Block WhatsApp From Consuming Phone Storage Space

WhatsApp is the most popular instant messenger application on iPhones and Android phones. SysToSys covers a lot of WhatsApp features in our old posts.

Today we discuss one of the common issues faced by WhatsApp users. That is the phone memory usage issue.

We hear a lot of complaints about WhatsApp consuming the lion's share of storage space on Smartphones.

SysToSys will teach you the settings that prevent WhatsApp from exhausting your mobile phone storage space.

People often see low memory warnings on their mobile devices having WhatsApp.



Does WhatsApp Consume a Lot of Mobile Phone Storage Space?
The answer is yes unless you optimized the WhatsApp settings.

How does WhatsApp consume a large portion of mobile phone storage? Let us check how an unoptimized WhatsApp uses up mobile phone storage space.

As I explained before, WhatsApp is not just a text chat platform. It is an end-to-end encrypted Instant Messager App that allows users to share text, photos, videos, and documents.

The default WhatsApp settings allow the App to download (automatically) all files (videos, documents, photos, text) send by contacts.

Consider a person who has hundreds of WhatsApp contacts. Naturally, he must be a member of many WhatsApp groups.

You can imagine the number of video and document files sent to him.

His phone storage space will be overwhelmed with files in a few days. So, what is the solution to free your phone from the files dumbed by your WhatsApp friends?

The solution is to restrict the heavy files sent by your friends to downloading automatically on your phone.

We will check how to prevent WhatsApp from auto-downloading videos and other documents.

But first thing first. I will show you how to delete all big files saved on your phone storage. Then I will teach you how to optimize WhatsApp settings to prevent the auto-downloading of big data files.

You can read my previous tutorial to prevent a stranger from adding you to his WhatsApp group.

How to Clear Your Phone's Storage Space by Deleting WhatsApp Video Files?


We can delete all large video files saved on your phone's memory using the WhatsApp Manage Storage feature. I will explain how to use it to remove WhatsApp videos from your phone and save storage space.

1. Open WhatsApp on your mobile device.
2. Click on the three vertical dots at the top of the window.
   
   
3. Tap on Settings.
   
   
4. Tap on Storage and Data.
   
   
5. Tap on Manage Storage.
   
   
6. Now WhatsApp will show you the storage space it consumed on your phone. You will see the video files and other heavy files.
   
   
   You can select the file you no longer want from the list and delete it. Or you can use the Select All feature to delete all WhatsApp videos stored on your iOS and Android phones.
   
   
7. Click the Select All option and tap on the delete icon. Now WhatsApp will delete all video files saved in your mobile phone.
   
   

You have learned how to delete old WhatsApp videos from your mobile phone. Now we are coming to the second part of this tutorial.

You learned how to free phone storage space. Let us check how to set WhatsApp not to download videos automatically when you turn on the Internet.

Prevent WhatsApp From Downloading Videos Automatically


Let us check how to change the default WhatsApp settings to block automatic video downloading on your phone.

1. Open WhatsApp on your mobile device.
2. Click on the three vertical dots at the top of the window.
   
   
3. Tap on Settings.
   
   
4. Tap on Storage and Data.
   
   
5. Look at the section Media Auto-download. You can change the default WhatsApp settings for downloading files.
   
   
6. To prevent WhatsApp from downloading video files automatically while using mobile data, click the link -When using mobile data.
   
   
   
   Uncheck the box near videos to block WhatsApp auto-downloading feature for videos.
   
   Uncheck the boxes near the Documents and Audio to disable the auto-downloading feature for them when using mobile data.
7. Tap on OK to save the changes.
8. Repeat the same process for the other two options (When connected to Wi-Fi and When roaming).

These two methods safeguard your mobile storage space from WhatsApp junk files.

Let us know your feedback about this post.

WhatsApp videos are the main reason for exhausting phone storage. Luckily, WhatsApp has an auto-deletion option for videos.