Guide
How to get WhatsApp photos, videos and voice notes from Android to a Mac
For a few files, WhatsApp's own Mac app is enough. For all of it, every photo, video, voice note and document from every chat, copy WhatsApp's media folder over a cable.
On Android 11 and later, WhatsApp keeps every photo, video, voice note and document it has downloaded in one folder: Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media on the phone's internal storage. Copy that folder to the Mac over a USB cable and you have all of it, sorted by type. For a handful of files, it is quicker to open WhatsApp on the Mac, linked to your phone, and save them from the chat.
The folder is easy to miss. It sits several levels down inside the Android folder, Image Capture never shows it, and some apps on the phone cannot see it at all. Here is where everything is and how to reach it.
Where WhatsApp keeps media on Android
Inside Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media you will usually find one folder per kind of file:
WhatsApp ImagesandWhatsApp Video: photos and videos from your chats.WhatsApp Voice Notes: voice messages, in dated subfolders, as.opusaudio files.WhatsApp Audio: other audio files people sent you.WhatsApp Documents: PDFs, spreadsheets and anything sent as a document.WhatsApp Animated Gifs,WhatsApp StickersandWhatsApp Video Notes.
Some of these have a Sent subfolder holding the files you sent, and a Private one for media you hid from the gallery. Names vary a little between WhatsApp versions, so look around before you copy. WhatsApp Business keeps its own folder beside it, under Android/media/com.whatsapp.w4b. On Android 10 and earlier, the same WhatsApp/Media folder sits at the top of the phone's storage instead.
Next to Media are folders called Databases and Backups. They belong to WhatsApp's own chat backups and are no use on a Mac. Leave them where they are.
Why some apps cannot see the folder
Android 11 brought in scoped storage: apps are kept out of each other's files, and the system file picker cannot open the folders inside Android/data and Android/obb at all. WhatsApp moved its media into Android/media at the same time. Photos and videos there still show up in gallery apps, because Android lists them as media for any app allowed to see photos. The rest is harder to reach:
- Documents and other non-media files are not in that list, so an app that only has photo access never sees them.
- File managers usually need Android's All files access, a special permission granted in Settings, to browse the folder freely.
- The
Sentfolders usually carry a hidden.nomediafile, which tells gallery apps to skip them. - WhatsApp's Media visibility setting, when it is off, keeps new media out of the phone's gallery too.
On the Mac side, Image Capture uses PTP, the camera protocol, and in that mode Android shows only the DCIM and Pictures folders. WhatsApp's folder is not among them. A cable connection in File transfer mode, or a phone mounted as a drive, sees the whole storage, Android/media included.
A few files: WhatsApp on the Mac
WhatsApp has a Mac app, from WhatsApp's website or the App Store, for macOS 11 or later; WhatsApp Web in a browser works the same way. Open it on the Mac, then on the phone tap the three-dot menu, Linked devices and Link a device, and scan the code on the Mac's screen. Up to four devices can be linked at once.
Open the chat, open the photo, video or document, and download it to the Mac, at the quality WhatsApp delivered it. It is the easiest route for a handful of files and no route at all for a whole year. Older media can also fail to download on a linked computer, because WhatsApp does not keep media on its servers for ever; the phone's own copy is the one that lasts.
WhatsApp's Export chat covers one conversation: open the chat, tap More options, More, Export chat, choose Include media, and send the result to yourself. You get the messages as a text file and the most recent media as attachments. It is a record to read, not a backup: WhatsApp cannot import it again.
| Route | Photos and videos | Voice notes and documents | Every chat at once |
|---|---|---|---|
| WhatsApp on the Mac, or WhatsApp Web | One at a time | One at a time | No |
| Export chat, with media | The most recent, one chat | The most recent, one chat | No |
| Image Capture | No, folder not shown | No | No |
| An MTP app, such as OpenMTP | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SideMount, the phone in Finder | Yes | Yes | Yes |
All of it: the cable
With an MTP app
Plug the phone in, unlock it, tap the USB notification and choose File transfer (on Samsung, Transferring files / Android Auto). Open an MTP app such as the free OpenMTP, go to Android, media, com.whatsapp, WhatsApp, Media, and drag the folders you want to the Mac. The files stay in that app's window until you copy them out; no other Mac app can open them on the phone.
With the phone in Finder
SideMount mounts the phone as a drive in Finder, so the WhatsApp folder is one you open and drag like any other. Because it is a real drive, Terminal works on it too, and rsync can copy only what is new each time. Type rsync -av and a space, drag the Media folder from the phone's Finder window into Terminal to fill in its path, then type the destination and press Return:
rsync -av PHONE-PATH/Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media ~/WhatsApp-MediaRun the same command next month and it copies only the files that arrived since. rsync between Android and a Mac goes further. SideMount needs macOS 26 or later and USB debugging on the phone; the setup guide takes a few minutes, once.
What you get on the Mac
The copies are exactly what WhatsApp stored on the phone, no better. WhatsApp recompresses photos and videos sent in a chat, so a video that arrived small stays small; only files sent as documents arrive as the sender had them. Photos and videos open in Preview, Photos and QuickTime Player. Voice notes are Opus audio, which VLC plays, along with any player that supports the format. For full-size originals of your own videos, copy them from the camera folder instead: moving big videos to a Mac explains how.
One rule keeps your account safe: use only the official WhatsApp app. Modified versions such as GB WhatsApp and WhatsApp Plus break WhatsApp's terms, and WhatsApp bans accounts that use them, at least for a while. Nothing here needs one. Copying files out of the media folder only reads them, and WhatsApp carries on as before.
Questions
Where are WhatsApp photos stored on Android?
On Android 11 and later, in Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images on the phone's internal storage, with videos, voice notes and documents in sibling folders. On Android 10 and earlier, the WhatsApp/Media folder sits at the top of the storage instead.
Why can I not find the WhatsApp folder on my phone?
Since Android 11 it lives inside the Android folder, under media and com.whatsapp, which many apps hide or cannot open. A file manager needs All files access to browse it. Over a cable, choose File transfer rather than PTP, because PTP only shows the camera and Pictures folders.
How do I play WhatsApp voice notes on a Mac?
Copy them from the WhatsApp Voice Notes folder, where they sit in dated subfolders as .opus files. Opus is an audio format that VLC plays on any Mac, and so does any player that supports it.
Does copying WhatsApp media to a Mac affect my chats?
No. Copying only reads the files, so WhatsApp and your chats stay exactly as they were. Leave the Databases and Backups folders alone, and use only the official WhatsApp app, because modified versions break WhatsApp's terms and can get the account banned.
