Move WhatsApp photos and videos to your own bucket
WhatsApp chats are where a lot of family photos and videos end up. They fill your phone, and WhatsApp has no button that downloads everything at once. You can still get the media out, one chat at a time, and keep it in a bucket you own.
This post is the move for WhatsApp media. Facebook and Instagram are different exports, and they have their own posts: Move Facebook to your own bucket and Move Instagram to your own bucket.
1. Export a chat from WhatsApp
WhatsApp exports one chat at a time. Start with the chat that has the most photos and videos, usually a family or friends group, and repeat for the others later.
On Android, open the chat. Tap More options, then More, then Export chat. Tap Include media.
On iPhone, open the chat and tap the contact's name or the group name. Tap Export chat, then Attach Media.
Then pick how to send it, like Mail or Notes, and get it onto this computer. On iPhone the export is a ZIP file. On Android you may get the chat text and media as separate files, so put them in one folder and zip it. WhatsApp's help says "the most recent media" is added to the export, and view once messages are not exported.
WhatsApp's help page on exporting your chat history has the full steps for both phones.
2. Pick a bucket you own
You need S3-compatible object storage.
For the price table, see the cheapest cloud object storage comparison.
This post does not walk the console again. If you do not have a bucket hooked up yet, follow how to connect a Backblaze B2 bucket and come back.
3. Import the zip in file.rocks
Sign in at file.rocks. Open Settings, then Import. Stay on From zip.
Pick WhatsApp. The default destination hint is WhatsApp.
Leave Media files only on to bring in photos and videos. Voice notes are skipped with it on. If you want them, turn it off, and PDFs and contact cards come along too. The chat text file is always skipped, so your messages stay out of the bucket either way.
Set a Destination folder with the chat's name, like Family. Without one, every chat's photos land loose in the same WhatsApp/ folder. Select the zip and click Start import. Keep the tab open while it runs.
Files land under your Destination folder, then WhatsApp/. Here that is Family/WhatsApp/…. If you leave Destination folder blank, they land under WhatsApp/… at the root of your bucket. Do the next chat the same way with a new destination folder.
This is not how to unzip a file in your own bucket. That is Extract to bucket on a zip you already own in Files. If the files are already unzipped, how to upload a folder to your own bucket is the fallback.
4. What you lose
Know this before you clear chats on your phone.
You lose the conversation. The import skips the chat text, so the bucket holds the photos and videos, not who said what.
You lose view once messages, and any media WhatsApp leaves out of the export. Check that the older photos you care about made it before you delete anything.
You lose the sync. This is a copy of each chat at the moment you exported it. New photos in the chat stay in WhatsApp until you export again.
It is not a WhatsApp backup. WhatsApp's help says exported chat history "can’t be re-imported because it’s a text file and not a backup file."
You keep the media you exported. You own the bucket. You can leave file.rocks, or your storage provider, and the objects still sit there.
5. Then stop
Do not try to rebuild the chat. Open the files in file.rocks when you need a photo.
Need to send one after it lands? That is how to share a file from your own bucket. If you want the long view on keeping family media around, read storing photos and videos forever.
Facebook and Instagram are next door. Start with Move Facebook to your own bucket if that is next.
Your files stay in the bucket you connected, and file.rocks is how you manage them.