Monday, May 20, 2024

Where Whatsapp Stores Videos

Im documenting this online because I cannot find this information anywhere.

If you take a video on your phone, and send it on whatsapp, two copies will appear.
  • one original quality one in:
    This PC\PHONE\Internal storage\DCIM\Camera
  • one low quality one in:
    This PC\PHONE\Internal storage\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp\
    Media\WhatsApp Video\Sent

If you take a video using the Whatsapp app itself, it saves two copies, 
  • one relatively high quality one in:
    This PC\PHONE\Internal storage\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp\
    Media\WhatsApp Video
  • low quality one in:
    This PC\PHONE\Internal storage\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp\
    Media\WhatsApp Video\Sent

Here's the thing that really sh!ts me. If someone sends you a video, it is saved in, you guessed it:
  • This PC\PHONE\Internal storage\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp\
    Media\WhatsApp Video

SUMMARY:
\WhatsApp Video folder keeps videos people send you, and videos taken using whatsapp
\Whatsapp Video\Sent folder keeps videos you have sent. (originals are still in your DCIM folder)


Im pulling my hair out because whatsapp irritatingly at some point was saving a low quality versions of videos I have the original (taken with phone video camera) in the whatsapp video folder by default - meaning there are lots of videos that are essentially low quality dupes of videos that already exist - mixed in with videos sent to me by family/friends to which I dont have the original. 

What sh!ts me even more is that when you transfer to a new phone, all metadata is wiped (date created/modified), so you are left with only the filename to go by - no auto renaming or sorting will work to add these videos to my main archive.

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