Extracting images from wherever WhatsApp put them on my PC

Sigurd · Jun 11, 2024

The family use WhatsApp to share life as much as we can now that we are scattered across the country. The result is a lot f photos on WhatsApp. I use my PC for WhatsApp more than my phone. I did once find how to find them on my PC and move them to my image folders but I have forgotten how I did it. I did find a YouTube video which led me to the folders on AppsData but it did make heavy weather of it.
Whats the simplest way of doing this? They are much easier to sort on my graphics disk. The ideal would be to change the default folder used by WhatsApp if that is possible.

FreeBooter · Jun 11, 2024

Use WhatsApp on your PC and right-click the image you want to save.

WhatsApp - Official app in the Microsoft Store

WhatsApp from Meta is a 100% free messaging app. It’s used by over 2B people in more than 180 countries. It’s simple, reliable, and private, so you can easily keep in touch with your friends and family. WhatsApp works across mobile and desktop even on slow connections, with no subscription...

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antspants · Jun 11, 2024

Ian, hi..

There are a couple of ways you could do this, I think.
But at a certain point it apparently gets tricky/messy, using the File Explorer search function could save you from going batty looking for the images.

Navigate to (from what I have learned just now):
“C:\users\*ProfileName*\AppData\Local\Packages\(here is the tricky part)Random Numbers\WhatsApp Desktop\LocalState”

1. The first thing you could try is:
In File Explorer, stop at “C:\users\*ProfileName*\AppData\Local\Packages\”
Then in the top right of File Explorer, search for “WhatsApp” you hopefully should see a WhatsApp folder in the results and then search within there.
I think the folder is called “WhatsApp Desktop”
From in there you will need to look around for images or use the second method below when you enter the WhatsApp folder.

2. The second method you could try is navigate to and stop at:
“C:\users\*ProfileName*\AppData\Local\Packages\”
Then in the top right of File Explorer, search for the following term:

*.jpg

( * is a wildcard meaning any, so “anyname.jpg” )
All files with the extension .jpg will be found in the result.
Select all, copy, paste to a location you want.

I am not sure of a default way to create a new file destination.

antspants · Jun 11, 2024

If the second method works, you could end up with some random system .jpg files. This shouldn’t be a problem because they are all probably under 20 or 30KB. So sorting the images by filesize after you cut or copy and past all .jpg images from the result to another folder, should help you sort and delete unwanted images, like icons possibly.

Or you could possibly search by filesize before you cut or copy and paste.

Alternatively you could use the first method and then search for images, less of a chance of unwanted .jpg files.

(First post method 1. edited)

kelper · Jun 11, 2024

I can't find the folder on my PC but the same photos that I received are on my phone. If you open Files and select Images you can scroll right to find 'WhatsApp Images'. Then, with the three dots menu in top-right you can 'select all' and then 'Move' to a new folder of your choice or upload them to Google Drive from where you could download to your PC.

wiganken · Jun 11, 2024

The method I use is to drag and drop the WhatsApp images direct from my phone into my computer into any location I choose. That way I am always in control of where they are on my computer.
I do this using MyPhoneExplorer Client on my smartphone and the MyPhoneExplorer app on my computer. This app lends itself to selecting the WhatsApp photos on my phone and copy/pasting them to PC. I found that Phone Link is not good at allowing photos to be selected.

Download MyPhoneExplorer - MajorGeeks

MyPhoneExplorer connects your phone via cable, Bluetooth (pairing) or infrared allowing you to efficiently transfer and manage specific aspects of your phone.

www.majorgeeks.com

I should add that MyPhoneExplorer is free but does ask for a donation, which I paid as it is so good. I have no vested interest in MyPhoneExplorer. I am just a very satisfied user.

The location of photos on my phone are as shown on photo so they are easy to find.

kelper · Jun 11, 2024

Open File Explorer and search for IMG*WA*.jpg

I have indexing turned off but I use a program called Everything to do this search. It found all my WhatsApp photos.

Select all and then move or copy to a folder of your choice.

kelper · Jun 11, 2024

My previous post does find all the photos but they are about 500KB, so not full size. They are compressed but full size in pixels. They look ok to me for family shots etc.

Sigurd · Jun 11, 2024

FreeBooter said:
Use WhatsApp on your PC and right-click the image you want to save.

You haven't seen how many photos my family take!

wiganken · Jun 11, 2024

I also agree with @FreeBooter . You can drag photos direct from the PC WhatsApp UI and drag them anywhere you want on your PC.
To copy a lot of photos you can select the first photo and then press Shift key while you select the last photo. All the photos in-between the two selections will be selected and all will be dragged onto your PC in one drag operation.

kelper · Jun 11, 2024

wiganken said:
I also agree with @FreeBooter . You can drag photos direct from the PC WhatsApp UI and drag them anywhere you want on your PC.
To copy a lot of photos you can select the first photo and then press Shift key while you select the last photo. All the photos in-between the two selections will be selected and all will be dragged onto your PC in one drag operation.

But how do you find them on a PC? It's very difficult to find all photos in WA. My method, above, works better.

Also, they are not in the folder where most websites tell you to look.

FreeBooter · Jun 11, 2024

Look inside C:\Users\Siguard\AppData\Local\Packages\5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm\LocalCache\Roaming folder.

You will find various folders below containing different files. So, go through each folder and see what is contained in it.

Code:

C:\Users\Siguard\AppData\Local\Packages\5319275A.WhatsAppDesktop_cv1g1gvanyjgm

wiganken · Jun 12, 2024

kelper said:
Open File Explorer and search for IMG*WA*.jpg

I have indexing turned off but I use a program called Everything to do this search. It found all my WhatsApp photos.

Yes, it works. I tried it using File Explorer and it found 259 WA photos I know I had deleted going way back to May 2020. Did you find the same?

A WA desktop privacy issue: WA desktop is still using storage space (only 22MB) I thought I had regained by deleting unwanted WA messages and photos. For example, I see photos of my wife's friend's family in Canada who are of no interest to me at all but it could also be embarrassing photos you had deleted from WA and do not want them to be discoverable.
It is as well to know that this extra step is needed to fully remove unwanted WA photos from one's PC so thanks for the search term IMG*WA*.jpg.

Observations:
a) That 'Everything' app you mentioned is far superior to File Explorer. Very fast.
b) Some of the photos found were too small to be of any practical use. Only 4KB.

A side issue: The search of C: using File Explorer took quite a while and was very CPU intensive with fan on full speed and caused the mouse cursor to freeze for a while

BrianInEngland · Jun 12, 2024

antspants said:
Ian, hi..

There are a couple of ways you could do this, I think.
But at a certain point it apparently gets tricky/messy, using the File Explorer search function could save you from going batty looking for the images.

Navigate to (from what I have learned just now):
“C:\users\*ProfileName*\AppData\Local\Packages\(here is the tricky part)Random Numbers\WhatsApp Desktop\LocalState”

1. The first thing you could try is:
In File Explorer, stop at “C:\users\*ProfileName*\AppData\Local\Packages\”
Then in the top right of File Explorer, search for “WhatsApp” you hopefully should see a WhatsApp folder in the results and then search within there.
I think the folder is called “WhatsApp Desktop”
From in there you will need to look around for images or use the second method below when you enter the WhatsApp folder.

2. The second method you could try is navigate to and stop at:
“C:\users\*ProfileName*\AppData\Local\Packages\”
Then in the top right of File Explorer, search for the following term:

*.jpg

( * is a wildcard meaning any, so “anyname.jpg” )
All files with the extension .jpg will be found in the result.
Select all, copy, paste to a location you want.

I am not sure of a default way to create a new file destination.

Use a Junction? Put the folder somewhere else and create a link to it

kelper · Jun 12, 2024

wiganken said:
Yes, it works. I tried it using File Explorer and it found photos I know I had deleted going way back to May 2020. Did you find the same?

No, all mine were recent because I had uninstalled WhatsApp and reinstalled.

FDretired · Jun 12, 2024

This is what I do

I have WhatsApp on my desktop.

1) click on the video or picture
2) click on the hamburger top right
3) Save as
4) Save to folder on your computer

wiganken · Jun 12, 2024

@kelper - At least we are aware of the need to do a periodic search for unwanted WA photos now so that's a good outcome.

kelper · Jun 12, 2024

FDretired said:
This is what I do

I have WhatsApp on my desktop.

1) click on the video or picture
2) click on the hamburger top right
3) Save as
4) Save to folder on your computer

That is understood, but he has hundreds of photos and so that is not practicable.

FDretired · Jun 12, 2024

My wife had many images from whatsApp

I connected the android phone to the computer USB slot. I had to change USB settings to "file transfer".

The phone is now visible in "This PC"

The whatsApp folder is buried with all the images and videos

This PC\moto g(9) play\Internal shared storage\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp

kelper · Jun 12, 2024

FDretired said:
My wife had many images from whatsApp

I connected the android phone to the computer USB slot. I had to change USB settings to "file transfer".

The phone is now visible in "This PC"

The WhatsApp folder is buried with all the images and videos

This PC\moto g(9) play\Internal shared storage\Android\media\com.whatsapp\WhatsApp

Yes, but he is trying to organise the WhatsApp images ON HIS PC, not those on his PHONE!

Please read post #1.

Extracting images from wherever WhatsApp put them on my PC

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