How To Stop WhatsApp From Automatically Downloading Images and Videos

Stop WhatsApp From Automatically Downloading Images and Videos

WhatsApp is the first app that is installed on almost all the smartphones soon after the user owns a mobile. There are millions and millions of WhatsApp users all over the world. WhatsApp has become the media for exchanging images, videos, and text messages. It’s now common that all the smartphone users have WhatsApp account on their smartphones. And all the pictures and videos received through WhatsApp are downloading automatically when the data connection is enabled or when your mobile is connected to a Wi-Fi network.

But this auto-download has both advantages and limitations. When you enable the data connection or connected to a Wi-Fi network, all the images, videos or documents received through WhatsApp are downloaded. And even if you are out of the network and your smartphone is not connected to the Wi-Fi network, you can go through the downloaded pictures and videos later. Because all the downloaded images, videos, and files and documents from WhatsApp get saved to your gallery in a folder.

But there is a limitation that all the images and videos are downloaded irrespective of whether they are useful or not. This will eat up the memory space on your mobile. This may result in a slow processing of your device due to low storage.

There is alternative for you that you can download the images and pictures manually and save them in the gallery or a folder. Downloading of images and videos from WhatsApp automatically is all because of just enabling a toggle switch (in Windows Phone). Turning that toggle switch ON will let you download the files and documents manually. And turning it OFF disables the auto-download option for automatically downloading images, videos, and other media from WhatsApp. This tutorial will let you know how to get this done on your smartphone. It’s as simple as turning on the mobile data connection on your smartphone.

Let’s get into knowing how to stop WhatsApp from automatically downloading images, videos, and other documents on WhatsApp.

Step 1: Tap on the WhatsApp on your mobile.

Step 2: Click on three-dot menu that appears on the screen in the app and tap on “Settings”

Step 3: Under Settings and tap on “Data Usage Settings” or “Chat Settings”. Here you can see three options under “Media auto-download”: When using mobile data, when connected on Wi-Fi, and when roaming. Now tap on each of these options and uncheck all the options under these. Leaving any of the options checked will auto-download that particular one.

For instance, if you check the box for photos under When using mobile data, it will automatically download all the photos you have received through WhatsApp when you turn ON the mobile data. All the downloaded photos will get saved in some folder.

So when you uncheck all the boxes, it will not download any image or video automatically. You have to download all the wanted images and videos manually by clicking on the image or video. whatever image, video or files and documents you download will get saved on the respected gallery or folder.

This way you can stop your WhatsApp from automatically downloading images, videos or any other media. Hope, you find this simple to get this achieved on your smartphone.