There are four causes of pictures not displaying in Microsoft Outlook email messages:
- Internet Explorer setting for saving encrypted pages to disk (below)
- Blocking external content
- Red X's in Email / SecureTemp folder is "full"
- Word's Picture placeholder setting enabled (below)
Internet Options Encrypted Page Setting
Note: Outlook uses Internet Options settings, not Edge settings.
Open Internet Options, either by typing Internet Options on the start menu or from the Control panel. You can also open it through Internet Explorer's (Tools), Internet Options, Advanced menu.
Look under the Security section for Do not save encrypted files to disk. Untick this setting and Apply. Restart Outlook and you should be fixed. (If you don't use Internet Explorer, you can go to Control panel, Internet Options or just type Internet Options in the Start menu Search.)
Thanks to William for sharing this with us.
Check the Picture Placeholder setting
If you do not see a red x but have a blank box shaped/sized like the graphic or photo, you have Show picture placeholders enabled. (A great feature if your Internet connection is slow.)
Note that this dialog is accessible from a COMPOSE MESSAGE window, not the main Outlook window!
Outlook 2010, 2013, 2016
These steps work for Outlook 2010, Outlook 2013, and Outlook 2016 (including Outlook which is included in Office 365 subscriptions).
- Click the New Email button or press Ctrl+N while viewing the Inbox.
- Go to the new message's File, Options dialog.
- Click Mail, then Editor Options
- Select Advanced and look near the bottom of the dialog for the option to Show Picture Placeholders.
- Uncheck the box to Show picture placeholders
- Close the dialog then close the message.
After changing the settings, close the message. Do not sent it! This, like many other message settings (zoom, etc), will apply only to the current message if you send it. You need to close the message to change the global setting.
In Outlook 2007
- While in a New message window
- Click the Office icon
- Click the Editor options button on the lower right of the dialog
- Select Advanced from the left menu of the Editor options dialog
- Scroll down to Display email contents section (near the bottom)
- Uncheck the box to Show picture placeholders
- Then click OK to apply and close the dialog.
- Close the message.
In older versions, this is an Internet Options setting, accessible from either IE's Tools menu or Control Panel. In the Internet Options dialog, go to the Advanced tab. The Show pictures option is in the Multimedia group, about halfway down.
Thank you! Problem solved
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This article appears to be about when you are creating an email and trying to drop pictures in. But, I'm guessing everyone is searching for when you open received emails and the pictures don't display.
That solution is simple. Don't waste your time with support.microsoft.com or other sillyness. Do the following:
A. Open Internet Options. There are two ways to get there: (1) open Internet Explorer and goto Tools, then Internet Options; or (2) open Internet Options from Control Panel.
B. From Internet Options, go to the Advanced Tab. Click the Reset Button (at the bottom). Check the “Delete Personal Settings.” FYI, you shouldn’t be using Internet Explorer anymore, because it’s not being updated or supported by Microsoft anymore. Use Chrome or Firefox or whatever updated secure WebBrowser you like. Click the Reset button. Restart your computer. Problem solved.
it's about received messages- I also have a another page with additional information.
>>
you shouldn’t be using Internet Explorer anymore, because it’s not being updated or supported by Microsoft anymore.
>>
Outlook needs IE installed and will use it for 'open in browser'
For Outlook 2015
Outlook-pictures.reg
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word\Options\WordMail]
"ShowPicturePlaceholders"=dword:00000000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Outlook-No-pictures.reg
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Word\Options\WordMail]
"ShowPicturePlaceholders"=dword:00000001
Great, thank you! The Internet Options Encrypted Page Setting was the culprit in my case!
perfect answer. thank you
I've got a good one perhaps someone has seen before. Outlook displays a banner prompting the user to download images, but there are no actual images in the message, and the sender's domain is in the safe sender list. I've never seen that...very odd.
Best guess is there is a tracking link hidden in it - this is most common with bulk/commercial mail but there are applications that can do it for regular folks so they don't need to request read receipts.
if this is the cause, when you look at the message source, you'll see the tracking code.