How to free up storage on WhatsApp

Android
iOS
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 iPhone. This is mainly because of the difference in the way WhatsApp calculates storage vs your iPhone.
Note: We recommend creating a backup before deleting any content from your iPhone. Learn how here.

View storage

  1. Go to WhatsApp Settings.
  2. 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

  1. Go to WhatsApp Settings.
  2. Tap Storage and Data > Manage Storage.
  3. Select a chat or channel.
    • Tap Search to search for chats or channels.
    • 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.
  4. Tap an item to review.

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.
  1. Go to WhatsApp Settings.
  2. Tap Storage and Data > Manage Storage.
  3. Select a chat or channel.
    • Tap Search to search for chats or channels.
  4. Tap and hold an item to select.
    • Tap additional items to delete multiple items or Select all to delete all items.
  5. Tap
    delete message
    .
    • If you selected starred items, tap Delete All Except Starred or Delete All.
    • If you selected duplicate items, tap Delete Item and Any Copies.
  6. Tap Delete Item or Delete Items.
Note: Media will be deleted from your device if you select Delete media in this chat while clearing the chat. This won’t remove you from any groups or remove the chat from the Chats tab.

Low storage alerts

If the available storage amount 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, visit the Apple Support website.

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