I recently ran into a strangely specific problem with iPhone screenshots not downloading over RCS on my Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Regular RCS messages worked. Photos worked. Even photos sent from other iPhones worked.
But screenshots from this particular iPhone? Nope.
They would arrive with a “Tap to download” button and then simply refuse to download.
After weeks of assuming this was some weird carrier or RCS interoperability issue, the fix turned out to be one obscure iPhone screenshot setting.
Environment
Sending phone:
- Apple iPhone
- AT&T
- RCS enabled
Receiving phone:
- Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra
- Mint Mobile
- Google Messages
- RCS enabled
RCS had previously worked normally between both phones.
Symptoms
Normal text messages continued working over RCS without any problems.
The weird part was media:
- iPhone camera photo → Android over RCS: Worked
- iPhone screenshot → Android over RCS: Failed
- iPhone screenshot → Android over MMS: Worked
- Other iPhones → Android over RCS: Worked
When a screenshot failed, Google Messages displayed the attachment with “Tap to download.” Tapping it didn’t successfully retrieve the image.
Disabling RCS for the conversation caused the same screenshots to come through over MMS without a problem.
Investigation
Initially, this looked like a broken RCS session between the two phones.
Over the course of troubleshooting, I tried the usual suspects:
- Rebooting both phones
- Toggling RCS
- Falling back to MMS
- Confirming RCS worked with other contacts
- Confirming regular camera photos worked
Rebooting and re-registering RCS didn’t resolve the underlying problem.
The breakthrough was realizing the failure wasn’t actually photos over RCS.
It was specifically screenshots over RCS.
That distinction finally pointed away from the carriers and toward the way the iPhone was creating the screenshot itself.
Root Cause
The iPhone was configured to capture screenshots in HDR.
HDR screenshots use a different image format than traditional SDR screenshots. Apparently, somewhere in the iPhone → RCS → Android pipeline, those HDR screenshots were not being handled correctly.
That explains the otherwise ridiculous behavior:
Camera pictures worked, but screenshots didn’t.
MMS also worked because the image was being processed differently instead of traveling through the same RCS media path.
Fix iPhone Screenshots Not Downloading Over RCS
On the iPhone, go to:
Settings → General → Screen Capture → Format
Change the screenshot format to:
SDR
Take a new screenshot and send it over RCS.
That’s it.
No network reset. No wiping Messages data. No carrier support adventure. No sacrificing a goat to the GSMA.
Verification
After changing the iPhone screenshot format from HDR to SDR, newly captured screenshots successfully sent to the Galaxy S25 Ultra over RCS.
Regular camera photos continued working normally as well.
Lessons Learned
The biggest clue was that camera photos worked while screenshots didn’t.
If you’re troubleshooting RCS between an iPhone and Android device and only screenshots fail to download, check the iPhone’s screenshot format before spending hours troubleshooting RCS registration, APNs, carrier settings, or Google Messages.
Sometimes the problem isn’t RCS itself.
Sometimes your screenshot is just too ✨ HDR ✨ for the telecommunications industry.