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I downloaded a video shared in Whatsapp. After playing, I deleted it using MX Player Pro.

Now, when I tap that video in Whatsapp, it says "Sorry, this media file doesn't exist on SD card." I was expecting that Whatsapp would try to re-download that video.

How to force Whatsapp to re-download that video? Or, does Whatsapp delete media files from server after being downloaded?

iOS
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2 Answers2

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Once a media file is downloaded from the WhatsApp server it is indeed deleted the from the server. See this article: http://www.whatsapp.com/faq/general/28030002

The daily backups that other users are referring to only restore text and metadata content of messages. The media content (eg: images and videos) are stored on your device in a folder on the sdcard (typically in a location such as: /sdcard/WhatsApp/Media/) and is not part of the daily backup and so must be retained in order for WhatsApp to be able to find it.

There are methods to restore files from flash media once deleted but this requires you to act quickly. I will not talk about this here since this is not your question.

moo
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    One more reason to hate Whatsapp... – iOS Aug 20 '14 at 18:37
  • Oh well I guess now that you know that you will be careful next time before deleting a media file. But at least it appears there are not hoarding our data! :) . Regarding the backups you can make backups of the /sdcard/WhatsApp/Media/ folder yourself. That along with WhatsApps own backup constitute a complete backup and would allow for a complete restore on a say a new phone. – moo Aug 21 '14 at 23:24
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This is a simple and pretty straightforward way to restore deleted WhatsApp stuff. All you need to do is uninstall the app and install it back. This would actually use all the backup files, and restore whatever it can. It works with videos also

syed_sami
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