WhatsApp - How to Stop Auto Downloading and Saving of Photos, Audios & Videos?

WhatsApp is the world's most popular messaging app, with over 600 million active users. One of the most common annoyances with the app is that it automatically downloads media files (photos and audio) by default. WhatsApp says this is optimised for best performance. Here's how you can stop WhatsApp from automatically saving photos, videos and audio on your phone.

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 (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details…) 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.