Why should you stop automatic download in WhatsApp? WhatsApp is a great communications tool. Unfortunately, it can also be a huge drain on your data plan (if you are not on an unlimited plan), not to mention clogging up your cell phone’s media with photos and videos that are of no further use to you after you have watched them.
Because the app is configured to download and save files sent to you by default, you have to take action to stop automatic download in WhatsApp. The good news is that it isn’t difficult to do.
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How to Stop Media from Automatically Downloading on WhatsApp
Open your WhatsApp, tap the three vertical dots at the top right corner, tap on Settings > Storage and data > under Media auto-download, select the following options:
When using mobile data: uncheck all the options and tap OK.
When connected on Wi-Fi: uncheck all the options and tap OK.
When roaming: uncheck all the options and tap OK.
You are done. When you look at the Media auto-dowmload section now, each of these have “No media” labelled under them. That’s it. You are done. WhatsApp will no longer automatically download videos, photos, and documents, thus helping to keep your data consumption at a much lower rate. Your phone’s storage won’t get clogged up so fast either.
How to Manually Save a Photo on WhatsApp
When you receive a photo that you would like to save, you have to tap on the photo to open it, then tap the three vertical dots at the top right corner, and select Save. That photo or image now gets saved to your phone’s storage and you can access it through your phone’s gallery or media player.
How to Manually Save a Video on WhatsApp
When someone sends you a video that you want to save to your phone, open the video, tap the three vertical dots at the top right corner, and select Save. That video now gets saved to your phone’s storage and you can access it from your phones’s gallery or media viewer.
How to Delete WhatsApp Photos and Videos from your Phone
If you already had whatsapp photos and videos downloaded to your phone, you can delete them.
Settings > Storage and data > Manage storage. You will see the size of your storage that WhatsApp media has used up. Below that is a section that lets you review and delete items. Even below that is another section that displays items larger than 5 MB. Tap on each of them, tap on the “Select all” checkbox and then the bin icon at the top right corner.
A prompt asks you to confirm if you want to delete items. Check the Delete any copies box and then tap Delete. All those files disappear.
Your storage is now free of WhatsApp junk and won’t be automatically re-populated with more because you have earlier changed the settings to stop automatic media download on the app.