Check out the various ways to delete photos and videos you received on WhatsApp to free space on your iPhone.
By default, every time you receive a photo or video on WhatsApp, the app saves them in two places – inside the WhatsApp app and the iPhone Photos app. You can easily stop WhatsApp from saving images to your iPhone Photos app. But one copy still unknowingly remains inside the chat app.
If you have lots of conversations on WhatsApp, these media files can easily start adding up to several GBs of space. So deleting old WhatsApp photos and videos from your iPhone can free space and keep things fast.
Before you begin: You might have important memories, receipts, screenshots, and such in your WhatsApp chats. So, make sure you delete things after double-checking.
Delete WhatsApp media from the Photos app
WhatsApp automatically makes a new album in your iPhone’s Photos app and keeps all the incoming media there. You can go inside that album to easily delete those images and videos.
If you don’t see the WhatsApp album, there is an easier way to see media saved by WhatsApp and delete them in one go. All you need to do is swipe up on a photo you know is saved by WhatsApp or tap its info button ⓘ. After that, tap Saved from WhatsApp to see all its photos and videos and delete them quickly.
You have successfully deleted WhatsApp pictures and videos from your iPhone’s Photos app. However, they are still in the Recently Deleted section of the iOS Photos app for 30 days. So, go there to delete them now and free space immediately.
Delete WhatsApp photos and videos inside the chat app
As mentioned in the beginning, WhatsApp stores one copy of the images in the app as well. So, after you delete the ones visible in the Photos app, you can delete another copy from inside the WhatsApp app using any of the following ways.
Delete from individual chat
Follow these steps to see all pictures and videos from a particular WhatsApp chat and delete them:
1) Open WhatsApp, go to a person or group chat, and tap their name from the top.
2) Select Media, links and docs to see all files shared by this person or group. It also includes the images you sent.
3) Tap Select and run your finger to select the files.
4) Finally, tap the delete trash icon and confirm.
Delete from the Manage Storage section
WhatsApp has a handy storage setting where you can see the total space used by the app files, the conversations taking the most space, etc. Here’s how to manage your storage on WhatsApp by deleting unnecessary media.
1) Open WhatsApp and tap Settings from the lower right corner.
2) Tap Storage and Data.
3) Select Manage Storage.
4) Here, you can review the big files or ones forwarded too many times and delete them on the next screen. The handy part is you get a Select > Select All button, which eliminates the need to choose manually.
5) Alternatively, you can also see the chats taking the most space. From here, tap a chat to view all the media files and select all or just the desired ones to delete them.
Delete the entire conversation
If you delete the entire WhatsApp conversation, along with the chats, it also deletes all the media sent and received with that person or group from your device. Doing so can free a significant amount of local space on your iPhone.
1) Open WhatsApp and make sure you’re in the Chats section.
2) Swipe left on a chat and tap More > Delete Chat > Delete Chat.
3) If you want to delete several conversations together, tap the three dots icon from the top left, followed by Select chats. Now, select individual chats (don’t select even one group chat), and tap Delete > Delete n chats.
4) To delete everything from a group chat, swipe left on it and tap Clear Chat > Delete All Messages. This will delete all messages and media from that group chat on your device. The same group chats will continue to exist on the phones of other group members.
Tip: While cleaning, don’t forget to go to the Archived section and delete old chats from there too.
Clear or delete all WhatsApp chats
There are two buttons inside WhatsApp settings that can clear all chats or delete all chats.
If you clear all chats in WhatsApp, all messages and media from all conversations will be deleted from your device, but the chat names will still stay listed in the Chats section. When you tap a person or group chat, it will be empty.
If you delete all chats on WhatsApp, every conversation, along with all the messages and media, will be deleted. The Chats section will have no individual chats but just the group chats you’re a part of.
Depending on your choice, you can choose to do either.
1) Open WhatsApp and tap Settings.
2) Tap Chats.
3) Tap Clear All Chats or Delete All Chats.
4) Enter your WhatsApp phone number and confirm to clear or delete all chats.
Delete the WhatsApp app
By now, you know several methods to delete old photos, videos, and documents from WhatsApp chats and those saved by it locally on your iPhone.
However, if you’re having trouble managing space or just want to start fresh, you can delete the WhatsApp app and reinstall it. Doing so will eliminate all the chats, pictures, GIFs, videos, links, PDFs, etc. (unless you restore a WhatsApp chat backup).
Note: Deleting the WhatsApp application from your iPhone won’t remove you from the WhatsApp groups you’re a part of.
Delete your WhatsApp account
Finally, if you want to go extreme, you can delete your WhatsApp account, which will clear all media from your device. It will also exit you from any WhatsApp groups you’re a part of.
Once you want to rejoin WhatsApp, you can do that using the same phone number. It will be a clean slate with no old groups or chats.
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