How to not save pictures from whatsapp

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.

3. Select “Settings.”

4. Select “Storage and data” from the menu.

5. Find the “Media auto-download” section toward the bottom of the screen.

6. Tap on each option and untick all the media options, then press “OK.”

7. 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.”

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. Press on the “i” button on the card that appears.

6. Tap “Media visibility.”

7. 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.

3. Press on the three dots in the upper-right corner.

4. Select “Save” from the menu that appears.

5. 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.”

3. Select “Storage and Data.”

4. Find the “Media Auto-Download” section.

5. 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.”

3. Select “Chats. ”

4. 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.

3. Press on the share icon at the bottom.

4. 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.

3. Select “Disappearing messages” from the menu.

4. 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.

3. Select “Disappearing messages.”

4. 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.

3. You’ll see a detailed breakdown of the media files you’ve already saved on your device.
4. Tap on the “Larger than 5MB” option to view a list of large files you may want to delete to clear your storage.

5. Select the images you wish to delete by tapping on them.

6. 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.
7. Alternatively, if you wish to delete only media associated with a certain conversation, you can do so by opening the chat in question.
8. Tap on the three dots in the upper-right corner.

9. Select “Media, links, and docs” from the menu that pops up.

10. In the Media section, manually select all the images you wish to delete by tapping on them.

11. 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.

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Tips to Stop WhatsApp Saving Photos Automatically on iPhone/Android

“Can someone tell me how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos automatically on my phone? I have joined a lot of groups on WhatsApp, and every day I get so many unwanted photos on my phone!”

If you have a similar query about the automatic saving of media files on WhatsApp, you have come to the right place. This is a question asked by a friend of mine – but millions of other WhatsApp users also encounter a similar issue.

Presently, the default settings on WhatsApp automatically download the shared media files on the device which takes up a lot of space. If you want to de-clutter your phone, then you should learn how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on iPhone and Android. In this guide, I will clear the same double about WhatsApp media storage in a step-by-step manner.

Part 1: How to Stop WhatsApp From Saving Photos on iPhone

Part 2: How to Stop WhatsApp From Saving Photos on Android

Part 1: How to Stop WhatsApp From Saving Photos on iPhone

WhatsApp provides a smart and hassle-free solution to disable the auto-download feature for photos and videos on iPhone. A lot of times, the automatic download feature makes our Camera Roll cluttered and it even ends up consuming a lot of space on the device. Additionally, the saved WhatsApp photos on your Camera Roll can consume a lot of space on your iCloud Photo Library as well. To fix this and learn how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on iPhone automatically, follow these easy steps:

1. To start with, just unlock your iOS device and launch WhatsApp on it by tapping on the app’s icon from its home.
2. Once the WhatsApp application is opened, tap on the gear icon at the bottom to visit its settings.
3. From WhatsApp Settings, go to the “Data and Storage Usage” settings and under the “Media Auto-Download” feature, turn off the option for photos, videos, audios, and documents. For instance, just tap on the “Photos” field here and toggle off the option.
4. If you don’t want the downloaded photos to appear in the Camera Roll, then go to WhatsApp Settings > Chats and disable the “Save to Camera Roll” feature.

That’s it! By following these simple steps, you can learn how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on iPhone automatically. Not just photos, you can also disable the auto-download feature for videos, audios, and documents as well. Afterward, whenever you would receive a photo on WhatsApp, you need to tap on the download icon to save it on your phone.

Part 2: How to Stop WhatsApp From Saving Photos on Android

Just like iPhone, WhatsApp also provides a feature to disable the auto-download option for media files on Android. The default option for this is turned on and thus, it will keep consuming your device storage or clutter your phone’s gallery. Here are different ways that you can follow to learn how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on Samsung or any other Android phone.

1. Firstly, go to the WhatsApp application on your Android and visit its settings by tapping on the three-dot (hamburger) icon on the top.

2. Now, browse to Settings > Data and Storage Usage to find the “Media auto-download” section for different options (like WiFi, Mobile Data, and Roaming).

3. If you wish to disable the auto-download feature for WiFi, then tap on the same option and just turn off the download feature for photos (or any other media file). In the same way, you can disable the auto-download option for mobile data and roaming as well.

4. WhatsApp also allows us to not show the downloaded photos on the phone’s main Gallery. For this, go to its Settings > Chats and just turn off the Media Visibility option.

5. If you don’t want the downloaded WhatsApp photos to appear in your phone’s Gallery, then you can also go to its File System > Storage > WhatsApp > WhatsApp Images. Here, you can create a new file, name it “.nomedia” and save it. Later, you can delete the file to make WhatsApp photos appear on your phone’s Gallery again.

In this way, you can learn how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on Samsung or any other Android device. While the process would be the same, you might encounter a slight change in the overall interface.

Part 3: Backup your photos to a computer to avoid loss after rejecting auto-save

We all use WhatsApp to share tons of photos with our friends and family. If you also have a lot of important pictures and videos that you don’t want to lose, then consider taking a backup of your WhatsApp data on your computer. To do this, you can take the assistance of MobileTrans -WhatsApp Transfer (a part of the MobileTrans). It is a user-friendly DIY tool that can back up the entire WhatsApp data to your computer. This would include its messages, shared media content, contacts, and more. Later, you can even restore your WhatsApp data to the device of your choice.

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1. To back up your WhatsApp data, connect your phone to the computer and launch the MobileTrans toolkit on it. From its home, you can tab the “Phone to Phone” module.

2. Under the "Phone to Phone" section, you will be presented with different options. Simply go to the “WhatsApp Transfer” once your device gets connected.

3. Click on the Backup button again and wait for a while as the application would start taking a complete backup of your WhatsApp data.

4. Simply wait for a while for the process to be completed and don’t disconnect your device in between. When the backup is stored successfully, you will be notified.

5. In the end, you can remove your device safely or view the backup. You can later choose to restore the WhatsApp backup to your phone from here as well.

That’s it, everyone! Now when you know how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on iPhone and Android automatically, you can easily turn this feature off. The guide has listed dedicated solutions for both Android and iPhone for your convenience. Apart from that, you can also take the assistance of MobileTrans -WhatsApp Transfer to take a backup of your WhatsApp photos and chats. It can also be used to restore an existing backup or directly transfer WhatsApp data from one phone to another. If you are a regular WhatsApp user and don’t want to lose your chats, then it will be a must-have application for you!

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