How to attach photos or files to an email on iPhone or iPad

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How to attach photos or files to an email on iPhone or iPad

Our iPhones & iPads are excellent portable devices to access our email messages on the go and respond to them quickly. They are also home to all the photos we take, all the images and GIFs that we save, and all the files we download — all of which iOS stores neatly either in the Photos app or in the Files app.

Although most apps these days are pretty easy to use, knowing how to attach photos or files to an email on iPhone or iPad isn't always obvious or straightforward. Many third-party app developers try to implement their own custom flow, thus complicating things. To learn how to attach photo attachments, videos, or files to emails on iPhone or iPad, follow along for this detailed guide.

Before we learn how to email photos or videos from iPhone or iPad, it's important to learn the difference between emailing photos or videos on iOS, and emailing files or attachments on iOS.

Photos & Videos (Photos App) vs. Files as Attachments (Files app)

There is a stark difference between how iOS handles photos & videos on your iPhone or iPad, and how it handles your files. You see, by default, any photos or videos you take using the iPhone or iPad camera are stored in the Photos app on iOS. The Photos App is a fully-managed library of sorts — you don't have to manually choose how and where your photos or videos are saved, as iOS handles that automatically for you.

On the other hand, iOS now offers the Files app that lets you store, move, copy, delete files on your iPhone or iPad, just as you would on your Windows PC or Mac.

Understanding this difference between the two is important, because the process of attaching either to emails is slightly different. So let's first take a look at how to attach photos & videos to email on iOS.

How to Attach Photos to Email on iPhone or iPad

  1. Download & Install Spark Mail app from the App Store.
  2. After you've set up your email account, compose a new email in Spark.
  3. Tap on the little attachment icon just above the keyboard.

  1. Spark will ask you to choose where you want to attach the photo or video from. Since we want to attach our photos from the Photos app, that's what we'll choose.

  1. Tap on the photos you want to select, then tap on Attach.

Your email with your attached photos and videos is now ready to be sent.

How to Attach Files to Email on iPhone or iPad

This method explains how to attach files as attachments to email on iPhone or iPad using Spark.

  1. Download & Install Spark Mail app from the App Store.
  2. After you've set up your email account, compose a new email in Spark.
  3. Tap on the little attachment icon just above the keyboard.
  4. Tap on the Files icon to attach a file stored on your iOS device or in your iCloud Drive.
  5. To attach a file that exists on your cloud account, tap on Add Service to add your Box, Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive accounts.
  6. Navigate to where your file is stored and tap to select and attach the file.

Your email with your file attachment is now ready to be sent.

Spark makes it easy to attach photos, videos, and files stored on the cloud to any email on your iPhone or iPad. With a few simple taps, you can send an email with photos or videos on your iPhone or iPad, even when you're on the go.

Download Spark for Free and switch to the best email experience on iPhone and iPad.