I had the same problem. I contacted Tracfone through their technical support chat. The tech support guy told me to turn my phone off and turn it back on again, and it worked! My brother just texted me a picture and a video and both downloaded and displayed perfectly!

@Courtney_53776 and @Brenda_64233 please check if you are getting 3G signals and internet connection. As ruthe_66103 may be right.

I bought 2 of these after reading the features which say you can receive texts with pictures. I have contacted Alcatel and Tracfone, neither Tracfone or Alcatel can help me adjust settings so I can send texts with pictures, I can receive them, but it does no good, I can't open them. A person at Tracfone told me if I can't get 3G (and I can't), I can not even open texts with pictures.

My phone also has been able to download picture messages since I have had it, but since about 3 days ago, when I try to download a photo someone has sent to me, it says "connection timeout" and fails to download. I am still able to send photos, but I can't receive from others anymore. I hope someone can help us figure this out, and quickly.