How to send photos from iphone to email as attachments

Table of Contents Show

1. Long-press on email message
2. iCloud option
3. From Photos
iOS 14.2 and Pictures as Attachments
How do I send a picture from my phone to my email as an attachment?
How do I send a photo from my iPhone as an attachment in Outlook?

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With Instagram, I email photos with less frequency than I used to. And I turn to Google Photos or Dropbox if I want to share an album's worth of vacation photos or some other event. On occasion, however, I just need to email a photo to somebody, and it's always a bit jarring to open the iOS Mail app and not see a little paperclip button or some such to attach a photo.

There are three ways you can attach a photo (or a video) to an email using the iOS Mail app. They are straightforward but not exactly obvious.

1. Long-press on email message

If you are composing an email in the Mail app, long-press on your message where you want the image to be inserted. You'll see a menu that includes Cut, Copy and Paste options but nothing to do with attachments. Tap the right-arrow button and you'll see an option for Insert Photo or Video. Tap that button and you can then browse your photo library to attach a photo or video.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

2. iCloud option

If you choose the Insert Photo or Video from above, you can attach only a photo from your photo library. If you've got a photo stored in iCloud or another cloud service, tap the Add Attachment option after long-pressing on your email message. This option takes you to your iCloud Drive, where you can choose a file to attach. And if you tap the Locations button in the top left, you can browse the other cloud services you have on your phone. For me, that's Dropbox and Google Drive.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

3. From Photos

You can also choose a photo to email before opening the Mail app. In the Photos app, select a photo or group of photos, tap the share button, and then choose the Mail app, which will then spring forth with your selected images attached.

Screenshot by Matt Elliott/CNET

Selecting multiple photos to email is easier by starting in the Photos app because the Mail app forces you to attach them one by one. iOS 10 previously restricted you to five photo attachments (although there was a workaround), but it now appears that Apple has either lifted or raised the number for this restriction because the Mail option remains after I select more than five photos. It let me, in fact, email 21 photos to myself. If anyone I regularly correspond with regularly is reading this, however, please do not email me 21 photos. Let's just pretend the 5-photo limit is still in place, shall we?

iOS 14.2 and Pictures as Attachments

In the latest iOS patch from Apple, iOS devices running 14.2 are no longer able to send pictures as attachments. Instead, the image a user attaches are embedded into the body of the email, not as a separate attachment.

While considered a minor inconvenience for some, this undocumented change to attachment processing had a more significant impact to those that are required to operate without the use of HTML, as image embedding is only possible with HTML. With “plain text only” emails enforced in a workplace, images will not load or in some cases will output a content error within your mail application.

One workaround to send pictures as attachments not as embedded images would be to use the Microsoft Outlook App for iOS. The app is free to download, does not require any Microsoft subscriptions for its use and can support mailboxes hosted in Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and iCloud. This alternative mail app from Microsoft offers all the mail management functions as the native iOS mail app, except it still attaches images as attachments, not embed them.

Alternatively, a long-winded workaround discovered on the Apple user forums is; to send a text message to an email account. Doing so allows the addition of images as attachments, which are then offered to the recipient as attachments as expected or if there are multiple images, they’ll get uploaded to iCloud for you as the sender. The recipient will be offered a download of all of the pictures in the form of a .zip file.

So far, there has been no official statement or even acknowledgement from Apple regarding this change that has left many users frustrated.

If you’re having issues this, other email-related problems or have any questions regarding email security, please let us know, and we’ll do our best to assist. For what we do today, secures your business for tomorrow.

How do I send a picture from my phone to my email as an attachment?

Email Using an Android Open the photo app on your phone. In the photo gallery, long press each photo you would like to share until it shows as selected. A dot (or a check mark) will appear in the corner. Tap the Share icon and choose your desired email.

How do I send a photo from my iPhone as an attachment in Outlook?

To attach an picture as an attachment to an email, I suggest you try these steps: select the picture on your iPhone > Share > Outlook. After performing these steps, the picture will be attached as an attachment to an newly created email in Outlook.