The WhatsApp Desktop app for Mac lets you chat with your contacts and read messages while you're on your phone. Although it's the same WhatsApp app, albeit optimized for a larger desktop screen, you can Make voice or video calls With your contacts without using your phone. While the WhatsApp Desktop app works great, you won't be able to download any photos from your contacts to your Mac. This defeats the purpose of using the desktop app and not using your phone. Fortunately, this issue is fixable. We've compiled some fixes for WhatsApp Desktop not downloading photos on Mac.
1. Check your internet connection
Starting with a basic solution, you need to: Run a speed test To check the strength of your internet connection. If you're downloading multiple photos sent by your contacts, intermittent connections may keep showing you an error. After running a speed test, you'll know your internet connection's stability and reliability before moving on to other solutions.
2. Check your MAC's internal storage.
After internet speeds, you need to check if there's ample storage space available on your Mac. As mentioned earlier, downloading multiple files requires ample storage space on your Mac. Of course, although Macs come with faster SSD storage, their capacity is limited. Therefore, you can refer to the following: Check and optimize your Mac's storage , especially when WhatsApp Desktop won't download images on Mac.
3. Force quit and restart WhatsApp
Sometimes, background processes or app activities prevent you from making any changes or downloading anything. Therefore, you can force-quit the WhatsApp Desktop app to stop any stuck or ongoing processes. Then, you can restart WhatsApp Desktop on your Mac to give the app a fresh start.
Step 1: Click Apple logo In the upper left corner of menu bar.
Step 2: Locate Imposing termination of context menu.
Step 3: Locate WhatsApp of Application List.
Step 4: Click ForceQuit In the lower right side.
Step 5: Click on the button Imposing termination In the pop-up window to confirm your decision.
Restart WhatsApp on your Mac to check if the issue is resolved.
4. Enable automatic media download
WhatsApp gives you the option to automatically download any type of media file on your Mac. If you're still experiencing the same issue, you can try re-enabling Media Auto-Download after restarting the app. Here's how.
Step 1: Click on Command + Spacebar shortcut to turn on Spotlight Search , And type WhatsApp , And press Return.
Step 2: Click arrow symbol in the upper left corner.
Step 3: Locate Settings.
Step 4: Scroll down and tap Media Auto-Download.
Step 5: Click the check box next to Pictures.
Step 6: come back to me private chats Come and check it out Solve the problem.
5. Log back into WHATSAPP
If you're still having trouble, you can try logging back into your WhatsApp account on your Mac. This will download all your chats and data back to the desktop app.
Step 1: Click on Command + Spacebar shortcut to turn on Spotlight Search , And type WhatsApp , And press Return.
Step 2: Click arrow symbol In the upper left corner and select sign out.
Step 3: erase Scan QR code Again use your phone to log in and verify. Solve the problem.
You can read our post if The WhatsApp QR code has not been loaded on your Mac..
6. Check download access on MAC
Every app you install on your Mac requires permission to access your Mac's storage to download files. If you still can't download images from the WhatsApp Desktop app, here's how to check if download access is enabled on your Mac.
Step 1: Click on Command + Spacebar shortcut to start Spotlight Search , And type System Settings , then press Return.
Step 2: Scroll down and tap Privacy and security.
Step 3: Scroll down on the right side and click on Files and folders.
Step 4: Click the arrow next to WhatsApp.
Step 5: Click switch Next to the downloads folderEnable access.
Step 6: Close the window and open WhatsApp check about Solve the problem.
7. Update the WhatsApp desktop app
You can try installing a new version of the WhatsApp Desktop app on your Mac for a bug-free experience. This should help download images sent by your contacts. You can use the link below to update WhatsApp.
8. Switch to WhatsApp Web
If none of the above solutions work for you, we suggest switching to WhatsApp Web and trying to download image files. Simply open a browser, navigate to WhatsApp Web, and log in to your account.
You can also read our post If your phone can't scan a QR code on WhatsApp Web.
Download images from WhatsApp
These solutions should help you download photos sent from your WhatsApp contacts to your Mac. You can also read our post to learn more. How to create communities on WhatsApp.
