Free up storage in 3 steps
If you need more room on your phone, here’s how to get it done.
1. Go to Storage and data in Settings
2. Tap Manage storage to see what’s taking up space
3. Select and delete anything you don’t need ✅
Learn more: https://faq.whatsapp.com/5503646096388294/
To ensure that WhatsApp works properly, make sure that your phone has storage space available. You can view how much space WhatsApp takes up on your device and free up storage by deleting items.
It’s possible that there might be a difference in the storage usage noted by your WhatsApp app and your Android phone. This is mainly because of the difference in the way WhatsApp calculates storage vs your phone’s OS.
Note: We suggest backing up your chats to your Google Account before deleting any content from your phone.
View storage
- On the Chats tab, tap
> Settings.
- Tap Storage and data > Manage storage.
The amount of space taken up on your device by WhatsApp is displayed at the top of the screen.
Review and delete items
You can free up storage by deleting items that are large or have been forwarded many times. You can also delete items per chat.
Review items
- Tap
> Settings.
- Tap Storage and data > Manage storage.
- Select a chat or channel.
- Tap
to search for chats or channels.
- You can tap the sort icon to sort by Newest, Oldest, or Largest.
- The file size of the item is displayed in the top corner of the item.
- Tap an item to review. You can also:
- View which chat the item is from and when it was sent: Tap
- Star or unstar the item by tapping
or
Delete items
If you delete an item, it'll be deleted from your WhatsApp media. Deleted items might still be saved on your device. If you have multiple copies of an item, you’ll also need to delete all copies to free up space.
- Tap
- Tap Storage and data > Manage storage.
- Select a chat or channel.
- Tap
- Tap and hold an item to select.
- Tap additional items to delete multiple items or Select all to delete all items.
- Tap
- Select Delete starred items to delete starred items.
- Select Delete any copies to delete duplicates.
- Tap Delete.
Note:
- Deleting an item in this way permanently deletes the item. You will not be able to redownload it from the chat it was in.
- Deleting an item only deletes the item for you. Other people in the chat will still be able to see the item. To delete the item for everyone, you’ll need to delete the message within the relevant chat.
Delete items through search
You can also delete individual items by using the search feature.
- Tap the search field at the top of your chats list.
- Tap Photos, Videos, or Documents.
- Tap the item you want to delete.
- Tap
- To also delete the item from your device’s gallery, tap Also delete media received in this chat from the device gallery.
- Tap Delete for everyone or Delete for me.
Delete chat contents
To free up additional space, you can delete the entire contents of a chat, including media, links, files, and messages.
- Open the chat you'd like to clear.
- Tap
- Select Also delete media received in this chat from the device gallery if you want to remove media you've downloaded from this chat from Gallery.
- Select Delete starred messages if you want to delete starred messages.
- Tap Clear chat.
Note: Clearing a chat won’t delete the chat itself or remove you from a group. The chat will still be listed on the Chats tab unless you delete it.
Low storage alerts
If the amount of available storage on your device reaches critically low levels, WhatsApp might not work properly. If this happens, WhatsApp might prompt you to free up space to continue using the app.
To learn how to free up storage on your phone outside of WhatsApp, contact your phone’s manufacturer.
