Categories: Privacy

Why Does WhatsApp Save Every Single Picture You Receive?

WhatsApp saves all of the photos you receive by automatically downloading them to your phone’s gallery. While this ensures that you’ll never miss a photo, this feature also eats up a lot of your phone’s memory. To get rid of photos and video you no longer want to keep, use WhatsApp Cleaner. The Cleaner creates more storage space on your phone by helping you delete photos you no longer want to keep. Click here to make more room on your phone:

If you want to remove all WhatsApp files — in addition to photos — to free up space on your device, WhatsApp Cleaner will allow you to quickly do so. WhatsApp Cleaner will also allow you to select which files you want to remove, so that you can keep an occasional photo or two.

But why does WhatsApp insist on saving all of these photos? According to WhatsApp, photos are saved so that users can have quick access to their latest photos. This is certainly true; but if WhatsApp saving your photos has become more trouble than it’s worth, turn off photo-saving with these simple steps below.

How to Stop Downloads of Pictures

Navigate to WhatsApp and click on the three dots on the right-hand corner of the screen to go to the app’s “Settings.”
From there, click on “Chat settings” and then “Media auto-download.”
Under “Media auto-download,” you’ll see three options: “When using cellular data,” “When connected on Wi-Fi,” and “When roaming.”
If you never want WhatsApp to auto-download, tap on each of these three options and then uncheck the “Images” box next to each one. You can also uncheck “Video” if you want to stop WhatsApp from downloading videos.

How to Stop WhatsApp from Saving Photos to Your Phone’s Gallery

Note: This will not stop WhatsApp from saving your photos to your phone’s gallery; instead, it will hide your WhatsApp photos in your gallery.

Download a file explorer for WhatsApp from the Google Play Store.
Navigate to WhatsApp. Once there, open “Media” and then “WhatsApp Images.”
In “WhatsApp Images,” create a file called “.nomedia.”
If you wish to display your photos in your gallery, delete the file and your photos will again be displayed in your gallery.

WhatsApp’s automatic photo-saving can ensure that you’ll never miss a photo. But it also means that your WhatsApp photos can take up too much space on your phone. To keep WhatsApp’s file-saving manageable, be sure to regularly use WhatsApp Cleaner — and perhaps turn off WhatsApp’s photo-saving feature altogether.

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The dfndr blog is an informative channel that presents exclusive content on security and privacy in the mobile and business world, with tips to keep users protected. Populated by a select group of expert reporters, the channel has a partnership with dfndr lab's security team. Together they bring you, first-notice news about attacks, scams, internet vulnerabilities, malware and everything affecting cybersecurity.