diff --git a/zerver/lib/notifications.py b/zerver/lib/notifications.py
index 2e26411328..e4a62f5eac 100644
--- a/zerver/lib/notifications.py
+++ b/zerver/lib/notifications.py
@@ -90,6 +90,18 @@ def relative_to_full_url(base_url: Text, content: Text) -> Text:
     for container in inline_image_containers:
         container.drop_tree()
 
+    # The previous block handles most inline images, but for messages
+    # where the entire markdown input was just the URL of an image
+    # (i.e. the entire body is a message_inline_image object), the
+    # entire message body will be that image element; here, we need a
+    # more drastic edit to the content.
+    if fragment.get('class') == 'message_inline_image':
+        content_template = '<p><a href="%s" target="_blank" title="%s">%s</a></p>'
+        image_link = fragment.find('a').get('href')
+        image_title = fragment.find('a').get('title')
+        new_content = (content_template % (image_link, image_title, image_link))
+        fragment = lxml.html.fromstring(new_content)
+
     fragment.make_links_absolute(base_url)
     content = lxml.html.tostring(fragment).decode("utf-8")
 
diff --git a/zerver/tests/test_notifications.py b/zerver/tests/test_notifications.py
index dede8a0e44..537c3ff997 100644
--- a/zerver/tests/test_notifications.py
+++ b/zerver/tests/test_notifications.py
@@ -448,6 +448,18 @@ class TestMissedMessages(ZulipTestCase):
                           'title="avatar_103.jpeg">avatar_103.jpeg</a>.</p></div>'
         self.assertEqual(actual_output, expected_output)
 
+        # A message containing only an inline image URL preview, we do
+        # somewhat more extensive surgery.
+        test_data = '<div class="message_inline_image"><a href="https://www.google.com/images/srpr/logo4w.png" ' + \
+                    'target="_blank" title="https://www.google.com/images/srpr/logo4w.png">' + \
+                    '<img data-original="/thumbnail/https%3A//www.google.com/images/srpr/logo4w.png?size=0x0" ' + \
+                    'src="/thumbnail/https%3A//www.google.com/images/srpr/logo4w.png?size=0x100"></a></div>'
+        actual_output = relative_to_full_url("http://example.com", test_data)
+        expected_output = '<p><a href="https://www.google.com/images/srpr/logo4w.png" ' + \
+                          'target="_blank" title="https://www.google.com/images/srpr/logo4w.png">' + \
+                          'https://www.google.com/images/srpr/logo4w.png</a></p>'
+        self.assertEqual(actual_output, expected_output)
+
     def test_fix_emoji(self) -> None:
         # An emoji.
         test_data = '<p>See <span class="emoji emoji-26c8" title="cloud with lightning and rain">' + \