Instant messaging star of Meta, WhatsApp is today the fourth most used application in the world. In France, near 24 million people Connect there every day, almost a third of the population.
If its use has become essential to discuss with your loved ones, share photos, videos or documents, the application hides a drawback: it weighs heavy on the storage of phones.
By default, WhatsApp automatically downloads most of the files received. Over the months, these contents accumulate and saturate the memory of your device, especially if it only has 64 or 128 GB of storage. Result: a slowed smartphone and annoying notifications reminding you that the available space is rare.
The tip to free up space
The good news is that WhatsApp incorporates a hidden basket and an internal storage management tool, very effective in deleting heavy files that accumulate without you notice them. Here is the procedure to follow: Open WhatsApp on your smartphone.
Go to “Settings” (or “settings” on iPhone).
Click on “Storage and data”, then on “Manage storage”.
You will see the size occupied by the application and its media files appear.
Press “Review and delete the items” to access files over 5 MB, often videos or heavy documents.
Select and delete unnecessary content to release several gigas in a few seconds.
What files delete in priority?
For an effective cleaning: first delete the larger videos and documents.
Images and GIFs can also be targeted if you receive a lot.
Check the messages transferred in loop to groups, often very gourmet in storage.
Do not worry: if you are mistakenly erase a file that you want to keep, it remains recoverable by downloading it again in the original conversation, as long as it has not been deleted by the sender.
A simple gesture for a faster phone
This tip often makes it possible to recover several gigas in a few minutes, especially if you are a member of many groups or if your loved ones regularly send you videos.
Beyond this punctual manipulation, remember to: deactivate automatic download of the media to avoid new saturation.
Make this cleaning regularly, once a month for example.
With this simple gesture, your phone will be more fluid and your applications will work better, without investing in a new smartphone.