How to Stop WhatsApp From Auto Downloading Media Contents – WhatsApp has a lot of users, proof of its great features making it one of the best instant messaging apps. The core functionality of WhatsApp is to send messages instantly and messages can comprise of written characters, stickers, emojis, or media contents.
The frustrating feature about sending or receiving media content on WhatsApp is the fact that it automatically saves the files to your device. In due time, this will fill up your device’s memory; mostly with contents, you have no idea why they are on your device anyway.
Then follows the part where you start deleting angrily, looking to free up some space on your device. You could avoid all these issues just by following some simple steps we are going to put you through below.
How to Stop Auto-Save Media Contents On WhatsApp Groups
Open WhatsApp on your device and get into the groups dropping those space-eating photos and videos automatically saving to your device’s memory. Then tap on the three dots icon at the top right corner of the group’s chat page.
Select “Group Info” on the drop-down menu thus taking you to a new page. Next, click on “Media Visibility” and subsequently select “No”.
This will stop WhatsApp from saving the group’s media to your device. Repeat this process for all groups whose media files you really like to stop seeing on your device’s memory.
Also, Read WhatsApp Group New Update – Facebook Fix WhatsApp Group Issue
How to Stop WhatsApp Auto-Download
The WhatsApp mobile app is available for IOS and Android devices thus this guide will show you how to stop auto-download on WhatsApp for IOS and Android devices. The app was only made available to desktop devices (Mac & Windows) late last year and not many people are familiar with this.
Most desktop WhatsApp users still use WhatsApp web which is great because it’s doesn’t autosave anything. The only way to save media content on the WhatsApp web will be to download it manually.
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Android
Open WhatsApp on your Android device and go through with the steps below;
- Tap on the ellipsis (three-dotted) icon at the top right corner of your WhatsApp conversation page.
- From the pop-up menu, select “Settings”.
- You will then be directed to your profile page where you should select “Data and Storage Usage”.
- Navigate to the “Media auto-download” section and select a network condition you wish to. For the purpose of this guide make sure to go through all.
- Then uncheck all the kinds of enlisted media contents that are enabled to auto-download.
IOS
Open WhatsApp on your IOS device and follow the steps below;
- Tap on the ellipsis (three-dotted) icon at the top right corner of your WhatsApp conversation page.
- From the pop-up menu, select “Settings”.
- On the next page, tap on “Data and Storage Usage”.
- Tap on “Photos” and disable the option to stop downloading photos automatically. Do this for all other kinds of media content.
To confirm if it worked, after disabling or unchecking the necessary boxes you would see a “No Media” tag under the auto-download section. This means on no condition will any media files ever be auto-saved to your device’s memory from WhatsApp again.
