profile, that means your device does not have this option.
If you are a developer or public beta tester, you’ll see a listing for your developer profile–this is not a traditional MDM profile.
However, if you run into problems and aren’t continuing to beta test your device, consider removing this profile. Deleting it does not remove any of your personal data. And if you ever want to test betas again, it’s easy to install an updated beta testing profile.
If you find your iPhone (or another iDevice) has a corporate profile installed, consult with your IT department before you remove anything.
Generally, removing these profiles causes your office email to stop working. Getting this back often requires your IT group to step back in. So, message #1 if you have a corporate profile, check in with your IT before doing anything to that profile, especially if you want to delete it.
Can’t Send photos through Photo App to Messages App? Toggle on iMessage!
The main symptom users report is using the Share Sheet in the Photos App. In particular, when folks select single or multiple photos that they want to share with others AND use the share sheet (the box with the arrow pointing up,) the messages app is no longer available as a sharing option. And although most people encounter the problem when using the Photos App, it may also impact any app that accesses the Share Sheet.
This bug usually impacts folk who have remote management profiles and apps on their iPhones. Specifically, it’s a problem with iPhones that have profile management installed via their company’s IT Department.
The fix?
Toggle on iMessage in your Message app settings and make sure you turn on Send as SMS. This usually does the trick.
If it didn’t try toggling iMessage off and on.
Apple suggested a full reset and set up your iPhone or iPad/iPod as a new device.
But most of us don’t want to do that–at least not at first!
No Profile Installed But Still Problems?
First off, if you don’t have a profile installed, try forced restarting your iPhone. Then verify that you toggled on iMessage and turned on Send as SMS.
Perform a Forced Restart
- On an iPhone 6S or below plus all iPads & iPod Touches, press Home and Power at the same time until you see the Apple logo
- For iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus: Press and hold both the Side and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds, until you see the Apple logo
- On an iPhone 11, X Series, or iPhone 8 or iPhone 8 Plus: Press and quickly release the Volume Up button. Then press and promptly release the Volume Down button. Finally, press and hold the Side button until you see the Apple logo
If that didn’t help, try the following:
- Reset Network Settings (Settings > General > Reset)
- Removes any saved WiFi passwords, so have these available to re-enter
- Toggle Cellular Data OFF and ON (Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data)
- Restart by pressing the Power button
Some readers found that resetting all their settings and then restarting helped, so you might give that a try if other solutions don’t work.
Reset All Settings
- Do a backup before trying this out, either via iCloud or iTunes (iTunes is always preferred since it’s more stable)
- Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All
- This resets to default everything in Settings, including notifications, alerts, brightness, and clock settings like wake up alarms.
- Resetting all settings also reverts all your personalized and customized features like wallpapers and accessibility settings back to factory defaults.
- Performing this action does not impact any of your personal device data, including photos, texts, documents, and other files.
- You need to reconfigure these settings once your iPhone or iDevice restarts.
Remove Profiles If Possible
Many of our readers say that after removing MobileIron from their iPhones and restarting, their Messages icon returned to the Share Sheet, for Photos as well as other apps.
You have to delete both the app (if there is one) AND the profile to make this work. Commonly used ones are MobileIron or VMware AirWatch and similar.
So again, take a look at your profile settings in Settings > General > Profile and see if your iPhone has a profile installed. If so, and you have permission, tap Remove Management.
It’s often not possible to remove profiles due to workplace requirements and locks that prevent employees from deleting profiles from their work iPhones.
In this case, ask your IT Department or MDM Administrator to adjust the setting that allows the message option to be displayed in the Photos App (and other Share Sheet apps) for sending files using the Messages app.
For folks using MobileIron, this is on a list of MobileIron iOS bugs, so we fully expect it to work normally soon.
Additionally, if your IT department has not yet officially accepted ios11, some readers report the problem was fixed once their company (or school) accepted and supported iOS’s latest version.
And of course, check periodically for Apple updates to iOS. Patches are often released in minor updates and these might just fix your problem!
Workaround: How to Attach Photo to Text Message
Try instead attaching your photos using the Messages app (instead of the Photos app or whatever app you’re using); this is one of your alternatives until Apple releases a fix.
To send a photo using Messages, compose a new message and tap the Photos App or the camera icon next to the text message entry. From there select a photo or photos from your Photo App.
Using iPadOS or iOS 12 or 13? Try iCloud Photo Links!
New to the Photos App for iPadOS and iOS 12 & 13 is a feature to share pictures and videos from your Photo Library using a link to the photo stored in your iCloud account.
These iCloud Photo links last for 30 days, after which they expire and won’t work!
iCloud Photo Link Requirements
- You must enable iCloud Photos
- Go to Settings > Apple ID Profile (at the top) > iCloud > Photos,
- Toggle on iCloud Photos
- Open your Photos app
- Tap the photo you want to link to
- To share a link to multiple photos, tap Select in the upper right corner of the screen
- Choose all the photos you want to share
- Select the iOS Share Button
- In the share sheet, tap Copy iCloud Link
- In iOS 13, you can also tap Options in the share banner at the top of your screen
- Then, choose iCloud Link
- iCloud Prepares the link
- Open Messages
- iCloud Photo link also works with other apps, like Mail
- Tap and hold your finger in the message text field
- Choose Paste
- Send the message and iOS shares that Photos link
If that’s not working for you, choose COPY for STEP 4 instead of Copy iCloud Link.
Contact Apple Support
If the trouble persists, your best bet is to reach out to Apple support directly via Apple Support site. Or set-up an appointment at your local Apple Store.
Reader Tips
- If you use Access Point Name (APN) settings, reset your network settings via Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Network > Reset Settings. Then re-enter your APN settings from your carrier by tapping each field and enter the details from your carrier. Then restart your iPhone. For cellular model iPads, remove the APN configuration profile and add it again. It worked for me, maybe you too! If you can’t modify your APN settings, contact your carrier
- Re-entering my APN setting from my mobile phone provider did the trick!
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.
JEAN-PATRICK says
I can not find the Print option in my Share Sheet
Emily Ware says
Thank you so much! This fixed my problem with photo sharing AND with Calendar invitations. All I had to do was the Reset Network Settings step, and I’m all set. It won’t be that big a deal to log in to all my networks. I just need to remember.
Thanks again!!!!
Julie says
I don’t have device supervision or profile, (private use) and this is still happening to me. I have an iPhone XS Max with Telstra (Australia). I’ve tried all the reset functions. It’s brand new …really annoying…
Elizabeth Jones says
Hi Julie,
Sorry that you are not seeing the Message app in your device’s Share Sheet.
Try updating via iTunes the next time around to install the full version of iOS onto your device–rather than the Over The Air delta version which just has the changes to the code.
Tried a few of these – and still no good!! So frustrating as I often take a screenshot and want to message it straight away from the share sheet – why do they have to mess with things when they work well!
Same. I’ve been having this problem for a while. I escalated it with Apple engineers, but they could not identify the problem, nor provide a solution. They instead told me they have noted the problem and that it may be rectified in a future update. That was two updates ago and missing message option still persists in the share sheet. So frustrating.
Just did a full update to iOS 12.4 via iTunes (instead of over the phone), and the problem still persists. No message app on the share sheet in the photo gallery. 🙁
Just updated to 13.1 and still no message option on share sheet.
Just updated to 13.3 and still no message option on share sheet. Apparently this issue is of little concern to Apple, as they do not appear to be fixing the bug. The only way to get Messages on the Share Sheet from the Photo Gallery, is to have iMessage turned “on”, which I do not want to do.
When I click on the messenger app to share a photo from iPhone photos, it goes to messenger but there is no people search box anymore just say recents so I cannot send it to someone new, weird
My FB Page Manager App is not showing up in the share sheet- how can I fix this?
Hi Nicole,
An update came out recently, so check if there is an update first.
Try deleting the Facebook Pages Manager App via Settings > General > iPhone (or iPad) Storage. Once deleted, restart your device and go to the App Store and install it again.
If neither of these helped, contact Facebook Support–it’s likely there is a problem with the app itself.
Sam
When I turned iMessage back ON -> my Message app appears back in share sheet.
You also have to turn on SEND AS SMS ( send as SMS when iMessage is unavailble…)
I guess we MUST use iMessage to see Message app!!! WHY????
I’m having the same problem. The “message” option only shows up in the share sheet when iMessage is turned on, which I do not want.
I am having the same problem. The “message” option only showing up when iMessage is on. I do not want to use iMessage because with iMessage on, the message fails to send at all about 90% of the time (even with “send as SMS when iMessage unvailable” is turned on).
my iPhone 4s just started having the missing “message” icon on the share list. The steps above for using email messages isn’t working for my iPhone 4S. WHen I type a text message in a new message I CANNOT click on the camera icon to see any pics. The camera icon is grey and not highlight.
I have not had any updates that I know of so what can I do now? I can’t copy and past a pic from my photo library and paste into a text message either.
My other iphone4s does not have this issue. What has Apple done here?
Hi Tony,
Sorry about your troubles with Messages and Photos. It sounds like your privacy settings may need updating to allow camera access–that’s usually why icons are grayed out. What iOS version are you running on your 4S? Go to Settings > General > About and you should see the exact iOS version on your phone listed.
Another fix that may help is to reset all settings. This doesn’t impact any data but does remove things like WiFi passcodes, wallpapers, accessibility settings, and any setting that you’ve personalized. Clearing this info out often helps with settings that are causing trouble. To reset, go to General > Reset > Reset All Settings. We recommend doing a backup via iCloud or iTunes before performing this step–just in case.
Keep us posted,
SK
I do not have a profile on my iPhone nor iPad. No text messages are sending or receiving on my iPad since updating to IOS 11.2 on my iPad. My iPhone is still on update IOS 10.3.3. iPhone working fine.
HELP.
WHy is updateIOS 11.2 available on iPad, but not iPhone.
Also prior to update IOS 11.2 I never had to be signed into iCloud.
HI Cheryl,
Sorry to hear about your Message App troubles. It sounds like iMessage has not activated. Please go to Settings > Messages and check if iMessage is toggled ON. If not, toggle it on. If it IS toggled on, toggle it off, wait 20 seconds, and toggle it back on to reactivate.
iMessage now uses your phone’s Apple ID and no longer offers a separate sign-in to a different ID (like FaceTime.) So you do need to sign in with your Apple ID to get iMessage working.
While in your Message App settings, also check that you have MMS and SMS toggles both ON.
SK
Hi Liz,
For Message icon to show in Share Sheet for Photos, MMS should be turned on. I’m presuming same case scenario for iMessage, should be signed in.
Basically, even though icon shows, if relevant service is not signed into, no action is performed.
So, for Notes the basic text gets copied over & loses any formatting of items, embedded photos don’t get automatically copied over- in Messages or in WhatsApp. One can copy-paste though.
Selected photos, thru Share Sheet don’t get attached to an SMS conversation. Again, copy-paste works. The Message icon showing has limited capabilities.
Best way for Photo sharing would be to use camera icon for SMS Messages.
I’m presuming same method works for iMessage too.
Apples’ HT page on Photo sharing indicates similar.
Thanks Sandeep!
Update – fixed it.
Hi Sandeep,
Thanks for your comment. If time allows, could you let us know what you did to fix this problem on iOS 10.3.3? I’m sure some other folks out there could use the advice.
Cheers,
Liz
Hi,
I’m on 10.3.3 and the Message icon is missing in Share Sheet, but only for Photos.
For other Apps like Notes, Contacts etc. the Message icon is present. Any ideas ?
I haven’t signed into iMessage, and don’t use it or iCloud.
I’m on ios 12.1.2 (iphone xs) and have this problem. Message icon missing only in photos.
No mdm profile installed, did nw reset, but that had no effect.
Hi Ararag,
We think this is a bug in iOS 12.1.2. Please consider submitting your user feedback so Apple development teams are aware of the issue.
If you are a beta user, submit your bug report following the links in this Apple Developer Bug Reporting site