Receiving blurry, pixelated mms photos

I recently transferred from an Iphone to a Note 20. The Note20 is a carrier unlocked phone from AT&T. 

Recently I have been having an issue with receiving photos from anybody on my contacts. Any time I receive a photo or other mms, it is super blurry, pixelated and illegible. I have tried various things to try and fix this issue to no avail. Below are some of the things I have tried to test this issue and the results.

I have sent various photos of different file sizes to myself through text on both the pre-installed samsung messages app as well as using the Google messages app. I have sent a photo with sizes 14kb, 128kb, and 365kb. I have sent these images both on and off wifi with at least 4 bars of 4G connectivity. 

For the Samsung messages app: (assume all images are either illegible or original image was unable to be identified)

• The 14kb image was received as 12kb 
• The 128kb image was received as 30kb 
• The 365kb image was received as 29kb

After some additional testing it seems that images sent that are larger than 30kb get received as 30kb and images smaller are received at their original file size or a couple kb smaller and also the quality is diminished and pixelated even for the smallest of images. 

For the Google Messages app with Wifi *ON*: (assume all images are either illegible or original image was unable to be identified)

• The 14kb image was received as 12kb 
• The 128kb image was received as 27kb (This image took 18min to complete sending)
• The 365kb image was received as 25kb

For the Google Messages app with Wifi *OFF*:

• The 14kb image was received as 13kb 
• The 128kb image was received as 28kb
• The 365kb image was received as 366kb the very first time ONLY. Any subsequent images were received as ~28kb-30kb.

This was something strange that happened. The very first image sent with wifi turned off (the 365kb image) was received as 366kb and also retained its original picture quality. This image had perfect clarity and was received as intended. Since the image was able to be received as intended on the largest image, this suggests that it is not a compression issue with the image being too large for the network, but rather something else causing it.  However any image sent thereafter was again received completely pixelated and illegible following this pattern of approx. 30kb. 

Other methods used to try and fix this issue:

1. Cleared cache for all apps through the software.
2. Reset all network settings.
3. Force reset of the phone
4. Cleared cache for all apps through android recovery

*All image tests were preformed again after each of these were completed with similar results.*

Conclusion: As you can see I am pretty determined to try and get this resolved. After all of the troubleshooting I have done, I have not been able to fix this issue or replicate the singular time that the image was received without any defects. I do not know what is causing this issue or why I am unable to receive photos, videos, or other Multi-media messages without it being blurry and pixelated beyond recognition. This issue is very annoying as I frequently am sent images from friends, family, and co-workers, although now I am unable to see what they are. Since I do not use any form of social media I do not have any other way for images to be sent to me other than e-mail which has issues of its own with a major factor being the inconvenience. 

I hope someone can help me resolve this issue before I decide to return the phone. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.