Why images are missing when a customer forwards an email

This issue can occur when a customer forwards an email to your support email address, and the forwarded message appears without the inline images. The text content is visible, but the images are missing or replaced by placeholders such as image0.jpg or image1.jpg.

This usually happens when the customer is using an older version of Apple Mail. Older Apple Mail clients remove inline image data while forwarding messages, resulting in emails that contain only text and image tags without the actual attachments.

This behaviour has been discussed in the Apple Community, where users have reported that forwarding emails from older Apple Mail clients strips embedded pictures.

In newer Apple Mail versions, this issue no longer occurs. The updated clients preserve all inline images correctly when forwarding emails.

Sometimes, images may still appear for certain recipients, such as those using Gmail, because Gmail caches images automatically. However, this does not mean the images were forwarded correctly; they appear only due to caching.

How does this affect forwarded emails

When a customer forwards an email using an older version of Apple Mail, only the text content is sent. The inline image attachments are stripped from the message, so the support team or recipient receives an incomplete email without the original pictures.

If the same message is sent as an attachment or from an updated version of Apple Mail, all images are preserved.

How to fix this issue

1. To ensure images are preserved when forwarding emails from Apple Mail, the customer can try the following options:

   1. Use Forward as Attachment
      In Apple Mail, go to the Message menu and click Forward as Attachment. This sends the full original email with images included.

   2. Update Apple Mail to the latest version
      Newer Apple Mail clients handle inline images correctly during forwarding. Updating the client helps prevent images from being stripped in the future.

   3. Save and reattach images manually
      If updating is not possible, the customer can right-click the image, select Save Image As, and attach the saved image to a new message.
      This ensures the recipient receives the complete content, even when the forwarding feature removes inline images.

   If your customer is not using an older version of Apple Mail and the issue persists, please contact our support team. We will create a ticket and investigate the issue further.