If your email shows empty boxes, red X marks, or a banner saying pictures were blocked, the cause is usually one of three things: your email app is blocking remote images for privacy, your connection or a filter is interrupting them, or the sender's image links are broken. The first is the most common and the easiest to fix. For a related guide, see Email Search Not Working? How to Find Missing Messages.
This guide helps you work out which of the three you're dealing with, then walks through the settings for Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail.
Start with a quick diagnosis
Most marketing emails, newsletters, and receipts don't contain their pictures. They contain links to images stored on the sender's servers, and your app has to fetch them when you open the message. That is why apps can block images, and why a message can look fine one week and broken the next.
- Look for a banner or button near the top of the message, such as "Display images below" in Gmail or "Click here to download pictures" in Outlook. If it's there, the app is deliberately blocking images, so go to your app's section below.
- Check whether other emails are affected. If only one sender's messages are broken, the problem is probably on their end. If every email is missing images, it's your app settings, connection, or a filter.
- Open the same email somewhere else, such as the provider's website or another device. If images appear there, the issue is local to the first app or device.
- Test your connection. Load any image-heavy website. If that fails too, fix the connection first.
Fix missing images in Gmail
Gmail normally shows images automatically, so a blocked image often means either a setting was changed or Gmail considers the message suspicious.
For a single message
Click Display images below at the top of the message. If you trust the sender, you can usually choose to always display images from them. Don't do this if the message looks like spam or phishing. Gmail often hides images in suspicious mail on purpose.
For all messages (Gmail on the web)
- Click the gear icon, then See all settings.
- On the General tab, find Images.
- Select Always display external images.
- Scroll to the bottom and click Save Changes.
If you chose Ask before displaying external images, Gmail will keep prompting you. That setting also turns off dynamic email, which affects interactive content from some senders.
In the Gmail app on Android, open Settings, choose your account, and look for an Images option. Menu layouts vary by app version, so if you don't see it, check Google's Gmail Help for your platform.
If the images are still missing: try a different browser or an incognito window. Browser extensions such as ad blockers and privacy tools can block image requests. If images appear in incognito, disable extensions one at a time to find the culprit.
Also check the bottom of long emails for a View entire message link. Gmail clips very large messages, and the images may be in the hidden part.
Fix missing images in Outlook
Outlook is stricter than Gmail. Desktop versions block automatic downloads in many messages by default, and the exact steps depend on which Outlook you use.
Outlook for Windows (classic desktop version)
For one message, click the banner that says Click here to download pictures, or right-click the blocked area and choose Download Pictures. To trust that sender from now on, add them to your Safe Senders list from the same banner or from the right-click menu.
To change the default:
- Go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings.
- Select Automatic Download.
- Look at Don't download pictures automatically in standard HTML e-mail messages or RSS items. If it's ticked, Outlook blocks images by default.
You don't have to untick it. A safer option is to leave it on and tick the option that permits downloads from senders and recipients in your Safe Senders and Safe Recipients lists. That way trusted contacts load normally and unknown senders stay blocked.
New Outlook and Outlook on the web
These show a message when content is blocked, usually with an option to show it. To make trusted senders load automatically, add them as safe senders in Settings > Mail > Junk email. Menu wording changes between releases, so if you can't find it, search Microsoft's support site for "safe senders" for your version.
If images still won't load: your organization may control this. Work and school accounts can have policies that block external content, and in that case the change has to come from your IT administrator. Also check that the message hasn't landed in Junk, since Outlook blocks images in junk mail more aggressively.
Fix missing images in Apple Mail
Apple Mail has two settings that affect images: whether remote content loads at all, and whether Mail loads it privately.
On Mac
- Open Mail and choose Mail > Settings.
- Go to the Privacy tab. If Protect Mail Activity is off, you may see a Block All Remote Content option. Make sure it isn't ticked.
- On older macOS versions, the equivalent setting, Load remote content in messages, is on the Viewing tab.
On iPhone or iPad
Open Settings, go to the Mail settings (Apps > Mail on recent iOS versions, Mail on older ones), then open Privacy Protection. Check these two controls:
- Protect Mail Activity on: Mail loads remote content through Apple's privacy features, which hides your IP address and stops senders from seeing when you opened the message. This is the setting I'd recommend keeping on, as images still load.
- Protect Mail Activity off: you'll get separate controls, including Block All Remote Content. If that's on, no remote images will appear.
If images still don't appear: check whether Low Data Mode or a restricted cellular setting is limiting Mail, and try switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data. A VPN or content-filtering profile can also interfere, so turn the VPN off briefly to test.
When the problem is the sender, not you
If images are blocked or failing for just one sender, even in other apps, the cause is probably on their side. Common reasons include images hosted on a server that is down, expired image links in an old campaign, or a message built so that its images are never embedded. Older emails are most likely to break this way, since senders sometimes delete the hosted files after a while.
There's nothing for you to fix in that case. Ask the sender to resend the message or share a web version, which many newsletters link to at the top or bottom.
If you're the one sending and recipients see red X marks, avoid pasting images that are linked from your computer or a private location. Insert them as inline pictures or attachments instead, and send yourself a test to check how they appear.
Load images without giving up privacy
Blocking is not a bug. Remote images can include tracking pixels that tell the sender you opened a message, roughly when, and sometimes your approximate location through your IP address. Phishing emails also use images to hide text or confirm that your address is active.
- Allow images only for senders you know and trust.
- Don't load images in unexpected messages that ask you to sign in, pay, or confirm account details.
- Prefer settings that load images privately, such as Apple's Protect Mail Activity, over turning off all protections.
How to confirm it's fixed
Open a recent message from a trusted sender that you know contains images, such as a receipt or newsletter. If the pictures load without clicking anything, your setting is working. Then open a message from an unknown sender and confirm it still asks before loading images, if that's the behavior you want.
If images still fail across every app and every sender, the issue is likely your network, a VPN, or a security tool, so test on another connection. If it only happens on a work account, contact your IT team. For anything specific to your Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail version, the provider's official help pages will have the current menu names.