Usually, communication and file sharing via WhatsApp works very smoothly. However, problems can sometimes arise when you want to download or send media files. The causes can be diverse and range from a lack of Internet connection on your mobile device to a defective memory card.
What to Do if You Can't Download or Send Media Files on WhatsApp
The first thing that you can do is to make sure that your mobile phone is connected to the Internet and has a strong enough signal. To test this, you can try loading a web page.
If this does not solve you issue, make sure that the date and time on your app are displaying correctly.
Verifying MicroSD Card Space
You should make sure that you have enough free space on either your microSD card or on your device's internal memory. You may try deleting some files that you no longer need, if necessary.
Setting the MicroSD Card to Read-Only
If you are specifically having problems downloading files, make sure that your phone's microSD card (if it has one) is not set to read-only. You can test this by trying to save a media file outside of WhatsApp. If you are able to, it means that you do not have this setting activated. If you are unable to, change your memory card's security settings or try deleting some files from the WhatsApp folder on the card.
After following these steps, you should restart your device. Once the restart is complete, you should no longer have trouble downloading WhatsApp files. If the problem persists, a portion of the microSD card may be damaged. To fix this, make a backup of your data and, then, format it.
If the problem continues after you have tried all of these solutions, you should look into replacing the microSD card with a new one, as it may be defective.
