How to Stop WhatsApp Auto-Saving Images and Video to Your iPhone's Camera Roll

[MacRumors]

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.
   Tap the Settings icon (the small cog wheel) at the bottom right of the screen.
   Tap Chat Settings.
   
   
   Toggle off the Save Incoming Media option so that it no longer shows as green.

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.

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.

Article Link: How to Stop WhatsApp Auto-Saving Images and Video to Your iPhone's Camera Roll

 

[johnyslats]

Great feature most of the time but there’s no denying my camera roll is now littered with memes

 

[M2M]

Thanks for that useful article.

 

[JosephAW]

I wish I could automatically save to cameroll in iMessage. I have to manually save each photo.

 

[RightMACatU]

How to Stop WhatsApp Auto-Saving Images and Video to Your iPhone's Camera Roll

By not installing the app?

 

[x34]

better to stop using this app altogether.

 

[arkitect]

By not installing the app?

better to stop using this app altogether.

And use what?

 

[Infinite Vortex]

And use what?

Signal.

If you read the Terms of Use WhatsApp, and Facebook, can grab the full contents of your Contacts app any time they want to. And they want to quite a bit. Not just names and phone numbers, the whole damn lot! WhatsApp won't work without access to Contacts either to ensure they get that data from you… Signal will work with or without your contact data.

 

[pika2000]

Signal.

If you read the Terms of Use WhatsApp, and Facebook, can grab the full contents of your Contacts app any time they want to. And they want to quite a bit. Not just names and phone numbers, the whole damn lot! WhatsApp won't work without access to Contacts either to ensure they get that data from you… Signal will work with or without your contact data.

Any alternative IM service sounds good, until you realize where all your friends are. And at this point, everybody is too lazy to install/set up yet another messaging service after Whatsapp, Line, Wechat, Telegram, Facebook messenger, etc. Even Google couldn't penetrate the messaging market. Add on the region complexity if you have international friends. Telling your friends of yet another app to install (just to communicate with you) will be greeted with an eye-roll.

 

[arkitect]

Signal.

If you read the Terms of Use WhatsApp, and Facebook, can grab the full contents of your Contacts app any time they want to. And they want to quite a bit. Not just names and phone numbers, the whole damn lot! WhatsApp won't work without access to Contacts either to ensure they get that data from you… Signal will work with or without your contact data.

Thanks for answering.

Alternatives are always good…Unfortunately pretty much every one I know uses WhatsApp.
It has become a global standard.
Not saying that's a good thing, mind. But that's how it is.
[doublepost=1529669287][/doublepost]

Add on the region complexity if you have international friends..

That's exactly it.
WhatsApp is massively popular in Europe.

 

[Villarrealadrian]

And use what?

iMessage of course remember you are on apples turf

 

[arkitect]

iMessage of course remember you are on apples turf

I'll be sure to tell my Android using family and friends I want them all to switch to Apple. For my convenience, of course.

 

[Villarrealadrian]

I'll be sure to tell my Android using family and friends I want them all to switch to Apple. For my convenience, of course.

INTRUDEEEER!! HAHA

 

[WarHeadz]

Thank god 99% of my family and friends are on iOS so this isn’t necessary. But my question is...why wouldn’t you just SMS your Android friends? Most plans have unlimited texting these days.

 

[emulajavi]

Whatsapp should let send and receive pics at full resolution, without compressing them.

 

[x34]

And use what?

Threema.

 

[bpp85]

Thank god 99% of my family and friends are on iOS so this isn’t necessary. But my question is...why wouldn’t you just SMS your Android friends? Most plans have unlimited texting these days.

I understand where you’re coming from but WhatsApp is the go to app in Europe for messaging. I also prefer iMessage but iOS has a much smaller market share so it is what it is. And obviously you can’t send photos, videos, gifs, voice messages, embedded YouTube videos over SMS, so people just use WhatsApp. I personally know people who have iPhones and don’t even have iMessage turned on

 

[Philberttheduck]

I wish I could automatically save to cameroll in iMessage. I have to manually save each photo.

Seriously I could use this for older family members. "where is the photo you sent me? Why isn't it in my photos app?!"

 

[CarpalMac]

Thanks for answering.

Alternatives are always good…Unfortunately pretty much every one I know uses WhatsApp.
It has become a global standard.
Not saying that's a good thing, mind. But that's how it is.
[doublepost=1529669287][/doublepost]
That's exactly it.
WhatsApp is massively popular in Europe.

All my friends and family now use telegram, I bang on about it as often as I can as it is better than WA. Searching for GIFs, bot usage so can do polls etc. and very easy to send full res photos and works as a single instance across all devices. Most if not all of WA's latest features were on telegram 2-3 years ago, like real time location sharing or post-editing .

There is one group I am a member of which means I use WA, it's like stepping back in time to use some crusty old software. At least with using it on Android I can deny it access to my contacts. I find it very frustrating app to use by comparison as it is so rubbish.

 

[arkitect]

Thank god 99% of my family and friends are on iOS so this isn’t necessary. But my question is...why wouldn’t you just SMS your Android friends? Most plans have unlimited texting these days.

Because some of us live internationally. Some countries have charges… and sending overseas sms/txts incur local charges. So, not an option.

 

[clight3521]

nice

 

[DipDog3]

Any way to use WhatsApp without giving access to your contacts?

 

[n-evo]

Thank god 99% of my family and friends are on iOS so this isn’t necessary. But my question is...why wouldn’t you just SMS your Android friends? Most plans have unlimited texting these days.

SMS doesn't allow for sending video's, photos, voice memo's, location (with map), live location for a set time, group chat among other things. Also not all plans allow for free unlimited MMS, while SMS is unlimited without extra charges.

 

[aadhishree]

I found the simple solution from this video

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.
   Tap the Settings icon (the small cog wheel) at the bottom right of the screen.
   Tap Chat Settings.
   
   
   Toggle off the Save Incoming Media option so that it no longer shows as green.

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.

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.

Article Link: How to Stop WhatsApp Auto-Saving Images and Video to Your iPhone's Camera Roll