Home » Misc » How to avoid whatsapp images in gallery

How to avoid whatsapp images in gallery


How To Stop Whatsapp From Saving Photos In 2022

Home » How To » How To Stop WhatsApp From Saving Photos Automatically To Gallery Or Camera Roll On Android And iPhone

by Akshay Thapliyal

As an Amazon Associate and affiliate of other programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

WhatsApp has currently more than 1 billion users, where people send messages, share photos, videos, locations, and other files with their contacts.

As people receive long the WhatsApp app from the Play Store, followts of photos from their contacts, they look for ways to stop WhatsApp from saving pictures to the gallery. As there could be private or other personal photos that you do not want others to see when you hand over your phone to someone.

One way is to stop WhatsApp from Auto downloading photos and videos but still when a user views it on WhatsApp, it will appear in the Gallery. So to avoid that you can even hide WhatsApp images from Gallery or Camera Roll in Android and iPhone.

Contents

  • 1 Prevent WhatsApp Media From Saving To Camera Roll
    • 1.1 On iPhone (Video)
    • 1.2 On Android (Video)
  • 2 Stop WhatsApp From Saving Media Files Automatically
    • 2.1 On Android
    • 2.2 On iPhone
  • 3 FAQs
    • 3.1 Why WhatsApp photos are showing in gallery?
  • 4 Wrap Up

Prevent WhatsApp Media From Saving To Camera Roll

On iPhone (Video)

  1. In WhatsApp, tap on Settings.
  2. Now tap on the Chats option and look for the Save to Camera Roll feature.
  1. Now, tap on the toggle button to switch off the setting.

This will stop all the images from showing on the Camera Roll of your iPhone.

You can also watch this video:

On Android (Video)

After updating the WhatsApp app from the Play Store, follow the steps below.

You can change either default settings that will be applied to all your WhatsApp chats or you can set individual settings on per chat basis.

Change The Default Settings
  1. In WhatsApp, tap on 3 dots and select Settings.
  2. In Settings, tap on Chats.
  3. Here, you should find an option called Media Visibility. This is toggled on as default but you can toggle it off.

From now, the received media from all the Chats will stay in WhatsApp only and won’t show in your phone’s Gallery. The photos and videos received earlier when the setting was enabled will still be there and will only be applied to newly downloaded media.

It is also possible to configure the setting on a chat-to-chat basis.

Set Media Visibility For Individual Chats

The option you set above becomes the default one for all the chats. But there are always exceptions. You might want to show media from certain contacts in your Gallery or vice versa. You can do that as well. Here’s how.

  1. In WhatsApp, select the conversation of the desired contact or group.
  2. Tap on the name at the top to go to the Contact/Group Info screen.
  3. Here, tap on Media Visibility.
  1. Select the desired option and tap on OK to save changes.

Similarly, you can do so for other contacts as well.

We receive all sorts of photos and videos on WhatsApp that don’t deserve to be on our phone’s Gallery to be seen by everyone. To take care of this, you can go ahead and use the Media Visibility feature.

Video

You can also check our video:

Stop WhatsApp From Saving Media Files Automatically

As mentioned earlier WhatsApp also allows you to prevent from saving the images/videos automatically. If you are not aware of this setting then here we have shared the steps to stop WhatsApp from auto-downloading photos, videos, and other file types on Android and iPhone.

On Android

  1. In WhatsApp, go to Settings. 
  2. Next, tap on Storage and Data. Here you will find different options under the Media Auto-Download section: When using mobile data, When connected on Wi-Fi, When roaming.
  1. You can set different options for each one of them separately. For now, let’s tap on When using mobile data.
  2. Uncheck all the other options aside from Photos.
  3. Tap on OK to save the changes.

The type of media that you want to automatically download is up to you. You can adjust the settings according to your preference.

Similarly, you can prevent auto-saving when connected to Wi-Fi and when you are on roaming as well.

Also Read: How to Take WhatsApp Backup Using Mobile Data Instead Of WiFi

On iPhone

  1. In WhatsApp, go to the Settings tab at the bottom right.
  2. Now, tap on Storage and Data.
  1. Under the Media Auto-Download section you will be able to set the preferences for the different types of files: Photos, Audio, Videos, Documents.
    For the sake of this tutorial let’s tap on Photos.
  2. To stop the auto-download tap on Never.

You can do the same for other file types.

With this, the next time you receive a photo or video it won’t download until you tap on it to initialize the download.

If you happen to use WhatsApp for calling a lot then you can lower data usage on that too. Follow the steps here.

And if your WhatsApp notifications stopped working, read our instructions about how to fix it.

FAQs

Why WhatsApp photos are showing in gallery?

WhatsApp photos are showing in the gallery because your WhatsApp settings are set in such a way. to disable it, go to Settings > Storage and Data > Media auto-download and disable it.

Wrap Up

I hope the above methods helped Android and iPhone users to stop WhatsApp from saving pictures to Gallery or Camera Roll or disable auto-downloading of media. If you have a similar issue with the backup, read our post about how to stop WhatsApp backup.

If you want to know more tips and tricks for WhatsApp, check out this post. And if you are concerned about privacy such as who can see your Last Seen status, this article can help you.

If you have faced any issues while following the above steps, do let us know via comments.

Akshay Thapliyal

Akshay Thapliyal is the Co-founder of TechUntold and mainly looks into the strategic planning at TechUntold. He also loves writing articles on apps & problems he faces related to tech. Follow him on Twitter.

How to Prevent WhatsApp from Saving Images to Gallery

By default, WhatsApp saves received images and videos to your phone. This option can be extremely convenient, allowing you to easily save all the cool memes and group photos for later use. The downside is that your phone’s storage can quickly fill up, especially if you’re quite active on the app. In this article we show you how to disable WhatsApp from automatically saving photos to your phone’s gallery. Whether you own an Android or iOS device, you’ll have a firmer control over your device’s storage with this option turned off.

Content
  • How to Disable WhatsApp from Saving Photos on Android
  • How to Manually Save Images or Videos on Android
  • How to Prevent WhatsApp from Saving Photos on iOS
  • How to Manually Save Images or Videos on iOS
  • Alternative: Turn on Disappearing Messages for Select Chats
  • How to Manage Media Storage in WhatsApp for Android and iOS
  • Frequently Asked Questions

How to Disable WhatsApp from Saving Photos on Android

For WhatsApp on Android to not automatically save media to your phone, there are two settings you need to tweak. Note that you can disable these options only from the WhatsApp mobile app and not from the desktop client.

Turn Off All Media Auto-Download Options

  1. Open WhatsApp on your Android phone.
  2. Tap on the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner of the display.
  1. Select “Settings.”
  1. Select “Storage and data” from the menu.
  1. Find the “Media auto-download” section toward the bottom of the screen.
  1. Tap on each option and untick all the media options, then press “OK.”
  1. Note that voice messages are always automatically downloaded, so you won’t be able to change that.

Disable Media Downloads

Follow the steps below to disable media downloads.

  1. As shown above, launch WhatsApp and go to “Settings.”
  2. Select “Chats.”
  1. Find the “Media visibility” toggle in the list of options and turn it off. This will prevent newly downloaded media from showing in your phone’s gallery.
  1. You can also opt to have WhatsApp not show downloaded media just from select chats by opening WhatsApp and tapping on the profile picture of the targeted contact.
  1. Press on the “i” button on the card that appears.
  1. Tap “Media visibility.”
  1. Select “No” in the pop-up window.

How to Manually Save Images or Videos on Android

With this feature turned off, you may still want to save the occasional picture or video to your phone. Follow the instructions below to do that without much hassle.

  1. Open a WhatsApp chat with a photo or video.
  2. Tap on it to open it in preview.
  1. Press on the three dots in the upper-right corner.
  1. Select “Save” from the menu that appears.
  1. The photo or video should now be saved to your gallery.

How to Prevent WhatsApp from Saving Photos on iOS

Just like on Android, you’ll need to disable two options on iOS, although in this case, for the second one, you’ll have to make sure your iPhone is not saving images to the camera roll.

Turn Off All Media Auto-Download Options

  1. Open WhatsApp on your iOS device.
  2. Go to “Settings.”
  1. Select “Storage and Data.”
  1. Find the “Media Auto-Download” section.
  1. Tap on all the options, including “Photos,” “Audio,” “Video” and “Documents” and set them to “Never.”

Disable Save to Camera Roll

On iOS devices, photos you receive via WhatsApp are also saved to the camera roll. Even with the feature above disabled, your phone may still be holding on to images. Follow these steps to prevent your iPhone from saving WhatsApp images to the camera roll.

  1. Launch WhatsApp on your iPhone.
  2. Go to “Settings.”
  1. Select “Chats. ”
  1. Find the “Save to Camera Roll” toggle and turn it off.

How to Manually Save Images or Videos on iOS

Similarly to Android, you can still save the occasional picture or image, even if WhatsApp no longer saves ALL images to your Gallery.

  1. Open a chat in WhatsApp that contains the image or video you wish to download.
  2. Tap on it to open it in preview.
  1. Press on the share icon at the bottom.
  1. Select “Save” from the pop-up menu.

Alternative: Turn on Disappearing Messages for Select Chats

An alternative to disabling WhatsApp from saving messages sent in SOME chats is to turn on the disappearing messages option.

  1. On Android you can do so by opening WhatsApp and tapping on the profile pic for a group or person.
  2. Tap on the “i” button.
  1. Select “Disappearing messages” from the menu.
  1. Set the desired time for WhatsApp to delete the images and videos sent from the chat AND from your gallery.
  1. On iOS, you need to open a chat first.
  2. Tap on the contact’s name at the top.
  1. Select “Disappearing messages.”
  1. Choose your preferred option.

Keep in mind that even if WhatsApp initially saves the media to your phone, after the chosen time period has expired, it will no longer be available in your gallery.

How to Manage Media Storage in WhatsApp for Android and iOS

Now that you’ve disabled WhatsApp’s auto option to save pics to your phone, you still have to deal with the media you’ve accumulated so far. You can easily wipe out all large files via WhatsApp’s settings.

  1. In the WhatsApp app, go back to “Storage and Data” as shown in the previous sections.
  2. Select “Manage Storage” at the top.
  1. You’ll see a detailed breakdown of the media files you’ve already saved on your device.
  2. Tap on the “Larger than 5MB” option to view a list of large files you may want to delete to clear your storage.
  1. Select the images you wish to delete by tapping on them.
  1. Hit the Thrash icon in the upper-right corner to delete them from your phone. You should have a bit more storage on your handset now.
  2. Alternatively, if you wish to delete only media associated with a certain conversation, you can do so by opening the chat in question.
  3. Tap on the three dots in the upper-right corner.
  1. Select “Media, links, and docs” from the menu that pops up.
  1. In the Media section, manually select all the images you wish to delete by tapping on them.
  1. Press on the Trash icon in the upper-right corner.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How can I hide the WhatsApp folder from my Gallery?

Whether you’ve decided to allow WhatsApp to keep saving the images you receive or opted to manually save only the media that matters to you, a WhatsApp folder containing these will show up in your phone’s gallery. If you want to hide this folder, it’s possible. On Android, you just need to download a file manager/explorer app. Your phone’s default file manager might do the job, but in many cases it won’t.

An app such as File Manager will allow you to access your phone’s main storage. From there, find the WhatsApp folder and go to “Media.” Tap on “WhatsApp Images” and create a .nomedia file. Configure the manager to show you hidden files if you want to view them. You will no longer see the WhatsApp folder in your Gallery app.

2. Does Google Photos back up my WhatsApp files automatically?

Google Photos used to back up WhatsApp files automatically, but that’s no longer the default. If you want to reenable the feature, open “Photos” and go to “Library -> Photos on device -> View all” and select your “WhatsApp Images” folder. Toggle on the “Back up & sync” option at the top.

3. How can I keep my WhatsApp photos even though my phone’s storage is low?

You can regularly transfer your WhatsApp media to your PC by using a USB cable. Once you’ve secured your files, go back to your phone and delete the WhatsApp image and video folders. (They are separate folders in your gallery app.) To make sure your storage doesn’t fill up again, you’ll need to make these transfers on a regular basis. Alternatively, you can make a backup of specific chats (media included). Open a chat in WhatsApp and press on the three dots in the upper-right corner. Tap “More -> Export chat.” Send the exports to your email or to other social apps for safekeeping.

Image credit: Pexels

Alexandra Arici

Alexandra is passionate about mobile tech and can be often found fiddling with a smartphone from some obscure company. She kick-started her career in tech journalism in 2013, after working a few years as a middle-school teacher. Constantly driven by curiosity, Alexandra likes to know how things work and to share that knowledge with everyone.

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Our latest tutorials delivered straight to your inbox

Sign up for all newsletters.

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy and European users agree to the data transfer policy. We will not share your data and you can unsubscribe at any time.

What to do if WhatsApp photos are not saved in the gallery

One of the most common actions when using WhatsApp on Android is to send or receive photos. When we often send or receive photos with our friends and family, we usually exchange photos in the chats of the popular messaging app. Sadly, sometimes we don't save or display the photos we receive in WhatsApp on our Android phone. Often you may encounter this problem.

If WhatsApp doesn't display images in your Android phone's gallery, there are several possibilities we can try . Thanks to these innovations, we can eliminate this annoying error so that our mobile phone will show these images in the gallery again.

Postcode

  • 1 Have you hidden the WhatsApp album from the gallery?
  • 2 Internal memory full
  • 3 Automatic photo upload to WhatsApp
  • 4 Bad internet connection?
  • 5 Restart phone
  • 6 Update app
  • 7 Delete WhatsApp

Have you hidden WhatsApp album from gallery?

Las The images we receive on WhatsApp are stored in the gallery inside our phone. The photos in your phone with photos or albums are saved in a specific album in the photos app. If we open the WhatsApp image album in our photo gallery, we will see all the images that have been sent to us in our chats with this popular messaging app. If you are using an Android phone, you can see that the album in question is in another app. The album may have been accidentally hidden in the Android app.

If you have landed on this page, click on the three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the gallery app (in some apps they may be at the bottom). After that, the albums that are in the application will be displayed and the album containing your WhatsApp photos should be there. The album doesn't usually show up in the gallery, but if you see it coming out, it's just not visible. To display it, tap next to the switch.

Subscribe to our Youtube channel

When you first return to the Gallery app, you will probably see whatsapp photo album . You should regularly see all the images you have received in the messages app in this album.

Internal storage is full

One of the reasons for WhatsApp photos not showing up in the album is that your phone's internal storage is full. . It's not uncommon for storage to get full, especially if you have a phone with little storage. If you do not free up space on your device, you will no longer be able to store photos. However, it is possible that this is the cause of the problem, but we should check before doing so.

select storage configuration section on your Android phone (where it varies by brand). You will see if the storage is really full, which will prevent you from adding more data to it. Once you have full storage space on your phone, this will appear on the screen in addition to suggesting the space you need to free up.

Next step check if there is something you can delete in your phone gallery for whatsapp photos. An easy way to check if the storage is full is to check if you have a smartphone with little storage and need to monitor it regularly. You can also use apps to free up space automatically, or browse folder by folder to see if there's anything you don't need...

Automatic photo upload to WhatsApp

Las Photos sent to us can be automatically uploaded using WhatsApp , so it will be displayed immediately in the phone's gallery when receiving a photo. While many people turn this option off, partly to save data, but also to choose which files to upload so they don't have too many photos they don't need, some people turn off automatic image uploads. If you've disabled automatic image uploads, you won't see the photos in the gallery because they haven't actually been uploaded.

You can easily check whether this feature is enabled or disabled in your messaging program. You only need Follow these steps to display images in the panel:

  1. Open the WhatsApp application on your device.
  2. Then click on the 3 vertical dots in the top right corner.
  3. Go to Settings.
  4. Then go to the "Storage and use of data" section.
  5. There you should switch to automatic download.
  6. Finally, it allows you to automatically download files even if you are not connected to WiFi.

Bad internet connection?

The problem could be as simple as having problems connecting to the Internet. at the time, so whatsapp photos cannot be downloaded or saved in android phone gallery. If someone sends us an image that is too large and we have problems connecting to the Internet at that time, we will not be able to download and save this image on our phone. We can then see the status of our internet connection to check if we really have problems or if you just don't have internet.

Sometimes, unplug the phone, wait a few seconds and plug it back in. works well and allows us to store the photos we want to upload. We switch to another connection (data transfer to WiFi or vice versa) to see if this photo can be downloaded to the phone in this way.

Restart phone

Una the basic solution that you must have heard many times but the one that always works correctly is to close and reopen our android phone every time we restart the phone. The images that are sent to you on WhatsApp are not automatically saved to your gallery, but they will be if we restart the phone. Sometimes the problem is that the phone or apps are malfunctioning. Usually, rebooting the phone solves such problems.

Press and hold the power button in the start menu and restart the phone . Make sure the phone restarts and works properly again after clicking the Restart button. Check if the photos you uploaded are stored in WhatsApp album in phone gallery or not. Also check it on your messaging app to make sure you've downloaded them.

Update app

El the problem might be related to whatsapp we use in android . Some phones may start having performance issues if we use an older version of the app, like in this case where the photos are not showing up in the gallery. Although it is possible to check if there is an update for this application, we can check it. Updating the app to the latest version is one way to get rid of this annoying problem. We are usually allowed to store photos in the gallery with this application.

Users may experience problems after updating WhatsApp to the new Android version. If you notice that photos are not showing up in your gallery after installing a new version of WhatsApp, this might be the reason. By identifying these cases, we hope that their creators will release new versions, and if the current one fails, they will not be long in coming.

In addition to choosing between updates, we can reinstall the previous version of the application . To do this, you have to be careful and wait longer, but in the end it is very useful.

Uninstall WhatsApp

If this solution didn't work, there may be a more drastic solution that will require uninstalling the app from the phone and replacing it. This option is usually useful when there is some problem in one of the messaging apps and nothing helped to solve it. Also, it won't take long and will allow us to see our photos in the sanctuary again.

Al delete application , everything in it must be copied first. With this measure, you will not lose everything you talked about in it, or all the files that were sent to you in it. When you reinstall the app, you will be able to use the backup, so it will continue to show everything that was showing before you deleted it on your phone.


What to do if WhatsApp photos are not saved in the gallery

One of the most commonly used features of WhatsApp is sending photos or videos. . In our chats, we usually save the photos we receive on WhatsApp in the gallery of our Android phone. Unfortunately, we cannot find these photos in our mobile gallery.

This can be a real headache for those of us with Android. Luckily has some solutions which we can use to make WhatsApp photos reappear in the gallery. Also, as you can see, the methods we are going to discuss are really easy to use.

Article subject:

How to send messages to yourself on WhatsApp

Index

  • 1 WhatsApp images are not indexed in your photo gallery
  • 2 Whatsapp does not have permission to access the storage
  • 3 Internal storage is full
  • 4 Bad internet connection?
  • 5 Automatic photo download
  • 6 outdated WhatsApp

WhatsApp images are not indexed in your photo gallery


The images we receive in our WhatsApp conversations are saved in an album in our phone's gallery. The storage location may vary depending on the version of Android, although the image storage directory of this instant messaging application does not change: WhatsApp > Pictures .

Subscribe to our Youtube channel

When we open the "Photos" or "Gallery" applications, we can see that there are several photo albums , one of which is the aforementioned WhatsApp. The photos we receive in our chats appear in this album. If this album is not visible from the gallery, because it has not been indexed or because you have excluded the specified location from it, then they will remain hidden, as if they were not saved, but they are really saved.

To solve this problem, you need to go to Gallery app on your device. Then click on the three vertical dots which will give you access to the configuration of said application. And you will see the option "Hide/show albums". From there, make sure WhatsApp is visible, otherwise you'll have to hit the toggle to show it. Once this is done, the photos that were hidden in your gallery should reappear.

Whatsapp does not have permission to access storage

Another possible reason why WhatsApp is not saving images sent to you is that there are no permissions to write to the internal media. In these cases, the solution is very simple. You just need to follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings on your Android mobile device.
  2. Then scroll to Applications.
  3. Then click "Permissions".
  4. Again in permissions.
  5. A list of available permissions appears. Click Files and Media.
  6. You will see a list of applications that have access to them. Make sure Whatsapp is among them. Otherwise, give it permission to access.

Whatsapp will then have access to and be able to store the images that are sent to you from now on.

Internal memory is full

It is not uncommon for phones with limited storage capacity have problems saving WhatsApp photos. If you are using an Android device, your WhatsApp photos may not be displayed in your gallery because your phone's internal storage is full.

This is not the only reason why your gallery may not show your photos on whatsapp. For example, if your phone is running low on storage, it's not uncommon for it to max out. This may be the cause of the problem, but first you must determine if this is the case.

The location of the storage partition in android settings depends on the manufacturer. To see if your device's storage is full, you need to go to the settings menu and then find the storage section. If your phone's memory is full, you'll see a notification on the screen telling you to free up some space. Try to make it so that you can still get images from an app owned by Meta.

Al remove the apps you don't need or the files you don't need or the ones you have duplicates you will let you save whatsapp photos back to your android device's picture gallery. You will need to check the storage capacity of your smartphone frequently if you are low on storage space. You can always save your files in the cloud to keep your mobile storage free.

Bad internet connection?

For those who are having trouble downloading and saving WhatsApp photos to their gallery on Android, you probably have a bad internet connection . If we receive a heavy photo from someone and our internet connection is interrupted, we will not be able to download this photo or save it to our phone's gallery. But this will not be possible if we have problems connecting to the Internet.

To find out if we have an Internet connection, we must check it at the moment with the application developed for it. We can also switch connection (for example, switching from data to WiFi or vice versa) to see if the photo can be downloaded to the phone. If that doesn't work, try rebooting or unplugging your phone, waiting a few seconds and re-plugging it in, this is an effective way to upload the photo in question, for example.

Automatic photo uploads

Downloads are configured so that we can see the photos that are sent to us directly in the phone's gallery. Many WhatsApp 9 users0005 disable this feature to avoid data usage and save storage space, and download only the photos you want to have on your device.

photos are not displayed in the gallery if automatic image upload is disabled in whatsapp. You can enable this feature again in the messaging app to view photos on your phone. Here we explain how to do it:

  1. First of all, open the WhatsApp application on your phone.
  2. Then click on the three dots to access WhatsApp settings.
  3. Enter settings.
  4. Go to Data storage and usage.
  5. From there, you will need to select automatic download.
  6. This allows you to automatically download media using WiFi and data, and that's it.

Article subject:

How to restore WhatsApp backup on Android

outdated WhatsApp

There are different reasons why this problem can occur on our Android device. Some older versions of the app they may encounter issues such as photos not showing up in the mobile gallery.

We can check if there is a update for this app on Google Play if we are using an older version. Updating the app to the latest version usually fixes these kinds of issues. We can usually save these photos to the gallery using this method.

Although not as common, it is also possible that problems occurred after updating to the new version of WhatsApp for Android. If you think that this is the case and the photos are no longer saved and displayed in the gallery after installing the new version of the application, you may be right.

If this happens, you can wait for the developers to release a new version. Yes new versions cause problems for users, patches are usually released pretty quickly. However, this does not cease to be a nuisance at a time when there is no solution to this problem.

Learn more