Your Quick Answer:
To stop auto-downloading in the WhatsApp web, you can either choose to delete all your WhatsApp contacts from your phone.
Every time it’s a message from someone, you need to tap on the media or images to download it when using WhatsApp web or you can just stop it directly by tapping the cross icon when it’s getting downloaded.
There are two ways that can be helpful if you want to stop the auto-download on the WhatsApp web.
As turning off the auto-download is directly not possible, you can try these two methods to do that. WhatsApp web automatically downloads pictures when it receives them from a saved contact.
Over here, you’ll find the tricks to stop the auto-download feature on WhatsApp web without actually doing it. As it’s not possible to directly stop the auto-download of the media when you’re using WhatsApp web, these tricky methods work as the perfect way to do that.
How To Stop Auto Download On WhatsApp Web:
There are certain steps that you can use in order to stop the auto-downloading for the WhatsApp web.
1. Delete Contact from Phone
Some people don’t know this trick of deleting the contact from the phone to stop the auto-download of the media when using WhatsApp web.
As you won’t have the feature of turning off the auto-download manually, you need to know about the basic tricks that’ll help you get rid of this problem of auto-downloading when using WhatsApp web.
It will also help you to save space on your desktop or laptop and prevent unwanted media from crowding the memory of your PC.
The steps below will let you know about all the details in a more transparent way:
🔴 Steps To Follow:
Step 1: First, delete the contacts from your phone which are on WhatsApp.

Step 2: Then open the WhatsApp application and tap on the green message symbol at the lower right corner of the screen to get into the Select Contact page.
Step 3: Now on the Select Contact page, tap on the three vertically placed dot symbols at the top right side of the screen.


Step 4: From the prompting options, click on ‘Clear chat’.

Note: Make sure you are connected to a data connection or stable wifi all this time.
â—˜ Now when you receive any picture or other media from any of these unsaved contacts, tap on it to download it using your mobile phone for the first time.
â—˜ Then the next time, when you’re using WhatsApp web, you need to tap on the pictures or any other media to download it when you receive those from some of these unsaved contacts.
Note: Auto download of media of WhatsApp mobile should be kept off while performing the technique.
2. For Saved Contacts
If you’re not willing to try the trick of deleting the contact number you can try the manual technique of canceling the download of the picture by tapping the cross sign when it’s about to get downloaded.
As you won’t find the manual switch to turn off the auto-download in WhatsApp web, you need to use this type of trick to do it. It is also very simple and you just need to do it using WhatsApp web and has nothing to do with WhatsApp mobile.
â—˜ Connect to a WhatsApp web, when you receive any picture or media from anyone, click on that chat.
â—˜ You’ll see the cross sign in the middle of the picture or video when the download starts.
â—˜ Quickly click on that cross icon to stop the auto-download of the media.
That’s how it’s done to cancel the auto-download manually.
Note: You will have to perform this technique using WhatsApp web on a PC and it has nothing to do with WhatsApp mobile.
3. WhatsApp Web Download Blocker
Enter the number of the person whose chat you want to stop auto-downloading from.
Why does WhatsApp Download Media Accordingly:
The WhatsApp web works on how you set everything on the phone. As you won’t find the feature to close or turn off the auto-download of media or photos when using the WhatsApp web, you need to keep in mind that if you’ve saved the contacts on your phone, then the media or pictures will get auto-downloaded when using WhatsApp web.
So it somehow depends on how to set everything on your phone. If you don’t save the contact numbers, then every time you receive a media you need to tap on it to download that picture. But it gets auto-downloaded when the contact is there in your device’s contact list.
🔯 Auto-Download in WhatsApp Groups – How it Works:
When you’re using WhatsApp web, you won’t have any separate switch to turn off the auto-download. So you need to do that using the tricks.
However, when it’s about group chats you’ll find that the media files or pictures that are getting saved automatically in your memory or gallery are posted in the group by some of the people who are in your contact list. The media files from the unsaved contacts won’t be auto-downloaded.
Only the media sent by the contact list people will be automatically downloaded from the group chats.
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