How to stop WhatsApp saving photos to your iPhone camera roll

WhatsApp has a setting called Save to Camera Roll. When it is on, photos and videos you receive in chats are also written to your Photos library. They then appear in Recents and in the date-ordered Library, and Photos can use them in Memories and widgets like any other picture.

The setting exists for convenience, but it means a photo sent by a colleague, a screenshot of a document or a private picture from a friend can sit in the library you hand over when you show someone your pictures.

1. 1Open WhatsApp and go to Settings (the tab at the bottom right).
2. 2Tap Chats.
3. 3Turn off Save to Camera Roll.

New photos and videos then stay inside WhatsApp, and you can still view them in the chat. Photos you saved yourself, or that were saved before, are not removed by this switch.

Each chat can override the global setting:

1. 1Open the chat and tap the contact or group name at the top.
2. 2Tap Save to Camera Roll.
3. 3Choose Never.

This helps when most chats are fine to save but one group sends things you do not want in your library. You need to repeat it for each chat.

Turning the setting off does not touch photos that were already copied. To remove them:

1. 1In Photos, find the pictures. The Recents album lists them by date, newest first.
2. 2Select them and tap the bin icon, then confirm.
3. 3Open Albums, then Recently Deleted, and delete them there too. Until you do, deleted photos stay for up to 30 days. See how to permanently delete photos on iPhone.

Deleting a copy from Photos does not delete the one inside the WhatsApp chat, and it does not delete the sender's copy. Photos you also have in iCloud Photos are removed from your other devices as well.

If they showed up in Memories or Featured Photos, see how to stop unwanted photos from showing up in Memories.

Some chat photos you want to keep, such as an ID someone sent you, a contract or a receipt, but you do not want them in the Photos library. Lockboxy is a private, encrypted vault for iPhone built for that.

1. 1In WhatsApp, open the photo and tap the Share button.
2. 2Choose Lockboxy in the share sheet. It copies the photo into the app.
3. 3Open Lockboxy and unlock it with its passcode. The shared photos are added to your vault then.
4. 4The photo stays in the WhatsApp chat until you delete it there. Delete it too if you do not want a copy left behind.

Photos in Lockboxy are encrypted with AES-256 on your device, and they never appear in the Photos app. There is no account and no server holding a copy.

If you would rather keep a photo in Photos, the Hidden album removes it from the main library, with the limits that guide explains.

• The WhatsApp setting only controls what WhatsApp saves to Photos. WhatsApp still keeps received media in its own storage, so photos remain in the chats and count toward the app's storage.
• Anyone who has the sender's photo, such as the sender or other group members, still has it. Nothing here deletes other people's copies.
• If you tap Save in a chat yourself, the photo is written to Photos regardless of the setting.
• The vault key in Lockboxy comes from your passcode. If you forget it, nobody, including us, can open the vault, unless you made a Recovery Key (Premium) beforehand.
• The free plan has room for up to 30 photos or videos and 10 files. The price of Premium is shown in the app before you buy; see the Premium page.