How To Email Multiple Photos on an iPhone and iPad
Sending Photos via email on your iPhone or iPad is a bit different than how you’d think it works. Here’s how to do it.
Are you having trouble adding multiple photos to an email from the Mail app on your iPhone or iPad? It turns out the trick is to think differently and use the Photos app.
In this guide, we’ll show you how to add multiple photos to your email and send them in a single message.
We use Apple’s Mail app and Proton Mail for this article. Other email clients work differently; some allow attaching multiple pictures, and some don’t. But you can use this option regardless of your email client.
Problem Attaching Photos in Mail App
- When you launch the Mail app, compose your message, and tap the left arrow button on the keyboard’s toolbar.
- Tap the Photos button on the toolbar.
- You can then attach photos; however, it only allows you to choose one at a time, which is frustrating.
Email Multiple Pictures from the Photos App on Your iPhone
If you want to email multiple images, open the Photos app first and select the library.
- Once the Photos Library is open, tap the Select button in the top right corner.
- Tap to choose the photos you want to send — a blue checkmark will indicate the selected image.
- Once you choose the photos to email, tap the Share button at the bottom of the screen.
- Choose the Mail app or another email app from which you want to send the photos. In our example, we’re using Proton Mail, but the process is essentially the same in all email apps. Also, note that you can select more photos in this section or uncheck the ones you don’t want to send.
- The photos will be added to your message; you can compose it as you usually would and send it.
- It’s important to note that Apple’s Mail app will allow you to reduce the photo sizes, which is helpful when emailing accounts with attachment limits.
That’s it! Now, you can email multiple photos from your iPhone or iPad.
Sending Multiple Photos from Mail App on iPhone or iPad
Unfortunately, the built-in Mail app doesn’t allow you to attach multiple photos at once. Neither does the Gmail app. Instead, you must open the Photos app, select various pictures, and send them via the Share button.
Other apps like Proton Mail and Outlook allow you to attach multiple photos simultaneously when you select the attachment button. This is a nice feature that would be welcomed if Apple added it to the Mail app.
7 Comments
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Chris Hager
August 26, 2012 at 7:19 am
Thanks for posting this – I can’t believe I actually had to Google that to figure it out. Actually, I tried this and it didn’t work until I started experimenting. Apparently, if you select more than 5 photos, the “Email” option isn’t available for some strange reason!
Owen
April 4, 2013 at 9:01 am
I tried it but couldn’t make it work on my ipad mini. When I tap on photos as you suggested, I don’t get the little arrow in the top right, all I get is edit????
Owen
Nate
September 2, 2022 at 4:45 pm
This is why I hate apple products. I was forced to go to apple products and they are miserable to use. I am constantly having to look up how to do things and am told that some of what my android phone did is impossible with apple. What a joke.
Audrey
May 2, 2023 at 5:03 am
I always send pix this way and always have an issue. After choosing the size ( choose actual size) a message comes up saying the file is too large would I like to send a an attachment or Mail Drop. Yesterday I chose Mail Drop and lost the entire email (it was empty) 67 pix. Apple ugh Any pro tips?
Karl V
May 25, 2023 at 7:09 pm
If you use GMail, instead of the stupid apple email program (which not one of the dozens of Macbook users I know uses) there is not a 5-photo limit to attachments. It works fine, EXCEPT that, as you might expect, apple forces you to select the photos to attach ONE AT A TIME. On a Windows PC, using google software you can select multiple photos using the file browser – and view the files as just file names or photo icons or big photos.
I hate Microsoft too, but at least they don’t always seem to go out of their way to make things awkward and there are usually many ways to do things and to customize your OS. Apple seems to have almost NO ways to customize the system. I had a Samsung tablet for several years. It was easy to use. After it died I bought an iPad. It’s a nightmare to use. Apple started out being the company that tried to make intuitive software. Now you have to spend an extraordinary amount of time trying to figure things out because it seems that usability is very much secondary to *looking cool* Apple doesn’t think people who use their products need to be able to do heavy file management. That’s insulting.
Brian Burgess
October 19, 2023 at 11:26 am
Thanks for reading. You’re right. Apple’s Mail app only allows selecting one picture at a time. That’s why you need to go through the Photos app to do it. We were able to add several photos on an iPhone running iOS 17 with no problem. We’ve updated this piece since it was several years old.
Liz
October 5, 2023 at 7:49 am
This is great for a one-off email. But if you’re trying to attach multiple files/photos when replying to an existing email thread, it doesn’t work. By starting a new email with the multiple attachments, you lose the continuity of the thread/conversation. Another reason I hate apple and rue the day I ever got stuck into it.