How to stop whatsapp from auto-saving images on your phone

Let’s dig the topic of WhatsApp until you get to know about this social media app to its fullest while covering the problem of how to stop auto download in WhatsApp. Before getting into the topic in detail, let’s bring more interest in the subject and analyze how WhatsApp has changed your life. Not just that, we would try to bring the importance of WhatsApp in the forefront to let you all know that if your WhatsApp is creating any problem for you. Then cut the problem, not the application. In today’s era, where you are living in, technology and social media have completely changed your life. Now, this is up to you whether you make this change as favorable or as unfavorable. Social media has facilitated you in so many ways that you could never imagine. Talking specifically about WhatsApp, this social media app has grabbed your attention the most. Have you ever wondered about the importance of WhatsApp that it created in your life? Probably not, right? If not, then try to question yourself, how was your life without WhatsApp? You used to spend so much money on mobile loading balance and not just that you used to call a person after making sure that you have enough balance in backup to can another person. The call to person feature of WhatsApp has surely changed your life. With WhatsApp chatting features, you can send and receive different images and video content. You might be wondering: what can you do to get rid of irrelevant content which would save both your memory and your time, of course, in deleting it.

• Part 1. How to stop auto download in WhatsApp for photos on iPhone and Android?
• Part 2. How to save pictures from WhatsApp?
• Part 3. The easiest way to backup WhatsApp: Dr.Fone – WhatsApp Transfer

Part 1. How to stop auto download in WhatsApp for photos on iPhone and Android?

On the iPhone

• Open WhatsApp and click on the setting button that you would in the bottom right and then click on storage usage.
• You will then see media auto-download option on the top
• Choose the “never” option for all photos videos and documents
• You can surely stop photos from automatically getting into the cameral roll by going into the chats option in settings and then click on the ‘save to camera roll’ option. Afterward, turn it off, and you will surely not be receiving any photo in your photos now.

On Android phones:

Now coming towards our next mobile operating system, and that is the android mobile. By using these simple steps, you can stop WhatsApp from saving photos in the gallery of your Android.

• Open WhatsApp where there will be the main screen and then click on the three vertical dots and then move to settings.
• Click on chat setting and then to media auto-download. Disable auto-downloads of images, audio, and video.

Part 2. How to save pictures from WhatsApp?

How to save pictures from WhatsApp on iPhone?

The next question that we always get by our readers is that how can we save pictures after disabling the camera roll option how can you again save images from WhatsApp. Here are some steps

• Open WhatsApp on your iPhone
• Then open the chats in which you want to save pictures or videos
• Afterward, click on the image or video you want to save and then click on the share option
• Click on the save option, and then you’re ready to go.

How to save pictures from WhatsApp in Android?

Like iPhone, you can also download photos from WhatsApp in an android phone as

• Open the chat screen of WhatsApp in your android phone
• Select the conversation in which you want to download images
• Select the image and then click save to the device
• You can watch your photos in the gallery section of the android phone

Part 3. How to backup WhatsApp on PC using Dr.Fone?

The very last part that we intend to describe to you all is that how you can backup WhatsApp on PC using Dr.Fone. Here is the quick guide step by step:

• First and foremost, you need to download this tool, and afterward, you need to click on the WhatsApp transfer tab.
• Onwards, you need to click on the “Backup WhatsApp messages” from the interface program. In the next step, you need to connect the iPhone you’re using with a lightning cable, as given in the picture.
• You then need to spare some time for Dr.Fone. WhatsApp will automatically find your device, and the scanning process will eventually start. After some time, you will get the backup.
• You would find the view button on the screen. Click it if you want to preview your data. If not, move to the next step.
• In the given screen, you will get all your WhatsApp backup. Click on the “view button” then and then press next.
• In the last step, click on the “recover to computer” button, and you’re ready to go.

By default, WhatsApp saves all incoming downloaded pictures to the iOS Photos app. As a result, a single image has two copies – one in the chat and one in the Camera Roll. To keep the Photos app decluttered and maintain free space, you may want to stop WhatsApp from automatically saving images and videos to the iPhone Photos app. Let me quickly show you how to do this for all chats or specific ones.

How to stop WhatsApp auto-saving media to your iPhone Photos app

1. Open WhatsApp on your iPhone.
2. Tap Settings from the bottom right.
3. Tap Chats.
4. Toggle off Save to Camera Roll.

Stop WhatsApp from saving photos to iPhone Camera Roll from one chat/person

Have a friend who spams you with irrelevant photos, videos, memes, etc.? Here is how to stop them. Repeat the steps for multiple chats/persons.

1. Go to WhatsApp and open a conversation.
2. Tap the person’s name at the top.
3. Tap Save to Camera Roll and choose Never.

How to override this setting for specific photos

In the above steps, you saw how to prevent media from automatically saving to the iPhone Photos app. But what if you receive a useful photo or video that you want to save to the Photos app. Well, don’t worry. It is easy to save media manually even after turning off automatic saving.

1. Open a Whatsapp conversation and tap an image or video.
2. Tap the Share icon and choose Save. This will save the image to the iPhone Photos app.
3. To save several images and videos manually: Long-press an image and tap Forward. After selecting multiple images and videos, tap the Share icon. Finally, tap Save [number] Items.

Limit automatic download of photos and videos in WhatsApp

Now you know how to stop media from automatically saving to the Photos app. But did you know that you can also prevent WhatsApp from downloading photos and videos automatically over cellular data or Wi-Fi?

This will help save your iPhone storage and net allowance if you are on a limited data plan.

1. Open WhatsApp on iPhone and tap Settings at the bottom right.
2. Tap Storage and Data.
3. Under MEDIA AUTO-DOWNLOAD, tap the desired options and choose Never.
4. From now, the selected media won’t auto-download. You will have to tap the download icon manually to view it.

WhatsApp no longer saving photos to your iPhone Camera Roll!

This is how you can prevent WhatsApp chat pictures and videos from saving automatically to the iPhone Photos app. It will help keep your Photos app organized with media that matter!

Have further questions? Feel free to reach us via the comments below.

Other useful WhatsApp related posts:

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If you are having a similar query about the automatic saving of media files on WhatsApp, then you have come to the right place. This is a question asked by a friend of mine – but millions of other WhatsApp users also encounter a similar issue.

Presently, the default settings on WhatsApp automatically download the shared media files on the device that takes up a lot of space. If you want to de-clutter your phone, then you should learn how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on iPhone and Android. In this guide, I will clear the same double about WhatsApp media storage in a step by step manner.

Part 1: How to Stop WhatsApp from Saving Photos on iPhone

WhatsApp provides a smart and hassle-free solution to disable the auto-download feature for photos and videos on iPhone. A lot of times, the automatic download feature makes our Camera Roll cluttered and it even ends up consuming a lot of space on the device. Additionally, the saved WhatsApp photos on your Camera Roll can consume a lot of space on your iCloud Photo Library as well. To fix this and learn how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on iPhone automatically, follow these easy steps:

1. To start with, just unlock your iOS device and launch WhatsApp on it by tapping on the app’s icon from its home.
2. Once the WhatsApp application is opened, tap on the gear icon at the bottom to visit its settings.
3. From WhatsApp Settings, go to the “Data and Storage Usage” settings and under the “Media Auto-Download” feature, turn off the option for photos, videos, audios, and documents. For instance, just tap on the “Photos” field here and toggle off the option.
4. If you don’t want the downloaded photos to appear in the Camera Roll, then go to WhatsApp Settings > Chats and disable the “Save to Camera Roll” feature.

That’s it! By following these simple steps, you can learn how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on iPhone automatically. Not just photos, you can also disable the auto-download feature for videos, audios, and documents as well. Afterward, whenever you would receive a photo on WhatsApp, you need to tap on the download icon to save it on your phone.

Part 2: How to Stop WhatsApp from Saving Photos on Android

Just like iPhone, WhatsApp also provides a feature to disable the auto-download option for media files on Android. The default option for this is turned on and thus, it will keep consuming your device storage or clutter your phone’s gallery. Here are different ways that you can follow to learn how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on Samsung or any other Android phone.

1. Firstly, go to the WhatsApp application on your Android and visit its settings by tapping on the three-dot (hamburger) icon on the top.
2. Now, browse to Settings > Data and Storage Usage to find the “Media auto-download” section for different options (like WiFi, Mobile Data, and Roaming).

In this way, you can learn how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on Samsung or any other Android device. While the process would be the same, you might encounter a slight change in the overall interface.

Part 3: Backup your photos to a computer to avoid loss after rejecting auto-save

We all use WhatsApp to share tons of photos with our friends and family. If you also have a lot of important pictures and videos that you don’t want to lose, then consider taking a backup of your WhatsApp data on your computer. To do this, you can take the assistance of MobileTrans -WhatsApp Transfer (a part of the MobileTrans). It is a user-friendly DIY tool that can back up the entire WhatsApp data to your computer. This would include its messages, shared media content, contacts, and more. Later, you can even restore your WhatsApp data to the device of your choice.

1. To back up your WhatsApp data, connect your phone to the computer and launch the MobileTrans toolkit on it. From its home, you can launch the “WhatsApp Transfer” feature.

Check our video tutorial below to learn how to backup WhatsApp from phone to computer:

That’s it, everyone! Now when you know how to stop WhatsApp from saving photos on iPhone and Android automatically, you can easily turn this feature off. The guide has listed dedicated solutions for both Android and iPhone for your convenience. Apart from that, you can also take the assistance of MobileTrans -WhatsApp Transfer to take a backup of your WhatsApp photos and chats. It can also be used to restore an existing backup or directly transfer WhatsApp data from one phone to another. If you are a regular WhatsApp user and don’t want to lose your chats, then it will be a must-have application for you!

WhatsApp is used by over a 1.2 billion people worldwide, and 200 million in India alone. In fact, it is probably one of the first apps anyone in India downloads when they get a new smartphone as it has become the default means of texting in the country. However, it can become an annoyance too when it downloads all the media files automatically, from pictures to videos to, more recently, GIFs, not to mention audio files and videos. These not only clutter your phone’s gallery and music player, but also eat up a lot of storage and data. Here’s how you can stop WhatsApp from automatically saving photos and audio on your phone.

How to Stop Auto Downloading and Saving of Pictures, Videos and Other Media on Whatsapp for Android

WhatsApp for Android has a switch that lets you stop images and videos from downloading. Here’s how you can do it:

1. Open WhatsApp, make sure you are seeing the main window – where all your chats are displayed. Tap the three vertical dots on the top right > Settings.
2. Now tap Chat settings > Media auto-download. You’ll see three options: When using cellular data, When connected on Wi-Fi and When roaming. Tap each one and disable auto-downloads by unchecking all three options – Images, Audio and Video.

To view photos, you will have to download them. When you do, WhatsApp saves them in a folder, and you can get inundated with stupid memes and other unwanted content, which is visible to anyone who open’s your phone’s Gallery App. However, it is possible to stop these photos from appearing in the Gallery app. Here’s how:

1. Download Quickpic and open the app.
2. Navigate to the WhatsApp media folders. The location of the WhatsApp folder varies across devices but it should typically be the following: Internal Storage (sometimes labelled sdcard0) > WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Images, > WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Audio, and WhatsApp > Media > WhatsApp Videos.
3. Long-press the WhatsApp Images folder and make sure that it is selected. Do the same with the WhatsApp Video and WhatsApp Audio folders.
4. After selecting the three folders, tap the three dots icon on the top-right > Hide. This will ensure that the Gallery app doesn’t show them. You can still view these images and videos within WhatsApp and through any apps that let you view hidden folders. But if you pass your phone to someone, you no longer need worry about them seeing the WhatsApp photos and videos through the Gallery app.

How to Stop Auto Downloading and Saving of Pictures, Videos and Other Media on WhatsApp for iPhone

You can turn off media auto-download on iPhone too via the Settings menu.

1. Open WhatsApp and tap the Settings button at the bottom-right, and tap on Data and Storage Usage
2. In this menu, you will see the Media Auto-Download option on top
3. For Photos, Audio, Videos, and Documents, select the Never option

Now only the files you choose to download manually will appear on your phone, and you can even choose to stop the photos and videos from appearing the phone’s Camera Roll. All you need to do is to go to Chats in the Settings menu, open the Save to Camera Roll menu, and turn it to off. This stops the pictures people are sending from showing up in the camera roll, and taking over your synced Photo Stream.

Not saving images automatically has its advantages, but it also means that you will have to download each photo manually. If you end up downloading each and every image anyway, then it’s probably best to leave this feature active. Let us know if this tutorial helped you via the comments. For more such useful articles, visit our How to section.

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For many Android users, there is a big problem, which is the storage problem. If App keeps saving data automatically, Android can get very laggy. Furthermore, a point comes when your phone storage gets full, and you’re unable to save more essential photos. This makes you question yourself, “How to stop WhatsApp saving photos on Samsung?”

Part 1: Any Difference Between Stop WhatsApp Saving Photos on Samsung Galaxy Phone?

Most Android phones come with a feature that automatically saves WhatsApp photos and other media files. Similarly, saving photos on Samsung S10/S9/S8/S7 is different. Most of them have an auto-download feature, while others want you to save them manually. So, if you’re wondering how to stop Whatsapp saving photos on Samsung S8, here is how to do it for Samsung S series.

Part 2: How to Stop WhatsApp Saving Photos on Samsung S10/S9/S8/S7

To stop media from all your individual chats and groups from being saved

As mentioned, it’s a bit different to download media on Samsung Galaxy phones. Moreover, it’s very different to save media files on iPhones. You need to mess with settings such as Data and Wi-Fi. Here are the steps on how to stop Whatsapp saving photos on Samsung S7/S8/S9/S10.

• Open your WhatsApp and go to Chat windows.
• Then click on three verticals dots located on the top right corner.
• Select the Settings from the drop-down menu.
• A new window will open; click on Data and Storage Usage.
• Go to the Media Auto-Download option. A pop up with three options will appear When Using Cellular Data When Connected on Wi-Fi, and When Roaming.

You need to disable the Auto-Downloads option by un-checking Audio, Images, and Video options.

To stop media from a particular individual chat or group from being saved

• Open your WhatsApp.
• Move to Chat windows.
• Open a particular chat or group.
• Click on three dots located at the top right corner.
• Tap on “View Contact” in case of individual Chat. Tap on the “Group Info” option in case of a group.
• Scroll down and look for the “Media Visibility” option located just below the “Custom Notifications” option.

A pop up will appear. From three options, click “No”.

To create a .nomedia file

• Download a File Explorer from the Google Play Store.
• Open the File Explorer and go to Images.
• Then click on the Whatsapp Images.
• Create a file naming “.nomedia” including the period in WhatsApp images directory.

Extra Tips: How to Transfer WhatsApp Photos from Samsung to Other Phone?

Less storage is always a concern for most people who receive media files from their friends and family. There is always an option for you to deal with storage problems. iCareFone for WhatsApp Transfer is the best of the best media transfer and backup tools. It has a simple interface and makes ti easy for you to transfer, backup, and restore your WhatsApp data. This tool also allows you to transfer your data between iPhone and Android.

Here’s how this excellent tool works.

Download and install iCareFone for WhatsApp Transfer on your PC/Mac, then connect two phones to the computer.

Next, iCareFone for WhatsApp Transfer will backup your WhatsApp data in the source device. Click “Continue” to go on.

After backing up successfully, this tool will auto transfer your WhatsApp data to the destination device.

The whole process will take a few minutes. Once done, you will see the below screen.

Summary

WhatsApp saves media fields automatically on your phone, making it difficult for WhatsApp users to save their storage. This guide explains how to stop WhatsApp saving photos on Samsung S9 or other models. Further, we have also explained how you can transfer WhatsApp data to/from Android and iPhone. Tenorhsare iCareFone for WhatsApp transfer is the best tool to transfer, backup, and restore your WhatsApp chats.

People Also Asked about How to Stop Whatsapp Saving Photos on Samsung

Q1: How do I stop WhatsApp media on my Samsung?

There are three different ways to stop the media on Samsung devices. You can use any of the ways mentioned above to stop WhatsApp saving photos on Samsung.

Q2: How do I transfer WhatsApp photos to my computer?

Tenorshare iCareFone for WhatsApp transfer can help you to transfer WhatsApp to your computer. The transfer tool allows you to transfer your data between iPhone and WhatsApp as well.

Q3: How do I backup my WhatsApp photos?

Open your WhatsApp and click on three dots in the top right corner.

Click on the Settings, chats, chat backup, and then back up to Google Drive.

alt=”whatsapp” width=”250″ height=”250″ />Some 60 billion messages are sent over the WhatsApp chat platform every day. One of the reasons for the service’s massive popularity is that it lets users send and receive as many media-rich messages as they want, which – as long as they’ve limited WhatsApp’s use of their cellular data plan – costs them next to nothing.

That’s great news for senders, but one of the drawbacks of receiving multiple images and video clips from your WhatsApp contacts is that they’re automatically saved to your iPhone’s Photo Library. Apart from being an unwelcome sight in your personal Camera Roll, they can start to take up valuable storage space. Fortunately, you can easily prevent this default behavior by following the steps below.

How to Stop WhatsApp Saving to Your Camera Roll

1. Launch the WhatsApp app on your iPhone.

Once you’ve turned off the above setting in WhatsApp, you can still manually opt to save individual media files that you receive in a chat thread. If your iPhone supports 3D Touch, simply hard press on the photo or video clip in question and swipe up to reveal the Save option. Alternatively, you can access the Save option by tapping the photo or clip and selecting the Share icon in the lower left of the screen.

How to Limit WhatsApp Media Downloads to Wi-Fi

If receiving images or video over WhatsApp is sapping your cellular data when you’re out and about, you can prevent them from downloading to your iPhone until you’re safely back in range of a Wi-Fi connection.

alt=”stop whatsapp saving photos 2″ width=”800″ height=”863″ />
To do so, return to WhatsApp’s Settings tab and select Data and Storage Usage. The options under Media Auto-Download let you dictate which types of media can be downloaded and under what circumstances. Make sure that the media types you’re happy to wait for are set to Wi-Fi.

WhatsApp is one of the apps that take up the most storage space on our smartphones. If you receive a lot of photos in chats, these are often automatically downloaded to your camera, taking up valuable space. In this article we will show you how to save your storage space by stopping automatic downloads.

How to prevent saving photos from WhatsApp to your iPhone library?

For owners of smartphones or tablets with the iOS operating system, the procedure is similar to the previous one. You will need to open the WhatsApp app again, go to Settings > Data and Storage Usage and then in the Media Auto-Download section, go to each category (Photos, Audio, Videos, Documents) and select Never or choose only Wi-Fi option without Cellular.

© WhatsApp

On both iPhone and Android you will still be able to save the files you received by clicking on the photo or video you are interested in.

How to stop WhatsApp automatically saving media files on Android?

If you don't want to automatically save your WhatsApp media files to your Android phone library, follow a few simple steps.

Firstly, open WhatsApp on your smartphone and select the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen. Go to Settings, then choose Data and storage usage. On the screen that appears, under the Media Auto-Download section, click each of the three options: When using mobile data, When connected on Wi-Fi, When roaming and in the new menu select which files to enable for automatic download. In order not to save any file, uncheck each box.

© WhatsApp

Of course, if you want some files to be saved automatically, for example, documents for work purposes, check the corresponding documents box. This also applies if you want to automatically save WhatsApp photos and videos to your phone again.

How to stop saving files received in private or group chats?

On Android

To have more control and thus prevent media files from being saved, whether they come from individual chats or groups, you can disable Media Visibility on your Android phone. For private chats, this option can be enabled or disabled by going to Settings > Chat > Media Visibility. For groups, go to Settings > Show Contact (or Group Info) > Media Visibility. Answer No to the question "Do you want to show newly downloaded media from this chat in your phone’s gallery".

© WhatsApp

On iPhone

On iPhone you can also stop saving photos in group or private chats. To do so, you need to open the chat (group or private) and click on the Group or Contact Info. Select Save to Camera Roll section and choose Never.

© WhatsApp

Long-time users of WhatsApp on iPhone should know that the app auto-downloads images and videos and saves them into the Camera Roll. While this is convenient in terms of accessibility, it quickly becomes a mess since it clutters your Camera Roll, and not to mention, private photos could easily end up on your roll, easily accessible for other people. This quick guide will teach you how to stop WhatsApp from auto-saving photos and videos on iPhone.

Basically, there are two ways to disable the WhatsApp auto-saving feature:

Method 1:

1. Navigate to Settings
2. Scroll a little bit down and tap Privacy
3. Tap Photos
4. Now, disable the switch for the WhatsApp app

From here on, whenever you receive an image or video in WhatsApp, it will only be accessible within the app. Basically, what happened in WhatsApp, stays in WhatsApp. The app won’t clutter your Camera Roll anymore, and possibly save you from future embarrassment.

Method 2:

1. Launch WhatsApp
2. Tap Settings (found below the app interface)
3. Tap Chat Settings
4. Find the Save Incoming Media option and toggle the switch to off.

Again, this will also prevent WhatsApp from auto-saving any sort of media to your Camera Roll.

To prevent all of these auto-saving shenanigans, you can simply not grant permission to the WhatsApp app in the first place. If you can recall after installation, WhatsApp will ask permission to access your photos. If you turn down the request, the app will not auto-save any kind of media to your Camera Roll.

We all tend to get careless when it comes to granting permission to apps and that tends to lead to both minor and major inconveniences. So folks, be wary when granting permissions to newly installed iPhone apps.

Hopefully, this quick tip on how to stop WhatsApp from auto-saving photos and videos on iPhone has helped you. Be sure to share and don’t hesitate to comment if you have questions.

If you don’t want your WhatsApp activities to become public or known to others who may use your phone, you have some settings to change. Here is how to stop WhatsApp saving photos and videos to your phone.

WhatsApp has to be one of the best smartphone apps around right now. It is secure, encrypts all conversations, allows you to chat, call or video chat to your friends, send and receive files and interact with groups. All for free. It also makes it easy to delete chats, phone logs and video logs. What it doesn’t do is make it simple to delete any images or videos you might share.

We here at TechJunkie don’t judge. Use WhatsApp for whatever reasons you like, just play safe. To help you retain privacy when using WhatsApp, here is how to stop WhatsApp saving photos and videos to your phone. I’ll also include some other privacy tweaks afterwards as I have spent a lot of time playing around with different settings.

Stop WhatsApp saving photos and videos to your phone

When WhatsApp installs, it created a Media file which contains several files, WallPaper, Animated Gifs, Audio, Documents, Images, Profile Photos, Video and Voice Notes. Any time you upload or download media from WhatsApp, they are deposited in the corresponding file.

You might delete all your call and chat history but these files remain. If you are trying to completely cover your tracks for any reason, you need to empty these files after swapping any kind of media.

First let us stop WhatsApp saving photos and videos to your phone and then we can delete any that have already been downloaded.

1. Open WhatsApp on your device.
2. Select the three dot menu icon in the top right.
3. Select Settings and then Chat settings
4. Select ‘When using mobile data’ under media auto-download.
5. Uncheck all media boxes and hit OK.
6. Repeat for ‘When connected on Wi-Fi’ and ‘When roaming’.

This will stop WhatsApp download any media to your device in the future. Bear in mind though that you will not be able to keep any of that media once you delete the chat or call log unless you manually select it and hit Save.

1. Open WhatsApp on your iPhone.
2. Select Settings and Chats.
3. Toggle ‘Save Incoming Media’ to off.

The same rules apply here if there are files you want to save. Open them in WhatsApp and select Save. You can then move them as you see fit once saved.

Hide WhatsApp images from Google Photos or Android Gallery

If you want to download media from WhatsApp but don’t want them appearing in Google Photos or the Android Gallery, you can hide them. We create a .nomedia file which will cause Google Photos and the Android Gallery to skip the folder when looking for media.

1. Connect your phone to your computer via USB.
2. Open the WhatsApp folder and navigate to WhatsApp Images.
3. Select Sent and copy the NOMEDIA file.
4. Go up one level to Images and paste the NOMEDIA file.

Having the NOMEDIA file in place tells Google Photos and the Android Gallery that it isn’t the folder they are looking for and to move along.

You can also create a folder and create your own NOMEDIA file if you want to. Again, I find it easier to do it on the desktop rather than on the phone itself.

1. Connect your phone to your computer via USB.
2. Create a folder anywhere on your phone and call it something meaningful.
3. Browse inside the folder and create a new file.
4. Name it ‘.nomedia’. Make sure to use the period in front of the name.
5. Move all the images and videos you don’t want to appear into your new folder.
6. Reboot your phone for changes to take effect.

This method requires a little manual effort but is useful if you are trying to keep images or videos from someone who knows how WhatsApp works. They may become suspicious if they see a .nomedia file in your Images or Videos folder so this is one way around it. Just remember to reboot your phone to wipe the image cache as it will include any images it cached previously.

The other thing to watch out for is if you have images and videos synced to Google Drive. You may want to manually delete any that have been uploaded. Or turn sync off for a little extra security.

Other WhatsApp tweaks for better privacy

By default, WhatsApp is a secure chat app that offers all the privacy you could hope for without getting in the way of its utility. There are a few other tweaks you could try if you want to increase that further.

Turn off message preview

Depending on who you’re messaging and where you are, you might not want a snapshot of a message appearing on your home screen. Turning it off will help.

1. Open WhatsApp and select Settings in the top right.
2. Select Notifications and Popup notification (Android) or Show Preview (iOS).
3. Turn off notifications.

Your phone will still play the default tone or vibrate as a message appears but will no longer show an excerpt of it.

Disable ‘Last Seen’

Depending on how often you use WhatsApp and who you use it with, you might not want certain people knowing when you were last on the app. You need to turn off the ‘Last Seen’ feature.

1. Open WhatsApp and select Settings in the top right.
2. Select Account and Privacy.
3. Select ‘Last seen’ and select Nobody.

This will stop other people from seeing exactly when you were last on the app and alongside these other tweaks should cover your tracks completely when using WhatsApp.

As I said, TechJunkie doesn’t judge. If you want to keep your activities secret, that is your business and not ours. At least now you know how to use the app while maintaining maximum privacy.

Got any other tips for keeping WhatsApp private? Tell us about them below if you do!