3 Reasons Why Your Phone Won’t Send Pictures Through Text

When you can’t get your phone to send your pictures through a text message, there are a few reasons why this may be happening. Texting has become one of our favorite ways of communicating. From keeping in contact with our coworkers to staying in touch with our family members far away, texting is a fabulous way to stay connected with one another. But when you can’t get a favorite photo to go through, it can also be super frustrating. Let’s figure out what’s going on and how to fix it.

Why won’t my phone send pictures through text?

You can’t send pictures on your phone through text, check to make sure that you’re connected to the Internet, check to make sure that MMS messaging is turned on, and check to make sure that you are running the latest updates on your phone.

Having a device as handy as a cell phone has changed the way we communicate across the globe. 

Cell phones give us all sorts of freedom in how we express ourselves and options for staying connected to other people. And, with cameras on our phones that are as good as any regular one, being able to send photos through text message has become an increasingly popular function of our phones. 

But sometimes we can get those pictures to go through, and it can make for an annoying experience, especially when you are trying to send a photo of something important to someone, be it for work or fun. But figuring out why those photos aren’t going through is pretty simple and usually solvable as well.

I love to text people as a way of communicating, especially my kids, who all live away from home. But, even better than sending a written text is sending a text photo! There is no easier way to get a grown kid to respond to you than by sending them a picture of their dog or a photo of their favorite meal. 

When my photos won’t text, though, I get annoyed, as it has become one of my most regular ways of keeping in touch, but I’ve figured out a few different things that are often causing the problem. Let’s make sure your dog pictures are going through, too!

Why Won’t My Phone Send Pictures Through Text?

The ability to text from one phone to another has been a part of our daily lives for the past thirty years and has radically changed the ways we communicate with each other.

Texting isn’t just for teenagers. As more employees work remotely, texting is a great way to keep in touch with a team of colleagues. It’s also an easy way to stay abreast of happenings in a family, an organized group, or a set of friends. 

Honestly, it’s hard to remember how we used to stay in touch with one another before texting came to play such a large role in our ability to connect with others.

But texting isn’t just about words. We also use texting to send videos and photos as well. Sometimes sending a photo is just for fun, like those dog ones that we all love, or a picture of today’s lunch.

On the other hand, many of the photos we text to others serve a significant purpose, and when they aren’t going through, it can be anything from slightly annoying to pretty problematic. Figuring out why your photos aren’t getting sent to another person’s phone through text is a worthwhile issue to explore. 

Luckily, there are several easy-to-identify answers, and some good solutions as well.

1. Check to Make Sure You Are Connected to the Internet

In order for your phone to be able to send photos through a text message, it needs to be connected to the Internet to work.

Your phone is an amazing tool, capable of everything from taking pictures to sending them. But, without an Internet connection, these devices that we carry around all day become very limited in what they can do for us.

Certain features of all cell phones won’t work without a strong Internet connection. You will have a hard time sending or receiving photos to anyone when your Internet is either not working or is super slow.

To check your connection, you can see the Internet status at the top right corner of your phone. If you do not see that you have an Internet connection (or the Internet connection is weak) you’ll know why your photos aren’t going through.

If Internet service is not an option for you, your other option is to turn on your cellular data. Cellular data will allow you to send text messages with photos embedded.

To turn on your cellular data, go to your Settings and scroll down until you see the “Cellular” icon. Toggle, or turn this on to be able to send those pictures on through.

Know that most cell phone service providers will charge for cellular data usage, so you will want to turn this feature back off when you are done sending the photos you wanted to send.

But, it’s a nice feature to have when the Internet is spotty or not an option.

2. Check To Make Sure That MMS Messaging is Turned On

Another possible reason why your photos are not being sent via a text message from your phone is that your MMS messaging feature has been turned off.

MMS is the abbreviation for Multi-Media System. This is the system that phones use in order to be able to send and receive video and photo messages. 

Most modern phones are capable of receiving MMS messages as large as 5 megabytes. This is pretty standard and means that almost anything you are going to send can probably be accommodated with that much bandwidth.

It’s easy to make sure your MMS messaging feature hasn’t been disabled.

Again, go back to your Settings menu. Once there, scroll down until you find the “Messages” icon. You will be given a variety of optional settings you can configure here with your messages, but find the tab that says, “MMS Messaging” and make sure that toggle is turned on.

3. Check to Make Sure You Are Running the Latest Updates on Your Phone

Regardless of what type of phone you have, or which carrier you contract with, all companies will send out updates on their software from time to time.

Whether you are using an Android phone or an Apple iPhone, if your updates are not current, it may mean that certain features of your phone are not going to work well.

In fact, some may not work at all, such as your ability to send or receive text messages, particularly larger messages that involve videos or pictures.

Most of the time, software updates are made automatically, and you don’t have to spend time thinking about them. Sometimes, however, a glitch may have happened, causing your phone to miss the latest roll-out.

To ensure that your phone is currently running the most up-to-date company software updates, you can go to the Settings on your device and follow the prompts to make sure that everything is current. 

Once the latest updates are installed, you should not continue to have an issue with your phone sending pictures through your text messaging feature.