How to disable saving photos in WhatsApp on Android. How does WhatsApp clog up your smartphone’s memory and what to do? How to disable automatic saving of WhatsApp photos

When someone sends you a photo on WhatsApp and it has been downloaded, the image is automatically saved in the device's memory. Accordingly, images take up free space, and if there are thousands of them... It is not surprising that people are wondering how to prevent saving photos on their smartphone. What can be done?

Almost nothing. According to the WhatsApp messenger FAQ, the only thing you can do is hide the display of photos in the gallery. Yes, they will still be saved on the device, but will not appear in the gallery.

To hide the display of photos, you need to create a .nomedia file in the folder where your WhatsApp images are located. To do this, open the file manager, you can use the one built into the firmware. If there is none, open the Play Market, enter it in the search file manager and choose the app you like best.

In our example, we use File Manager+. Let's launch.

Open the internal memory of the device.

Find the WhatsApp folder and tap on its name.

Click Media.

Now - WhatsApp Images.

Here we click on the settings button (three dots in our example).

Then “New” - “File”.

Set the file name .nomedia- exactly like that, with a period! Click OK.

The file has been created, from now on the images will not be reflected in the gallery.

By the way, in some cases the .nomedia file is not reflected in folders, but when creating another file with the same name, the error “This file already exists” appears. This means that it is hidden, it needs to be reflected through the file manager settings. Deleting the .nomedia file will make hidden WhatsApp images in the gallery visible.

The automatic saving mode in the free WhatsApp messenger does not suit all users. Dissatisfaction is caused by taking up large amounts of device memory and downloading unnecessary photos and media. In this article, we'll look at how to enable and disable the autosave file option.

How to save photos from WhatsApp?

Each device has its own instructions for saving photos from WhatsApp. You can unload a full system like this: copy applications to an SD card, thereby freeing up space on your phone.

Save to gallery on your phone

1. When you first launch WhatsApp, the system asks the user if access to personal media files is allowed.
2. Go to “Settings”—“Data”—tick the media download command.

To save photos on Whatsapp in the iPhone gallery, here are the instructions:

1. When installing, allow access to personal photos.
2. Enter the settings menu.
3. Find the “Data and Storage” tab.
4. Activate the “Save Media” command.

You can save photos when it opens separately in the chat.

On the computer

It's easy to transfer photos from WhatsApp to your computer. The first method is wireless transmission. However, Bluetooth is not present on all devices.

The second method is to upload photos by connecting a USB cable to your computer:

1. Tag the photo on your phone.
2. Send—“Mail”—specify your email address.
3. Open your email and download the photo to your PC.

The following algorithm for downloading pictures from Whatsapp will be like this:

1. Connect your phone to your computer.
2. Log in to “My Computer”.
3. Find your mobile gadget.

Attention!Whatsapp can be located in the internal memory or on the card.

1. Next, find the WhatsApp root folder.
2. Then open whatsapp media whatsapp images.

All that remains is to select the necessary files and transfer them to the laptop.

Where are WhatsApp photos saved by default?

Photos in WhatsApp are saved by default in /WhatsApp/media/WhatsApp Images.

Photos from Whatsapp load your phone a lot, what should I do?

The free WhatsApp messenger has a built-in automatic function: upload photos to your mobile gadget. Saving all media files places a significant load on the system, which can cause unexpected crashes in the application.

Below in the text we will look at ways to configure the storage location for files.

Save photos and media files to a specified location for quick cleaning.

To save photos and media, you can create a specific folder into which all files will be downloaded. The algorithm will be as follows:

How to save photos to cloud storage (Google Drive or iCloud)?

In order for photos to be saved on Android in the Google Drive virtual cloud storage, you need to do a number of actions:

1. Login to WhatsApp.
2. Select "Settings".
3. Find "Chats".
4. Select "Chat backup".
5. Set up a Google account to which the content will be saved. Click “Use” and select the download network.

To save to iCloud, the following instructions apply:

1. Open iCloud.
2. Go to settings and select iCloud.
3. Log in to settings in WhatsApp.
4. Select "Chats" - "Copy".

All that remains is to make a copy and the files are saved in the cloud.

Configure saving files to a memory card.

In WhatsApp, you cannot manually configure files to be saved to a flash card due to the lack of technical capabilities. Below in the text we will consider ways to circumvent this prohibition.

Android

To configure saving a file to a flash drive, you need to follow these steps step by step:

1. Download and install the Android Folder Mount program.
2. Confirm the root rights request.
3. In the menu at the top right, select the plus sign.
4. In the Name field, enter any name.
5. Add the WhatsApp folder from the device’s internal memory to “Sorce”.
6. In the “Destination” section, select a folder on the external SD drive.
7. Activate the “Exclude from media scan” option by ticking so that files are not duplicated in the phone’s memory.

All that remains is to confirm the actions and click on the “Yes” button.

iPhone

The iPhone cannot insert a memory card. For convenient use, the developers have provided a USB flash drive. Such a connected device will help relieve the iPhone. The instructions for using removable media are simple: connect to your computer using the free iXpand Sync application, transfer the files to your laptop.

How to prevent photos from WhatsApp from being saved?

Let's look at step-by-step instructions on how to prevent photos from WhatsApp from being saved on Android and iPhone.

Android

To disable autosave on Android there is a scheme:

1. Log in to WhatsApp.
2. Select "Settings".
3. Find the “Data” section.
4. Set up startup in any way: mobile network, Wi-Fi.

All you have to do is uncheck the “Photo” box. Disabled media will not be saved.

iPhone

To disable automatic downloads on iPhone, there is a step-by-step algorithm:

1. Open WhatsApp by selecting settings.
2. Enter the “Chat Settings” section.
3. Move the slider in “Save incoming files” to the inactive position.

How can I get autosave back after it's been disabled? (if you disable it according to point 4, how can I get everything back?)

To activate auto-upload of photos on Android, you need to perform a number of operations:

1. Open Whatsapp.
2. Expand "Settings".
3. Select “Data” and download method.
4. Check the “Photo” box.

For iPhone, the algorithm is as follows:

1. Login to Whatsapp.
2. Open the settings menu.
3. Select "Chat Settings".
4. Move the slider for saving incoming files to the active position.

Problems uploading photos

Users often have problems downloading photos. Why this happens, we will consider below in the text.

Why are photos from WhatsApp not saved to the “photos” folder?

Photos are not saved from WhatsApp to Photos due to lack of free memory space. Solution: delete unnecessary files and try saving again.

To upload a media file, allow the WhatsApp application to access the photo

When you open WhatsApp for the first time, you must allow access to media files using step-by-step steps:

For iPhone:

1. Select iPhone Settings.
2. Open "Privacy".
3. Find "Photos" - "Whatsapp".

For Android:

1. Open WhatsApp.
2. Allow the application to access photos and media on the device.

WhatsApp does not save photos to gallery

The messenger does not save photos due to deactivation of media autosave. You can activate the function like this:

1. Open WhatsApp.
2. Select "Settings"
3. Find "Chats".
4. Enable Save Media feature

If technical problems arise, you can contact the service center for help.

In this material you will learn how to disable saving photos in Whatsapp. Messenger is the most popular in the world and has held this title for many years. It became popular due to the ability to communicate with anyone at a great distance. At the same time, messages arrive in a matter of seconds; it is enough to have even a weak Internet connection and you will be able to transfer and receive files.

There are a large number of similar programs, but WhatsApp is the most popular and most functional. In the CIS countries it is not as widespread as, for example, in Europe and America. The share of WhatsApp users in these regions is more than 70%. In Russia it competes with Viber, other analogues lag too far behind to be cited as an example.

Thanks to its functionality and versatility, it was able to achieve incredible success and demand. The program does not require any investment, so everyone can use it absolutely free. Can be installed on both smartphones with Android OS and iPhone. There are special versions for other devices, for example, personal computers on different platforms.

Disable autosaving of photos

Autosaving photos is a very useful thing, but at the same time, these files begin to clog the memory of your mobile device. Not all of them can boast large volumes, so the issue of autosaving is important. Most users disable this feature precisely because of lack of memory. Therefore, just follow the instructions and after these steps, WhatsApp will not save the files itself.

If the following instructions did not help to disable autosaving of photos, use the following solution to this problem:

Be careful, as this operation will hide all your photos located in the WhatsApp Image folder in the Gallery. And if you want to return the display of your photos to the gallery in the future, then simply delete the .nomedia file.

With this simple action you can completely abandon the autosave procedure, which constantly clogs up your phone. Now there will be plenty of memory, and you won’t be surprised where it constantly disappears.

The default process of sharing photos via WhatsApp involves automatically saving media files to the memory of the recipient's device when they are opened in the messenger application. This approach is largely justified, but it can cause certain inconveniences and is often assessed negatively by users. In this article we will look at all aspects of using the function of uploading photos received via WhatsApp to the storage of Android devices and the possibility of configuring its operation.

With the default settings, when you open an image in , it is automatically saved to the device storage and later displayed in the Gallery of your smartphone or tablet. Later in the article, we will first consider setting a ban on the implementation of these two possibilities, and in the final third part of the material we will demonstrate how to clear the device’s memory of media files already downloaded from WhatsApp.

Setting a ban on automatic downloading of photos from WhatsApp for Android

So, the first thing you can do if the messenger function that involves downloading images begins to cause inconvenience (for example, increased traffic consumption by the device or filling up the free space of its memory too quickly) is to deactivate the auto-download option for media files. It is possible to establish a ban on its implementation in two ways.

Method 1: Android OS Tools

The most radical approach to solving the problem of stopping the uncontrolled saving of media files from WhatsApp to the memory of an Android device involves revoking the permission granted to the messenger to access the storage. The instructions proposed below are suitable only for those users who do not plan to use the information exchange system in question to send and receive files, regardless of their type.

Please note that depending on the version of the mobile OS and the system shell launcher used, the names of options and menu items may differ from those described and captured in the screenshots below, but the general principle is the same in all versions of Android!

Method 2: WhatsApp Settings

The developers of WhatsApp for Android have provided in this version of the service client application the ability to quite flexibly adjust various parameters, including those related to the function in question. This allows us to solve our problem more “elegantly” and “correctly” than the method proposed above in the article.

1. Launch the messenger and go to it "Settings". To do this, click on the corresponding item in the menu called up by touching three vertical dots in the upper right corner of the menu screen.



2. Open the title "Data and Storage" WhatsApp settings section.



3. Next you need to configure the operation of two options:
   
4. Once configuration is complete, exit "Settings" WhatsApp and you can start using the messenger as usual - now images received through it will not enter the device’s memory uncontrollably.

Disable showing photos from WhatsApp in Android Gallery

If your goal is not primarily to save space in the memory of your Android smartphone/tablet or the traffic consumed by the device, but to organize photos in the built-in OS tool for viewing and organizing them - "Gallery", then you can use one of the following techniques.

Please note that when using the first two instructions presented later in this section of the article, not only pictures will be hidden in the Gallery, but also videos received through the messenger, as well as GIF animation!

Method 1: Individual dialogs and groups

Firstly, you can disable the display in the Gallery of not absolutely all pictures that you viewed on WhatsApp, but only those that were received as part of a separate dialogue or group chat.

Method 2: All photos

To deactivate saving in the Gallery absolutely all media files received from WhatsApp:

Method 3: File Manager

1. Open your file manager and use it

   

   follow the path: WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images/.

   

2. While in the folder "WhatsApp Images", call up the action menu - tap on the vertical dots in the upper right corner of the screen. Select "+CREATE", and then "File".



3. For the name of the file to create, enter .nomedia. To complete the operation, tap "OK".



4. That's all - images from the catalog "WhatsApp Images" will not be displayed in the Gallery until you delete the file created in the step above .nomedia.

Method 4: Gallery Tools

Among other methods, it is possible to hide pictures received via WhatsApp from the Gallery using the tools integrated into the media viewer application itself.

Clearing memory from photos downloaded from WhatsApp

The techniques described above in this article, which involve disabling the automatic saving of pictures from WhatsApp and/or their visibility in the Android Gallery, are effective for those media files that will be received after performing a particular procedure. To get rid of “old” images, for example, to free up the space they occupy in the device’s storage, either the tools provided in the messenger or manual deletion are used.

Method 1: Messenger tools

In order to delete photos received via WhatsApp for Android, you don’t even have to leave the application, and clearing your smartphone’s storage of media files can be done quite flexibly here.

Chat settings

Application Settings

1. Launch WhatsApp for Android and go to "Settings" applications from the one called up by touching the three menu points located at the top of the screen on the right.



2. Click "Data and Storage" and then "Vault". On the next screen, tap on the title of the correspondence within which the erased data was generated. By the way, the names of interlocutors and the names of groups in the list are ordered by the amount of device memory occupied by the information from them.



3. Click "FREE SPACE" in the lower right corner of the screen. Uncheck the boxes to the right of all names of types of information received as part of the correspondence, except "Photo"(unless you want to delete other information at the same time as the pictures). Next click "DELETE OBJECTS" bottom right of the screen. Confirm your WhatsApp request by tapping "DELETE MESSAGES" in the window that appears.



4. If photo files from more than one conversation are to be deleted, repeat the instructions for each of the conversations being cleared.

Method 2: File Manager

Of course, if there are many dialogs and groups open in WhatsApp, and in the process of receiving information from them, a large number of images have accumulated in the device’s memory, cleaning using the method described above can take a lot of time. It is more convenient and in order to destroy all photos downloaded by the messenger at once to use any file manager.

Conclusion

From the above, we can conclude that the developers of WhatsApp for Android took into account the existence of various models of operation of the messenger and provided the necessary tools to ensure comfort and meet the needs of each user of the application, at least in terms of automatically downloading photos to the device’s memory.

This is one of the most frequently asked questions by beginners. And, if in the case of an iPhone this can be done quite easily, then on Android everything is far from so obvious...

How to disable automatic saving of photos in WhatsApp

Not everyone likes the fact that the WhatsApp messenger, by default, automatically saves all pictures and videos received from other users as separate files. On the one hand, this is, of course, convenient: you don’t have to save anything separately and one at a time. On the other hand, not everyone has a lot of space on their phone. And with sufficiently intense communication, you can very quickly fill up your entire memory... However, there is a way out. So, in order to disable autosaving of media files on iOS, you will need:

1. download the program itself whatsapp ;
2. select " Settings »;
3. then go to the section " Chat settings »;
4. and switch the virtual lever next to “ Save received images » to position Off .

As you can see, there is nothing complicated about this. But no matter how much Android users search in the Menu, they will not find anything like this in their program. Here the prohibition on saving is implemented slightly differently:

1. First you will need to go to: WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Imsges/ . This is where the program saves all downloaded images;
2. then you will need to create a new empty file and name it .nomedia . The name should be exactly like this - contain a period at the beginning of the name;
3. Finally, all that remains is to switch to using WhatsApp and make sure that nothing was saved automatically.

However, this does not mean that from now on it will be impossible to save pictures at all. This can be done, but manually. Accordingly, in order to again allow the program to always save videos, you need a file .nomedia. just delete.

It doesn’t matter how exactly this file will be created - from a computer or from the smartphone itself.

The WhatsApp messenger has long been widely used throughout the world. Having started its life back in 2009, today it has earned recognition from millions and millions of users around the world. After all, it allows people not only to correspond with each other, but also to exchange files, as well as make calls. Moreover, for free and even with the help of .

The program is very easy to learn. Even a beginner can quickly figure out what’s in it and what’s what. Moreover, downloading and communication in the case of WhatsApp are completely free.