iPad bizarre photo attachment screw-up

[1adam]

My Mum's iPad 2 running OS 7.0 has recently started to suffer from some awful horizontal bands discoloring jpeg photos received by the standard e-mail app with her gmail account.
Any photo received (tested multiple devices) will break in this way, yet when the same attachment is opened from the same e-mail on her PC it works fine.
Truly bizarre. Do any iPad gurus have any ideas?

This coffee mug I captured below on my desk is infact red. This happens on every picture the iPad receives, but fine elsewhere.

 

[twerppoet]

Strange. Some questions.

Have you restarted and/or reset her iPad recently? Instruction below, just in case.

Do all the pictures come from the same source? If so, try sending a few to her yourself, so we can figure out if it's a formatting problem from the source, or truly a local problem on the iPad.

Anything else you can think of that is unique about the source or formatting of the photos.



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The Usual Fixes
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When you have problems with an app it's a good idea to clear it from RAM.

Close/Clear the app:

iOS 6: With the problem app closed, double tap on the Home button to get the multitask bar. Tap and hold on any icon in the bar until they jiggle, then tap the minus sign on the problem app.

iOS 7: Double tap the Home button to get the multitasking display. Swipe up on the problem app's thumbnail image (not the icon).

If that does not work try a restart,

Restart: Hold down the power button until the power off slider appears. Slide it off. When the iPad finishes shutting down, hold down the power button again until the Apple logo appears. Apple recommends you restart the iPad at least once a month.

and then a reset if that does not work.

Reset: Hold down the power and home buttons until the Apple logo appears. The iPad will reboot. This usually takes a bit longer than a restart.

Reset All Settings: Another, somewhat more drastic thing you can do is Reset All Settings. You'll find this under Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings. It won't erase any of your content, apps, or accounts; but you will have to go through most of your other settings and re-tweak them back to your liking. Do not confuse this with Erase All Content and Settings.

More detailed information at: iOS: Not responding or does not turn on

 

[Ser Aphim]

Seems to me that the problem is not caused by your iPad, but rather than the one who sent it to her. Did you try checking it on other devices? PC or another iPad?

 

[1adam]

Seems to me that the problem is not caused by your iPad, but rather than the one who sent it to her. Did you try checking it on other devices? PC or another iPad?

Yes, the pictures load absolutely fine on other devices and systems such as laptops and Outlook. Strangely some pictures originating from digital cameras (Canon SLR), screen-grabs from Windows, or a front-facing camera shot from my Google Nexus 5 come out perfectly. It seems to be rear-camera shots from the Nexus 5 (not only mine but multiple devices) that screw up among others too.

Tried the reset procedure but made no difference. Found out the iPad is on 7.1, seems my Mum updated it a couple of weeks ago and actually the issue has occurred since then.

I'm stumped!

 

[twerppoet]

Make sure the Nexus 5 isn't using one of Google's new modes, like auto-awsome. Shoot a few more photos and see if that makes a difference.

No other ideas. Sorry.

 

[Ser Aphim]

Yes, the pictures load absolutely fine on other devices and systems such as laptops and Outlook. Strangely some pictures originating from digital cameras (Canon SLR), screen-grabs from Windows, or a front-facing camera shot from my Google Nexus 5 come out perfectly. It seems to be rear-camera shots from the Nexus 5 (not only mine but multiple devices) that screw up among others too.

Tried the reset procedure but made no difference. Found out the iPad is on 7.1, seems my Mum updated it a couple of weeks ago and actually the issue has occurred since then.

I'm stumped!

Seems like its the Nexus 5 that has the problem. Not your iPad. Like what Twerppoet said, make sure your device isn't usung one of googles camera modes.

 

[1adam]

The Nexus is just taking standard pictures and those pictures open fine on a whole range of other devices.
No info: some pictures taken with a Canon compact digital camera cause the same issue. It's definitely the iPad email app. Has anyone seen this behavior before?

 

[Ser Aphim]

The Nexus is just taking standard pictures and those pictures open fine on a whole range of other devices. No info: some pictures taken with a Canon compact digital camera cause the same issue. It's definitely the iPad email app. Has anyone seen this behavior before?

If your in 7.0 then try updating to 7.1. If that doesn't then I have no idea how to fix that. My beat guess is because of compatibility issues.

~S~

 

[twerppoet]

The Nexus is just taking standard pictures and those pictures open fine on a whole range of other devices.
No info: some pictures taken with a Canon compact digital camera cause the same issue. It's definitely the iPad email app. Has anyone seen this behavior before?

Ok then. Let's eliminate the Mail app and Gmail as possible problems.

If you have a DropBox account, place a few of the problem pictures in your Public directory in DropBox, then send the links to her iPad. When the link arrives in email, it should open in Safari and go to the DropBox site. If it does not, the copy the link and paste it into Safari.
If she has a DropBox account, you can just use here account and the DropBox app.

If the problem persists, it is neither Gmail nor the Mail app causing the problem. If it goes away, then a second test might help. You can either ruse the Gmail app, to eliminate Mail as a the problem; or you can use a different email account in the Mail app to eliminate Gmail as the problem.

Good luck.

 

[1adam]

If you have a DropBox account, place a few of the problem pictures in your Public directory in DropBox, then send the links to her iPad. When the link arrives in email, it should open in Safari and go to the DropBox site. If it does not, the copy the link and paste it into Safari.
If she has a DropBox account, you can just use here account and the DropBox app.
If the problem persists, it is neither Gmail nor the Mail app causing the problem. If it goes away, then a second test might help. You can either ruse the Gmail app, to eliminate Mail as a the problem; or you can use a different email account in the Mail app to eliminate Gmail as the problem.
Good luck.

Great test thanks. Sent it via Dropbox and the photo appeared fine on the iPad, then sent the very same photo as an email attachment and it was totally distorted with color-banded bars (like top of this thread). The same photo appears fine in the same Gmail account on Outlook in Desktop computer. So it's definitely the Mail App.
Reluctant to use the Gmail app as I understand you cannot make it seamlessly and fully the default for every e-mail task, which can be a bit confusing for my mother.

 

[twerppoet]

Great test thanks. Sent it via Dropbox and the photo appeared fine on the iPad, then sent the very same photo as an email attachment and it was totally distorted with color-banded bars (like top of this thread). The same photo appears fine in the same Gmail account on Outlook in Desktop computer. So it's definitely the Mail App. Reluctant to use the Gmail app as I understand you cannot make it seamlessly and fully the default for every e-mail task, which can be a bit confusing for my mother.

The Gmail app is free and will not interfere with the native Mail app, other than that emails read and/or deleted in that app will also get read or deleted in the Mail app. A good thing most of the time. So go ahead and give it a try, just so you can make certain that it isn't Gmail on the iPad, as opposed to Mail on the iPad.

Or not. if you've got the problem licked to your satisfaction, never mind.

 

[1adam]

The Gmail app is free and will not interfere with the native Mail app, other than that emails read and/or deleted in that app will also get read or deleted in the Mail app. A good thing most of the time. So go ahead and give it a try, just so you can make certain that it isn't Gmail on the iPad, as opposed to Mail on the iPad. Or not. if you've got the problem licked to your satisfaction, never mind.

OKAY I've figured out a workaround! But not a permanent fix.
I got my own hands on the iPad today and noticed a message below the photo "This Message was downloaded as Plain Text. Download full message" - When I click that message the photo then loads correctly!
This message is definitely new since 7.1, or at least the distortion is new.
How can we make it stop downloading as plain text and download full message as default then?
Thank you so much for the superb support on this forum.

 

[twerppoet]

Two ideas.

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars; and make sure Load Remote Images is turned on. It doesn't sound like this will make a difference, but it's worth a try. I don't know of any setting on the iPad that will force an email to be plain text. So. . .

Second, go through her Gmail settings online and make sure you don't have something like that defaults or prefers plain text turned on. Also, on the originating device/account, make sure it is not set to default send as plain text.


Lastly, extra large pictures or attachments will not download by default. They will show up as icons and must be tapped to get a full download. You can tell an un-downloaded attachment because it will have a dashed gray outline. An attachment that is fully downloaded will show up either inline, or with a solid gray outline around the icon.

 

[1adam]

Two ideas.

Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars; and make sure Load Remote Images is turned on. It doesn't sound like this will make a difference, but it's worth a try. I don't know of any setting on the iPad that will force an email to be plain text. So. . .

Second, go through her Gmail settings online and make sure you don't have something like that defaults or prefers plain text turned on. Also, on the originating device/account, make sure it is not set to default send as plain text.


Lastly, extra large pictures or attachments will not download by default. They will show up as icons and must be tapped to get a full download. You can tell an un-downloaded attachment because it will have a dashed gray outline. An attachment that is fully downloaded will show up either inline, or with a solid gray outline around the icon.

Remote image download is enabled and there's no settings on either devices or accounts sending as plain text.
Infact when the mail arrives to iPad it has the attachment icon saying press to download, pressing that then loads the image fully (but with distortion) as shown on the left and definitely pulls in the whole image (megabyte wise as it shows progress bar in the box). But its after that you are the plain text message and have to re-download in full again.

 

[twerppoet]

Remote image download is enabled and there's no settings on either devices or accounts sending as plain text. Infact when the mail arrives to iPad it has the attachment icon saying press to download, pressing that then loads the image fully (but with distortion) as shown on the left and definitely pulls in the whole image (megabyte wise as it shows progress bar in the box). But its after that you are the plain text message and have to re-download in full again.

That's just plain weird. I have absolutely no idea what's going on, or any ideas for further tests that might give us an idea of what's going on.

Sorry.