How to Fix It When WhatsApp Images and Videos Are Not in Your Photo Gallery

By default, pictures, videos, and other media shared through WhatsApp are saved to a WhatsApp folder on your device. Unfortunately, these files can sometimes be hard to find, they go missing, or they don’t download.

Here’s what you need to know about how to save photos from WhatsApp to Gallery on Android and your Camera Roll or Photos app on iPhone and iPad.

How to Save Pictures From WhatsApp on Android and iOS

Below are fixes for all the problems you may encounter when trying to work out how to save photos, videos, and other files in WhatsApp. These directions apply to Android and iOS phones and tablets.

1. Are you checking the correct folder in Gallery and Photos? Photos and other media downloaded from WhatsApp don’t go into the usual Downloads or Pictures folders as you might expect.

   Instead, they’re in a WhatsApp folder, located within the Internal Storage folder on Android smartphones and tablets and under the My Albums category in the Photos app on iPhone and other iOS devices.

2. Enable WhatsApp's auto-save option. This is the easiest way to save media to your device.

   For iOS, go to Settings > Storage and data and pick Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi and cellular.

   For Android, go to menu > Settings > Storage and data and tap When using mobile data, When connected on Wi-Fi, or When roaming. Then, select which type of media to auto-save.

3. Enable media visibility on Android. This is to make sure pictures and videos from your chats show up in your photo gallery. To do this, go to menu > Settings > Chats and toggle Media visibility on.

4. Enable Media visibility for individual users on Android. If media from a specific user isn’t showing on your Android smartphone or tablet, tap their profile name from the chat with the user and then select Media visibility > Yes > OK. If Yes is already selected, you don’t need to do anything.

5. Turn on specific user or group download settings on the iPhone. Auto-downloading of media may have been disabled for particular users or groups. To check, tap their name and make sure that you set the Save to Camera Roll to either Default or Always.

6. Check your internet connection. If you’ve set your WhatsApp media download preferences to Wi-Fi-only, and you have Wi-Fi turned off or have connected via your mobile provider’s 3G, 4G, or 5G signal, your media won’t upload.

7. Check your cellular connection. Likewise, if you’ve set media uploads to only happen over a cellular connection, they may not initiate when connected to home or work internet.

8. Free up storage space. Why? WhatsApp won’t download media if there’s not enough space. You’ll need to free up space on your iPhone or free up space on your Android phone.

9. Check if your SD card is damaged. A damaged SD card can prevent apps from saving data to it.

10. Disable read-only mode on your SD card. The read-only mode will prevent new data from being written to your SD card.

11. Check your device’s time zone. If the time on your tablet or smartphone doesn’t match your real-world location, WhatsApp can disable the download of pictures, videos, and other media. You can fix this by setting your iPhone or Android smartphone to detect the correct time automatically, or you can change it manually.

12. Save photos from WhatsApp manually. Tapping the share icon on a file in the WhatsApp app will let you save it manually. Doing so will also allow you to send it to another location on your device or a connected app such as Dropbox, OneDrive, or even a social media messaging app.

13. Save photos in WhatsApp as a screenshot. If all of the above solutions have failed, a sneaky way to save an image from a WhatsApp conversation is to take a screenshot. You can do this quickly on iOS, Android, Windows, and Mac.

14. Save a WhatsApp video with a screen recording.

Cause of WhatsApp Media Saving Errors

Trouble with WhatsApp pictures and videos not downloading correctly can stem from various factors such as incorrect app settings, network problems, or a damaged SD card. Simply looking in the wrong location is also a common cause of missing WhatsApp files.