WhatsApp has become so popular that family, business, and peer-to-peer communication is done through this instant messaging app. Right from sharing official files, invitation card, videos, images, etc. are all done through Whatsapp. However do you remember last time you deleted unwanted files exchanged through Whatsapp?
There is no surprise that many people face space problem because the storage on their device decreases considerably, considering the large amount of photos, images, memes and videos that are sent through these groups everyday.
So how to clean data from WhatsApp and increase storage space?
There are two ways to delete the files which you have sent or received as follows:
Directly from Phone
Steps to take to reduce WhatsApp’s memory footprint
- Go to ‘Settings’ menu
- Slide down until you find ‘Storage’
- Scroll down again and select ‘Browse’
- Select WhatsApp
- Enter the’ Media’ folder
Here you’ll see several folders, including WhatsApp Voice Notes, WhatsApp Documents, WhatsApp Images, WhatsApp Video, and WhatsApp Animated Gifs (depending on whether you’ve downloaded, received, or sent voice memos, documents, images, videos, or gifs, respectively).
Then enter into each of these folders and review each file type. If you think files are unwanted, do so by tapping the three-point icon on the right or pressing the file until it is selected and click on the garbage icon at the top right.
At the end of the removal process, you’ll immediately see a significant increase in storage capacity on your device, especially if you deleted multiple videos, as they take up the most space.
Note that this removal process is very different from entering your gallery and deleting the files, as these system folders contain records of files that may have been previously deleted from the library.
Any files sent from Whatsapp gets saved in the folder named “Sent”, which again consumes space. So it is best to delete the files from this folder as well.
Connecting phone to computer and then deleting
Another option is to delete whatsapp data is to connect your phone to computer. After connecting, open the whatsapp folder and select the required files and press Shift+Delete. This way the data will be deleted, freeing up the space on your phone.
