WhatsApp Download failed. Unable to complete the download.
My WhatsApp is not receiving photos, audios and videos, and the message ‘Failed to download’ appears when I try to download a file sent to me. What do I do?”
You received an audio, video or some photos on WhatsApp, but when you tried to download them, the message WhatsApp Download failed. Unable to complete the download. Please try again later.” was shown?
If you are unable to download media on WhatsApp and can only send and receive text messages, the problem may be with your internet connection. However, poor storage, cache and corrupted microSD card can also cause this download failure.
8 Ways to Fix WhatsApp Download Failed
Table of Contents
Fixing WhatsApp media download failure is simple. Check out 8 ways to solve the problem here.
1. Restart the device
Do you think restarting solves everything? Well, that’s often the case. So, the first thing you should do when the download failure appears is to restart your mobile.
This is usually all you need. However, if it still hasn’t fixed the problem, here are 7 more solutions…
2. Check the Internet connection
When the device has no internet connection or the connection is slow, WhatsApp will show the message “Download Failed”. You can solve this in two ways: connecting to a Wi-Fi network or turning on mobile data.
You can check the internet connection in Settings > Wi-Fi. Then choose a Wi-Fi network and tap to connect. If not, restart the modem/router and try again. If you don’t have a Wi-Fi network, you’ll need to turn on mobile data.
3. Restart and update WhatsApp
If you are using an outdated version of WhatsApp, bugs are common. So, check if there is an update available and update WhatsApp to fix the media download failed error. Here’s how to do it:
- Open your device’s app store;
- Search for “WhatsApp” in the search field;
- If it shows that there is an update available, tap “Update” and wait for WhatsApp to update.
After updating, open WhatsApp and check if the problem is fixed.
How to Delete Old WhatsApp Media Files from the Photos App
4. Clear WhatsApp cache
The app cache includes several temporary files and, after a while, this ends up influencing the functioning of WhatsApp. Therefore, whenever possible, it is recommended that you clear your device’s cache, erasing temporary files and improving performance.
To clear WhatsApp cache, do this:
- Open the “Settings” app and go to the “Applications” option.
- Search and select “WhatsApp” from the list of apps. Then tap on “Storage”.
- Finally, tap on “Clear cache”.
After clearing the cache, launch WhatsApp and check if the issue is fixed.
5. Check your system date and time
For the correct functioning of the internet and WhatsApp, it is necessary that the date and time of your device is set correctly.
Checking the phone’s date and time and setting it correctly is quite simple.
If you are using an iPhone . Go to Settings > General > Date & Time > toggle the switch to enable the “Automatically” option.
On Android , you can adjust the date and time in Settings > System > Date & Time. Then check the “Automatic date and time” option and just below that check “Automatic time zone” as well.
After making the adjustments, restart your device and check if the WhatsApp Download Failed message has stopped showing.
6. Check WhatsApp storage permission
WhatsApp will not be able to download media if you do not allow access to your phone’s storage. You can check if this is the problem and fix it by following the steps below for Android and iPhone.
Here is how to grant storage access permissions on Android:
Step 1. Open the “Settings” application;
Step 2. Tap on “Application” option and choose “WhatsApp” from the application list;
Step 3. Now tap on the “Permissions” option, choose “Storage”/”Files and Media”, and move the switch to the right to enable the permissions.
If you use iPhone, follow the steps below to grant WhatsApp permissions to Photos:
Step 1. Go to “Settings”;
Step 2. Tap on “Privacy”;
Step 3. Tap “Photos” > WhatsApp > enable “Read and Write”;
You can also release permissions in Settings > WhatsApp > Photos > All Photos.
How to stop WhatsApp from saving images to Photo app
7. Check the microSD card space
Without available storage space, WhatsApp will not be able to save media received by messages. So, check your microSD card space or internal storage by following the steps below:
On android
Step 1. Open your phone’s Settings menu;
Step 2. Tap on Storage option.
On iPhone
Step 1. Open the iPhone “Settings” menu;
Step 2. Tap “General” and then iPhone Storage.
Check how much free space you have. If the storage is full, delete some useless files and apps. Another option is to migrate some files to Google Drive or iCloud. After that, open WhatsApp and check if the “download failure” is fixed.
8. The microSD is set to read-only
It is common for the memory card to be set to read-only, so this could be the problem that prevents WhatsApp from saving photos, audios and videos.
To check if the problem is with the microSD card, first try to save any photo or video from another website/app. In case you can’t, you should format the microSD card to fix the problem.
Important: Before formatting the card, make a backup of all your data. If this does not resolve the issue with WhatsApp, try a new card.
Conclusion
In short, simple issues can cause WhatsApp to have “Download Failed” when trying to download photos, audio or video. If you faced this problem, I hope that any of the 8 solutions shown here helped you to fix it.
