Stopping the automatic download of multimedia files (photos and videos) on WhatsApp will help save storage on your mobile device.
WhatsApp houses much of the information of its users, as the application has become the daily favorite for instant messaging.
Through the application not only messages are sent, but also photos, files and audios, making it even heavier.
How to disable automatic storage of media files?
A big problem that WhatsApp users face when it comes to emptying space on their mobile is to delete all kinds of multimedia files that were sent by their contacts, especially in WhatsApp groups where the largest amount of spam is usually formed.
Between photos and videos, it seems that the list to delete is eternal and covers all the phone’s storage, which is why trying to download as little data as possible with the mobile device sounds quite attractive and reasonable.
Fortunately, the WhatsApp application itself allows you to stop the automatic download of these files and it will not take more than 5 minutes to execute the action and deactivate the automatic download.
Disable automatic download on iOS and Android
To do this, you must disable the default option that comes with WhatsApp for Android or iOS:
To disable it on iPhone
- Enter WhatsApp settings.
- Then select ‘data and storage’.
- Click on ‘Photos’.
- Click on a slider button and disable it to stop downloading them automatically, this will also apply to multimedia files; that is, the gifs and videos. Files will no longer be a problem in iPhone storage.
To disable it on Android
- You must enter the WhatsApp settings
- After ‘data and storage’
- After that go to ‘download with mobile data’
- Then go to the option ‘download with wi-fi’
- Remove the selection from those contents that you do not want to download automatically, it can be only the videos, photos and videos or none.
In this way, the phone will have much more storage and will not download the annoying multimedia files unless the user chooses to save them manually from the WhatsApp application or its WhatsApp Web version.