It can be frustrating when you try to send or receive messages, photos, or videos on WhatsApp only to get an error saying you don’t have enough storage. There are a few potential reasons why you may see this error and some things you can try to resolve it.
Not Enough Phone Storage
The most common reason for the “not enough storage” error on WhatsApp is that your phone simply doesn’t have enough free space available. WhatsApp requires a certain amount of free space to operate properly. The amount of free space required depends on your device and OS version, but is usually around 100-200 MB.
Over time, storage space on your phone can easily get used up by apps, photos, videos, downloaded files, and app data/cache. If your phone storage starts getting too full, WhatsApp may not have the free space it needs and will show the storage error.
Checking Your Phone’s Free Storage
To check how much free space you have available on your phone:
- On Android: Go to Settings > Storage to see the free space available.
- On iPhone: Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to see the free space.
If the amount of free space is low, this is likely the cause of the WhatsApp storage error. You’ll need to free up space on your phone to resolve it.
Freeing Up Space on Your Phone
Here are some tips to free up storage space on your phone:
- Uninstall apps you no longer use
- Offload large apps
- Delete or back up photos and videos
- Remove downloaded files and documents you don’t need
- Clear app caches and data
- Move files and media to cloud storage
- Upgrade to a phone with more storage capacity
After freeing up storage space, check if the WhatsApp error goes away.
WhatsApp Data Usage
In addition to requiring free phone storage, WhatsApp also needs enough data storage space for its own app data and cache. This includes your messages, media files sent/received on WhatsApp, account information, and other app data.
Over time, as you continue using WhatsApp, the app data storage used will keep increasing. If this WhatsApp data starts taking up too much space, you may get the “not enough storage” error.
Checking WhatsApp’s Data Usage
To see how much storage WhatsApp is using:
- On Android: Go to Settings > Apps/Application Manager > WhatsApp > Storage
- On iPhone: Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage, then check WhatsApp’s size there
If WhatsApp is using a lot of data storage, this could be the reason for the error.
Clearing WhatsApp Data and Cache
You can clear cached data and free up space used by WhatsApp by going into the app settings:
- On Android: Go to Settings > Apps/Application Manager > WhatsApp > Storage > Clear Data
- On iPhone: Go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage > WhatsApp > Offload App
This will clear cached data and free up space used by WhatsApp. Keep in mind it will also delete your locally stored messages and media, but you can back up your chat history first.
Insufficient Storage for Media
In some cases, you may have enough total phone and WhatsApp storage space, but the error can still occur when trying to send or receive a large media file specifically, like a video.
Even with storage available, very large media files (high resolution photos/videos) may cause the error if there’s not enough contiguous free space to temporarily save and process the incoming or outgoing media.
In this case, try clearing up space as mentioned above, or use tools like file compression to reduce the size of media before sending on WhatsApp.
Corrupted WhatsApp Database
In rare cases, a corrupted WhatsApp database or installation can also be the cause of constant storage errors. This is more likely if you are seeing the error persist even after freeing up space.
A corrupted database may fail to properly clear space even after deleting messages or clearing app data. To fix this:
- Try reinstalling WhatsApp completely to reset the database
- On Android, clear WhatsApp data then force stop the app before reopening
- Back up chat history and reinstall WhatsApp as a new install
This will reset the app’s storage usage and data and can resolve a persistent error caused by database corruption.
Insufficient OS Storage Limits
On some older Android devices, there are storage limits for how much space an app can use. These limits are often insufficient for WhatsApp’s storage needs.
If you have an older Android phone, go to Settings > Apps/Application Manager > WhatsApp and check if there are OS storage limits. If the available data storage for WhatsApp seems low, this may cause the error.
You can try clearing WhatsApp’s data and cache as above. But ultimately may need to upgrade your Android device to one without restrictive OS storage limits.
Using a MicroSD Card for Storage
If you are storing your WhatsApp data or media files on an external SD card, there are a couple factors that can cause storage errors:
- The SD card is too slow. WhatsApp requires fast data speeds to function properly.
- There is not enough free space on the SD card
- The SD card is corrupted or damaged
Try moving WhatsApp back to internal phone storage if you face issues when storing its data externally. SD cards that are too slow or damaged can lead to performance issues.
Conclusion
To summarize, the main reasons you may see a “not enough storage” error on WhatsApp are:
- Not enough free space on your phone
- WhatsApp’s data usage is too high
- Trying to send/receive very large media files
- Corrupted WhatsApp database
- Older Android phone with storage limits for apps
- Using problematic external SD card for storage
Try the troubleshooting tips outlined for each case above. The most common solutions are:
- Free up storage space on your phone
- Clear WhatsApp cached data and storage usage
- Compress or reduce size of media before sending
- Reinstall WhatsApp to reset database
With enough free phone storage and storage allocated to WhatsApp, you should be able to send messages and media without any “insufficient storage” errors.