Can’t download photos sent from friends via imessage

I have looked all over the internet for a solution to this and I’ve found nothing; so here I am. I can’t download pictures sent from friends via iCloud. I can try to download them and it just says that they’re already being downloaded in cloud. It downloaded 20 of them fine and then stopped. It hasn’t chanced from (20 saved) in almost a day. I’ve tried restarting my phone. Also have tried turning ‘messages’ on and off in iCloud settings. Anybody have any ideas?