I'm unable to send or receive images on Whatsapp.
This only happens with mobile data. It works fine with Wifi.
I checked all over my phone to make sure I hadn't blocked images from being downloaded when on mobile data. There are a few places for that. The one within Whatsapp settings doesn't seem to be working anyway - I had unchecked wifi but it still downloaded pics when the phone was connected to wifi.
I even unchecked and checked the boxes for both mobile data and wifi, enabled all the system apps I had disabled for mobile data, updated the phone and whatsapp and restarted my phone a few times. All in vain.
I thought it might also be the nature of the mobile connection but it didn't work in another geo location.

I uninstalled and installed Whatsapp again but was unable to get the app to verify my phone number. So I did a factory reset on my phone and then synced all the info from the cloud. I was able to get Whatsapp to install correctly this time but still can't receive or send images when on mobile data.

Anything else I could try? I'm thinking of trying another factory reset without any sync first.

Phone is a Redmi Note 5A Prime running Android 7.1.2 and MIUI Global 11.0.2.
Under SIM status, it says Mobile network state is disconnected.

If it's not a phone setting that is limiting access, then it may be a bug in Whatsapp.

Since Whatsapp is proprietary software provided by Facebook, that's who you need to talking to for support.

You can get in contact with them here: https://www.whatsapp.com/contact/?subject=messenger

I'll try that because I had not made any changes to my phone or Whatsapp in the last few days.

In whatsapp settings under "Storage and Data" --> The screen has an option --> "When using mobile data"
Here you can multiple choice select among following four.

• Photos
• Audio
• Videos
• Documents.

Please check the options.

I use whatsapp on a samsung Galaxy.

Also please enable mobile network on the SIM card.

AP

I've tried this option many times, checking and unchecking the boxes, restarting the phone, uninstalling and re-installing Whatsapp.
Unfortunately this doesn't work. In fact, even with wi-fi unchecked here as a test, the pictures were still being downloaded via wifi!

When connected on wifi is a different (the next) option but I guess you saw that.

Did you try to change the SIM status?

AP

I did not try to change the SIM status. How do I do this and what is it?

By the way, Whatsapp came back to me and said it might be an issue with the mobile data service provider.
I initially thought that might be the case as I had not made any changes to the phone when this error started, but given the wi-fi options are not working correctly, this may well be an error within Whatsapp..

Check with WhatsApp web developers. And it's odd that only you are facing this issue among your knowns, due to poor connectivity it can happen. Try to insert your sim in another phone and then try it.

If your network connection is not stable, and the signal is weak, WhatsApp may fail to download media files. Make sure you've got a stable connection and enough bandwidth to download the respective files. If this issue occurs when using cellular data, check if the problem persists on a wireless connection

It is possible for the data transfer rate to have an effect on it. You could also try using your SIM card in a different phone before attempting to use it.

I had a similar issue with WhatsApp images not showing up on my Android phone. After some research, I found out that it was due to a bug in the app's cache. To fix it, I cleared the cache and data of the WhatsApp app from the Settings menu, and then restarted the app. This solved the problem for me. However, if this doesn't work for you, you could try uninstalling and reinstalling WhatsApp, or checking if there are any updates available for the app. Hope this helps!