How to Fix Photos and Videos Not Loading on iPhone

If the photos and videos are not fully loading in camera roll on your iPhone, the following guide offers some of the fixes to help you get rid of the issue and for you to load and view your photos and videos on your iPhone. Read on to find out how.

Author Avatar Joy Taylor Last Updated: Mar. 15, 2024

iPhone captures some amazing quality photos and videos and perhaps that is the reason many users prefer to use it as their primary camera. And it’s natural to show some wonderful photos or videos to your friends. However, sometimes you open the album, only to find the photos and videos not loading on your iPhone. Why did it happen and how can I load them? Check this post and learn how to fix iPhone photos and videos not loading issues.

Why Won’t Photos and Videos Load on My iPhone?

Before you jump onto the actual fixes and get rid of the issue from your iPhone, you may be interested in finding out the cause of the issue on your device. There could be various factors playing a role in the issue and the following are some of the common reasons why your photos and videos are not loading on your iPhone.

Reason 1. Optimize Storage Option is Enabled

This is the most common reason why your content is not properly loading in the Photos app on your device. The optimize storage option saves your content on iCloud and only shows the thumbnails of your content on your device. Therefore, when you tap on the content, it keeps on loading and does not show anything.

Reason 2. The Internet Is Not Working

If your photos are saved on the cloud and your Internet is not working, your iPhone will have trouble downloading and showing your content. Your Internet has to be active and stable for your iPhone to fetch content over the cloud.

Reason 3. Insufficient Memory Space on Your iPhone

If your iPhone does not have enough memory space available to load your content, you will have trouble viewing the content as it simply can’t load the content due to the lack of memory space. This happens to a lot of users who have an iPhone with the less storage options.

How to Fix Photos and Videos Not Loading on iPhone

Now that you know the reasons behind the issue, this section will teach you how you can get rid of the issue using various methods on your iPhone. None of these methods will cost you a penny and these can easily be performed on your iPhone without much technical knowledge.

So if you are ready to fix the photos and videos not loading issue on your iPhone, let’s jump onto the fixes below:

Fix 1. Turn off the Optimize Storage Feature

As we mentioned before, the main reason for the issue could be that you have turned on the optimize storage option on your iPhone. When this option is enabled on your device, all of your media content is saved on iCloud. Therefore, when you request to view content, it loads up from your iCloud so takes a bit longer than usual. And sometimes it does not load the content at all for a variety of other reasons.

The best thing for you is to just disable the optimize storage option on your iPhone and the following shows how:

Step 1: Launch the Settings app from the springboard of your iPhone.

Open the Settings menu on your iPhone

Open the Settings menu on your iPhone

Step 2: Open Settings, then tap on your name in the banner that appears at the top. It will open the iCloud panel for you.

Step 3: On the iCloud panel that appears on your screen, tap on the option that says iCloud to open the iCloud settings panel.

Access iCloud settings on your iPhone

Access iCloud settings on your iPhone

Step 4: The following screen will offer several iCloud-related options. Tap on the option that says Photos to launch the photos settings panel.

Launch iCloud Photos settings menu

Launch iCloud Photos settings menu

Step 5: Tap on the iCloud Photo Library. Then, ensure the Download and Keep Originals option is tick-marked on your screen. Tap on it if it is not already.

Disable the Optimise iPhone Storage Option

Disable the Optimise iPhone Storage Option

There you go. What is going to happen now is your iPhone will download all of your photos and videos from your iCloud account on your device. Wait for it to do that and then you should be able to access your content in the Photos app on your device.

Fix 2. Refresh the Photos App

Sometimes it could be a minor software glitch causing your photos and videos to not load on your iPhone. In that case, your best bet is to load at least one video in your collection and it will trigger all the other photos and videos to load up. The following is how you do it.

  1. Launch the Photos app from the springboard of your iPhone.
  2. When the app launches, tap on any of the videos that you were having issues with while loading.
  3. Wait while the video finishes loading on your device. This may take from a few seconds to a few minutes so be patient while it does its procedures.
  4. When the video has loaded and you can play it, get back to the main interface of the app and try accessing other photos and videos.

You will find that you are now able to access all other files as well as they have all loaded up properly on your iPhone.

Fix 3. Get a Stronger Internet Connection

If you are one of the users who has kept your content on a cloud-based service, you must make sure you have an active Internet connection when you try to get access to your content. All the cloud-based services require you to connect to them using the Internet to allow you to access your content.

Check if your Internet connection is working and is stable. If there are any issues with your Internet, you may want to reach out to your Internet service provider and ask them to help you fix the issue. Once the issue is fixed, you should be able to access your photos and videos on your iPhone.

Fix 4. Free-up Memory Space

People normally use the optimize storage option when their iPhone is running out of memory space and if that is the case with you, then you may need to free-up some memory space on your device.

There are so many users out there who have a lot of unused content lying on their devices. If you have any apps, photos, videos, or anything else that you don’t use anymore, you may want to get rid of it from your device to free-up memory space and to allow for your photos and videos to load on your device. The following teaches how to find out what’s occupying the memory space on your iPhone so you can remove it:

Step 1: Launch the Settings app from the main screen of your iPhone.

Step 2: When the settings app launches, tap on the option that says General and then select the Storage & iCloud Usage option.

Access storage settings on your iPhone

Access storage settings on your iPhone

Step 3: On the following screen, tap on the option that says Manage Storage under Storage to view your storage data.

Manage storage options on your iPhone

Manage storage options on your iPhone

Step 4: You should be able to view the list of your apps along with how much memory space each app is using information on your screen.

View and analyze storage information for each app

View and analyze storage information for each app

If you find an app in the list that you don’t use but is using a large amount of your memory space, you should uninstall it on your device to free up memory.

Fix 5. Access the Photos from iCloud

If you have still not been able to load your content, you may want to access your photos from the iCloud website on your computer. You can then transfer the content from your computer to your iPhone using various ways.

The following is how to do it:

  1. Open a browser on your computer and head over to the iCloud website. Log in to your account.
  2. Click on Photos after logging in and you should be able to view your photos. Download the ones you want to your computer.
Access your photos on the iCloud website

Access your photos on the iCloud website

You can now view all of your downloaded photos on your computer. You can use a content transfer app to transfer photos to your iPhone should you wish to do that.

Fix 6. Quickly Load Photos and Videos on the Computer

If the above methods cannot fix photos and videos not loading on your iPhone, but you need to send some photos to your friends. The best way is to view and transfer photos from your computer. AnyTrans provides a fast and easy way to view photos and videos on the computer. It takes just seconds to load your photos and videos.

Here’s how to load photos and videos on your computer:

Step 1. Free download AnyTrans and install it on Windows or Mac.

Free Download

Free Download

* 100% Clean & Safe

Free Download * 100% Clean & Safe

Step 2. Use a Cable to connect your iPhone to the computer.

Step 3. Wait for AnyTrans to load your photos and videos.

Choose Device Manager mode and click on the Photos category

Choose Device Manager mode and click on the Photos category

Then you can just view the photos or send them from the computer easily.

Conclusion

Photos and videos not loading on iPhone is frustrating but it’s easy to fix this issue. The above 6 ways are suggested to try one by one. Also, you can use AnyTrans to load photos and videos on your computer. It will also help you transfer photos quickly from iPhone to computer or vice versa.

Author Avatar
Joy Taylor Twitter Share Facebook Share

Senior writer of the iMobie team as well as an Apple fan, love to help more users solve various types of iOS & Android-related issues.

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