iOS 26 - message photo and links tab missing, message search not working

I’ve been rocking on ios 18 and my phone decided to upgrade iOS 26 in the middle of the night 4 days ago. All of my contacts either had half the photos and links missing or none. (Note - I never had messages saved on iCloud, I just had them saved “forever” right on my phone storage)

I tried everything I could find to get the rest of my stuff with no luck so today I ended up resetting my phone and restoring the last backup where I knew I had these things attached to my messages. No luck, it got even worse , no more half photos, all photos and links tabs are gone on every contact.

I just tried updating to iOS 26.3.1 and that didn’t help with anything either. The search in messages is also working horrifically.

Is there any tech genius out there that can help me?! I’m going to lose my mind. 😵‍💫🙃🤞