Reasons why images may not load for some subscribers

If your subscribers are reporting issues with images not loading in your email posts, there are several reasons this might occur. Before sending out any email, it's best practice to send a test email to preview how it will appear in different inboxes. This ensures that your email looks and functions as intended.

Beyond common deliverability issues, here are other reasons images might be blocked or fail to load for subscribers, along with tips to resolve them:

Email client settings

Some email clients may block images due to factors like sender reputation or security settings. Improving your sending reputation can reduce this risk, but it’s important to know that certain subscribers' email providers may block images automatically.

You can’t override these settings, so here’s how to address image blocking:

• Include a link to the web version of your email, which is automatically added by beehiiv.
• Set the alt attribute for all images when uploading them, ensuring a fallback description if images don’t load.
• Use a balanced mix of text and images instead of relying solely on images to convey your message.

Strict firewall settings

In organizations with strict firewall policies, such as government agencies, email servers may block images hosted on external domains like those used by beehiiv. To resolve this, firewall administrators will need to safelist the following image hosting domains:

• media.beehiiv.net
• *.beehiiv.com
• *.beehiiv.net

Subscriber privacy settings

Some subscribers may have privacy settings that block images by default. While you can’t control these settings, enabling double opt-in for your subscribers and encouraging them to adjust their preferences can help mitigate this issue.

Email size and clipping

Large emails may get clipped by certain providers like Gmail. beehiiv will notify you during the drafting process if your email is approaching the size limit, so you can adjust your content to prevent clipping and ensure all images load.