How to Save the Photos and Voice Notes from a WhatsApp Chat
Text is only half of most WhatsApp conversations — the photos, videos and voice notes usually carry the parts you actually want to keep. Here's how to export them properly, and what to do about the fact that WhatsApp doesn't keep media attached to its message.
Media has to be exported on purpose
WhatsApp's export feature gives you a choice, and it's easy to pick the wrong option without noticing. On iPhone, after tapping the contact name and choosing Export Chat, you're asked to pick Attach Media or Without Media. On Android, the equivalent choice under ⋮ → More → Export chat is Include media or Without media.
If you choose "without media," every photo, video and voice note in the chat is replaced in the text with the placeholder <Media omitted>, and none of the actual files are included. That's fine for a text-only record, but if the photos are the reason you're exporting in the first place, you need to choose the "with media" option — it produces a larger .zip file, but that's the one that actually contains something to look at.
What's actually inside the export
Open the .zip file and you'll find _chat.txt alongside a folder full of individual files — photos as .jpg, videos as .mp4, and voice notes as .opus. WhatsApp caps how much media a single export can carry (older exports, or very media-heavy chats, may only include the most recent files), so for a chat with years of photos, don't be surprised if the export is trimmed to the newer end of the conversation.
Inside _chat.txt, each media item appears as a line referencing its filename, something like:
[14/03/2024, 09:12:03] Amara: IMG-20240314-WA0007.jpg (file attached)
That reference is the only thing tying the photo to its place in the conversation — the actual file just sits loose in the folder with everything else.
Voice notes and the .opus problem
Voice notes are saved in the .opus format, which is efficient for WhatsApp's purposes but not something every device handles smoothly. Most modern browsers and media players can play .opus files, but plenty of default apps on Windows and older Android versions can't open them without an extra download, and there's no built-in preview on most file managers — so unless you go looking, a folder full of .opus files just looks like a pile of files with no obvious way in.
That's a real problem if the reason you exported the chat was to keep a voice note from someone — a message you actually want to be able to press play on, not hunt around for the right app to open a file extension you don't recognise.
The bigger issue: media gets separated from its message
Even once you can open the individual files, the export leaves you with two disconnected things: a text log referencing filenames, and a folder of files named things like IMG-20240314-WA0007.jpg that tell you nothing about who sent it or what was said around it. Scrolling through _chat.txt to match a filename back to its moment in the conversation, message by message, isn't something most people are going to do by hand for a chat with hundreds of photos.
In effect, exporting "with media" solves the problem of the files existing somewhere, but not the problem of the conversation actually making sense as a conversation.
Putting it back together
SaveMyChats reads the exported .zip and reconnects the two halves automatically: photos appear inline exactly where they were sent, videos sit in the flow of the conversation rather than a separate folder, and voice notes become an audio player you can press play on directly, no extra app needed. It also produces a clean thumbnail or chip for each media item if you export to PDF, so a printed or saved copy still shows what was shared rather than a blank gap. Everything happens in your browser — nothing is uploaded anywhere — so it works just as well for a chat you'd rather keep private.
If you haven't exported the chat yet, our guide on backing up a chat before switching phones covers the export step in more detail.
A few practical tips
- Always choose "with media" if photos or voice notes matter — you can't add them back afterwards.
- For a chat with a lot of media, export sooner rather than later; WhatsApp may not include everything if you wait until the history is very long.
- Keep the
.zipfile intact rather than pulling files out individually — the filenames only make sense alongside_chat.txt. - If a voice note won't play on your phone or laptop, it's almost always the
.opusformat rather than a corrupted file.
Ready to save yours? SaveMyChats turns a WhatsApp export into a beautiful web page or PDF — right in your browser, with nothing uploaded. Open SaveMyChats →