Quite a few users are complaining that their Whatsapp won’t download photos that they receive on their Android or iOS device. In this article, we will guide you on why the app is not downloading the photos and what steps you can take to troubleshoot the issue.
Whatsapp is a great platform to communicate with your contacts through text and voice messages. Furthermore, you can place video calls and share photos/videos with the contacts as well. Through the “Link a device” option, you can also use Whatsapp on your PC, tablet, and iPad.
However, there are a few glitches in Whatsapp, and photos not downloading are one of these issues. Hopefully, by the end of this article, you should be able to resolve this problem on your mobile device.
Why is my WhatsApp not downloading pictures?
If you are using Whatsapp and can not download photos, it can be due to the following reasons.
- Your home network has a weak signal or poor internet speed
- Time and date settings are configured incorrectly on your mobile phone
- The SD card on your mobile phone is malfunctioning
- You are using an outdated Whatsapp version
- Whatsapp installation files are corrupted
How do I enable downloading pictures on WhatsApp?
Before getting into the fixes in this guide, make sure that you have turned on the automatic download option for photos and videos on Whatsapp. If you have not done so, your Whatsapp photos won’t download.
To check this, launch Whatsapp and tap on More options on the top right side of the screen. Now tap on Settings and then tap on Storage and Data. Next, check the Photos option under both “When using mobile data” and “When connected on WIFI”.
What to do if photos are not downloading on WhatsApp?
Check network and cellular connection
Whatsapp needs an internet connection to work properly and to download media. Therefore, if you are having issues with your home network regarding internet speed or poor WIFI signals or your mobile data is acting up, you won’t be able to download anything on Whatsapp.
To fix this, use other apps on your mobile device or browse a website to isolate internet speed issues. Restart your modem or router if you find out that the internet speed is slow after running a speed test.
For mobile data speed issues, turn Airplane mode on and then off. If the Whatsapp photo issue persists, try to speed up your mobile data connection.Â
Check storage issues
Whatsapp won’t be able to download photos if you have run out of storage space on your mobile phone. To fix this issue, go to the Settings menu of your mobile phone and examine how much free storage you have got.
If your mobile device is low on storage, create free space by deleting unnecessary media files from your gallery. Additionally, you can delete some apps that are just sitting there on your mobile phone.
Alternatively, use an SD card to install Whatsapp and store its media. Make sure to insert a working SD card into your mobile phone. Otherwise, Whatsapp won’t download photos on it as well.
Correct your date and time Settings
Quite often, wrong date and time settings on your mobile phone won’t let the app connect to the Whatsapp servers. As a result, your photos won’t download. To fix time and date issues on your phone, go to the Additional Settings under the Settings menu. Locate the “Date and Time” section and toggle the “Network-Provided” time to enable it.
Check storage permission
If Whatsapp can’t access your mobile phone storage or gallery/Photos, you can get an error while trying to save Whatsapp photos. Therefore, you need to grant Whatsapp the necessary storage permissions.
To do this on an Android phone, go to the Apps under Settings and tap on App permissions. Now, select the Storage option. Next, scroll and locate Whatsapp and toggle to turn on the storage permission option.
For an iOS device, go to Settings –> Privacy –>Photos. Afterwards, tap on Whatsapp and then tap on All photos.
Reset network settings
If the issue of downloading photos on Whatsapp persists, you can try resetting network settings on your mobile device.
To do this, head over to the Settings menu and choose the Connection and Sharing option. Next, head to “Reset WIFI, Mobile network, and Bluetooth” and tap the option. Now launch Whatsapp and see if this method fixes the issue.
Reinstall Whatsapp
If the above fixes fail to resolve the Whatsapp photos downloading issue, you can try to uninstall and reinstall the app on your mobile phone. We recommend that you back up all your messages on Whatsapp before uninstalling the app.
Conclusion
Hopefully, by now you have fixed the Whatsapp photos download issue. We suggest that before trying out the troubleshooting steps, check if the Whatsapp service is down. Also, try to force close Whatsapp and launch it again. Most of the time, these two simple checks can fix a lot of problems on Whatsapp.
