How To Stop WhatsApp From Downloading Photos, Videos Automatically

More than 100 billion messages are sent between WhatsApp users each day, with an average user spending 38 minutes per day on the app using an Android smartphone.

It is not only texts that are sent through the social media app, users also send photos and videos, individually or between WhatsApp groups, the latter witnessing more messages, photos and videos sent on a real-time basis.

Many users however know that when they receive media messages, WhatsApp will automatically download the media (photos, audio, videos or documents) sent to their device and store it in their phone's gallery or files.

Despite this being a reasonable feature for saving media files to view later, it can sometimes get annoying especially if the content unnecessarily fills up the limited storage space on your phone.

Screengrabs of how to stop auto-downloads on WhatsApp for Android. /TENORSHARE

You must be wondering how you can stop WhatsApp from automatically downloading media files on your phone to prevent massive cluttering on your gallery and files, especially with content that you don't need.

Viral Tea takes a look at how to turn off auto-download in WhatsApp so that your phone storage won't be filled up quickly:

Disable Auto-Download for Android

WhatsApp will automatically download images over your cellular connection to provide you with quick access to your latest photos. To disable this feature:

1. Open WhatsApp on your Android phone.
2. Tap the three dots on the top-right corner, select Settings and then open Storage and Data.
3. Under the "Media auto-download" section, tap on each option and uncheck all the media types from the pop-up menu.
4. Tap OK to save the changes.

For those looking for a quicker way to disable the auto-download feature, Go to Settings, then Chats and turn off the toggle for Media Visibility. The downloaded media won't be shown in the gallery.

For groups:

1. Open WhatsApp and open a group you'd like to stop auto-downloading for.
2. Tap on the 3 dots in the top-right corner of the group and select Group info.
3. Find and tap on Media visibility.
4. Change the auto download settings from Default (Yes) to No.
5. Tap "OK".

Disable Auto-Download for iPhone

WhatsApp will automatically download images over your cellular connection to provide you with quick access to your latest photos, according to the app's blog post. Audio and video will automatically download only on Wi-Fi.

Here's how to turn off media auto download in WhatsApp on iPhone.

• Open WhatsApp on your iPhone.
• Go to Settings then Storage and Data.
• Under the label "Media Auto-Download", set each option – Photos, Audio, Video, and Documents to "Never".

If you want to stop WhatsApp from saving photos only, here is an alternative way: Go to Settings then Chats and turn off the switch for Save to Camera Roll.

By doing so, you will stop WhatsApp from automatically saving received photos and videos to your iPhone's Camera Roll.

For groups:

When you disable auto-download in the group, media received from this group won't be downloaded to your phone's storage, but it will still be visible on WhatsApp.

Here's how to stop auto download in the WhatsApp group for iPhone.

1. Open WhatsApp and tap the group you'd like to stop auto-download of photos and videos.
2. Tap the title of the group.
3. Tap "Save to Camera Roll" and set it to "Never".