Why are images not loading in iCloud mail?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares to first check if Apples proxy actually has access to your files. If you can rule out issues there it might just be an Apple proxy issue.
Email marketer from iGeeksBlog explains that iCloud Private Relay might be interfering with loading images in emails. Disabling Private Relay for the Wi-Fi network could resolve the issue, allowing images to load normally.
Email marketer from MacRumors Forums shares that an iCloud service outage could be the cause of images not loading in iCloud Mail. Check Apple's System Status page to see if there are any known issues.
Email marketer from Quora explains that a corrupted cache in the Mail app or on the device can prevent images from loading correctly. Clearing the cache might resolve the issue.
Email marketer from Apple Support Community shares that checking mail settings in iCloud can sometimes solve image loading problems. Ensure 'Load Remote Images' is enabled in Mail settings.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that iCloud's privacy features aggressively block tracking pixels, which can prevent images from loading correctly. This is a design feature to protect user privacy.
Email marketer from EmailToolTester explains that using a VPN can sometimes interfere with iCloud's ability to load images, as the VPN server's location or configuration might be causing a conflict. Try disabling the VPN to see if images load correctly.
Email marketer from StackExchange responds that firewalls or security software on your device might be blocking the images from loading in iCloud Mail. Temporarily disabling the firewall can help determine if this is the cause.
Email marketer from Email Geeks explains that it's possible that iCloud's image proxy can't load the pictures.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise responds that Apple's Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) impacts image loading because it masks IP addresses and pre-loads images through a proxy server. This can lead to instances where images don't load correctly due to various technical issues with the proxy or content delivery.
Expert from Spam Resource explains that iCloud's mail privacy features use an image proxy that can sometimes fail to load images, particularly those used for tracking purposes. This is a deliberate privacy measure that can interfere with normal image loading.
Expert from Email Geeks mentions about forgetting about a channel, indicating another potential area to investigate beyond deliverability.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Apple Support details how Mail Privacy Protection hides your IP address and prevents senders from knowing if you’ve opened their email. This can affect image loading as a side effect of the privacy measures.
Documentation from RFC explains that Content Security Policy (CSP) implemented by the email provider could prevent images from loading if the image source is not whitelisted in the CSP directives.
Documentation from Litmus shares that Apple's image proxy service fetches images on behalf of the user, which can sometimes fail due to server issues or content delivery network (CDN) misconfigurations, leading to images not loading.
Documentation from Cloudflare explains that Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and image optimization services might cause issues if not properly configured for iCloud's privacy features. Incorrectly configured CDNs can inadvertently block image loading.
Documentation from MDN Web Docs shares that Mixed Content Blocking, where a secure (HTTPS) page attempts to load insecure (HTTP) images, can cause images not to load. iCloud's security settings may block such mixed content.