How To Fix Pictures Not Loading On Iphone

Here's the issue, when you open the Photos app from your home screen and click on your pictures, you may notice that the pictures don't load properly, and they have an exclamation mark at the bottom left of the screen.

The pictures are also going to look blurry and it looks like all the photos have lost resolution as well. Even the videos in the cameral roll won't play and they may take a long time to load.

Why Won't My Photos Load On iPhone?

The reason why your Photos won't load properly is that you've turned on a feature called 'optimise iPhone storage'. This can be accessed in the settings app and it allows you to save a lot of storage by optimising your photos and videos and saving the original version in iCloud.

Previously, your iPhone was storing the original versions of photos and videos in your camera roll. When you turned Optimise iPhone Storage on, your pictures and videos are automatically managed in the gallery and the original version of the photos and videos are stored in iCloud.

Why Are My Photos Blurry on iPhone Camera Roll?

The same reason your photos are not loading is the same reason why your photos are blurry. If your iCloud photos are blurry, it's because of iPhone Storage Optimization; a tool that forces your iPhone to save space. Since the iCloud Photo Library is too large for people to keep on their device, your iPhone downloads a lower resolution version of the photo which is why it appears blurry in your camera roll.

Exclamation Mark in Camera Roll

The exclamation mark at the bottom of your photos indicates that the photo is compressed due to the Optimize Storage feature. If you see that photos won't load along with the exclamation mark, then it means that they're compressed. This means that you'll have to wait for the exclamation mark to load for the photos to show a normal resolution.

Your iPhone also shows you an exclamation mark at the bottom to notify you that you have the Optimise Storage feature on. If you want to get rid of it, you need to turn it off.

How to Prevent Photos From Not Loading

If your storage is almost full, then you need to clear some things to save some space so that your iPhone doesn't need to optimize your storage. This will prevent it from having to optimize your camera roll by storing a low res version of your high-quality photos. When you've freed some space on your iPhone, then you can disable this feature.

When Optimize Storage is turned on, all of your photos are automatically uploaded to your iCloud as soon as you stop using your iPhone for a long time and your device is connected to WI-FI. This means that your camera roll stores a compressed version of your photos and videos in order to reduce storage space.

Turn On Download and Keep Originals

If you want your photos and videos to load normally and play in your camera roll, you'll have to turn off 'Optimise iPhone Storage' and turn on 'Download and Keep Originals'. This means that your device is going to lose A LOT of storage space depending on how many GB your media takes up.

To turn on Download and Keep Original:

Go to Settings.
Click on Photos.
Click Download and Keep Originals.

You'll need to wait quite a while depending on how many photos and videos you have for your iOS device to download all of them.

Once this is done, your camera roll will go back to normal and your photos will load in a full resolution without showing the exclamation point at the bottom.

Make Storage Space

Sometimes your iPhone can turn on Optimize iPhone storage for your photos if you don't have enough storage on your device. This means that you need to delete some things so that you have more storage on your device. Your iPhone needs a lot of extra storage just to perform well so if you're nearly maxed out, you'll need to wipe a lot of things to make storage.

If you want to make a lot of space quickly, then you need to delete a lot of apps. If you've deleted a lot of apps, but feel like you need all the apps on your device because they're essential, you can offload some apps. Offloading an app allows you to delete the app's data and files, but still be able to keep the app on your iPhone – this removes its storage in your device.

To Offload an App:

Go to the Settings app.
Tap on General.
Click on iPhone Storage.
Scroll down and tap on Offload App.
Tap on the app you want to offload and offload it.

Increasing your storage space can stop your iPhone or iPad from automatically turning on Optimize iPhone Storage in order to save some space.

Wait For The Photos to Load

If your photos aren't loading in your camera roll, sometimes it could be down to a glitch that causes your photos to take a while for the high res version to load up. To get rid of this, it's either you want for a brief moment for your photos and videos to load, or you close the app in the multi-task view and open it again. From here, you should be able to view your photos without them having to load.

View Your Original Photos In iCloud

If your photos won't load, then rather than going on your camera roll to view a compressed version of your photos and videos, you can visit iCloud to see the high res version. If you werent able to turn off the optimize storage feature and you want to view your original photos rather than a blurry version, then you'll need to visit iCloud.com.

To view your photos in a normal resolution:

1. Open a browser on your computer and go to iCloud.com.

2. Authorize the 2-factor authentication and enter the pin shown on your device.

select photos

3. Click on Photos you should be able to view your photos. Download the ones you want to your computer.

From here, you can view all of your downloaded photos on your computer. These photos will be the original version and not an optimized version so they won't have to load. If you have a USB, you can transfer the high res photos to your iPhone.