Vacation photos, videos from our last concert visit and a PDF of an important invoice: we send and receive files via WhatsApp every day. And it is precisely these files that ultimately ensure that our smartphone memory is constantly reaching its limits. This can become a big problem. Whatsapp itself emphasizes that the messenger could no longer function properly if there was a certain level of memory shortage.
Clean up Whatsapp storage: This is how it works
The only thing that helps is to clear out your smartphone memory and free Whatsapp from unnecessary data waste. The people behind the messenger have even integrated their own feature into WhatsApp to help you with your work. On Android, you have to go to the chat tab and go to the settings in the three-dot menu at the top right. On iOS you go directly to the Settings tab.
For both smartphone variants, then look for the “Storage and data” entry and select “Manage storage”. Whatsapp will now show you the storage space used by the messenger on your smartphone. This is particularly practical because WhatsApp is usually only displayed in your smartphone’s settings with its actual installation size. An example: According to the system, WhatsApp only takes up 370 megabytes on a Samsung smartphone. Whatsapp itself shows more than nine gigabytes of storage usage based on the documents, images and videos stored.
Top article
${content}
${custom_ad-badge}
${custom_tr-badge}
${section}
${title}
In WhatsApp’s storage management you can first see which files were forwarded often. These are often videos or photos that are forwarded like chain letters. In most cases they can easily be deleted. Whatsapp also shows all files that are more than five megabytes in size. At first this sounds like small stuff. On the Samsung smartphone in question, these files accounted for more than four gigabytes of memory usage by WhatsApp.
To get more storage space, you’ll need to go through the files and delete any content you no longer need. You can still sort all content by age and size using the three-line menu at the top right. Even if this makes the process a little easier, it may take some time until WhatsApp is completely cleaned up again.
You probably don’t know these iPhone functions yet
Prevent memory shortages through Whatsapp
So that you don’t have to clean out your entire WhatsApp storage every few weeks – and probably leave a lot of nerves in the process – you can take a few precautions. A first step to counteract this is to disable automatic media downloads. In the “Storage and Data” menu, you can find the “Auto Download Media” section. There you can set granularly when Whatsapp downloads media as soon as it is received. If you want to prevent this, deactivate the option for “mobile data connection”, “for WLAN connection” and “for roaming”.
This means that when you receive media, you will only see blurry preview images. You can then decide whether you want to download the content by tapping on it. As a second option, you can prevent WhatsApp from saving all received images and videos in your smartphone gallery. This option is activated by default and ensures that images and videos end up on your smartphone twice.
To prevent this on an Android smartphone, open the settings in the three-dot menu of the chat tab. Under “Chats” you will find the “Media visibility” option and deactivate the slider there. On iOS, go to the Settings tab and then “Chats”. On iPhones, the desired option is called “Save Photos.” Disable them. However, keep in mind that media that has already been received is not affected by the change. So you still have to remove them manually if you need more storage space.
If there are individual chats or group conversations whose media you no longer want to save in the gallery, this is also possible. To do this, select the respective chat and open the info by tapping on the contact or group name. On Android, select “Media Visibility” and then “No” before saving the settings. If you have an iPhone, select Never under Save to Photos.
This article was originally published on December 20, 203, but is still of interest to many of our readers. That’s why we’ve updated it and made it available again here.
Do you already know these Android features?
Do you know these Android functions?
