How To Solve Whatsapp Error – The file you picked was not a photo

This explains why you are getting the “Whatsapp error, The file you picked was not a photo” and explains how to solve the error.

Whatsapp is the number one messaging app of choice in the world. Many users depend on it for social communication but its also fast becoming a force in business and corporate communication.

Whatsapp, credit be given, is largely error-free and can be used quite easily without running into error after another.

However from time to time, you will run into some errors and the error, “The file you picked was not a photo” is one of the commonest Whatsapp error.

Now lets look at what brings the Whatsapp error, The file you picked was not a photo.

The error The file you picked was not a photo can be caused by many problems on your android smart phone. Specifically, the error could be a result of:

Permission Errors

The recent versions of Android require that you grand special access permission to many applications and functions of your phone. Whatsapp specifically requires access to the camera, and gallery in order to send pictures well.

Lack of permission to your images could cause Whatsapp to malfunction and lead to the error “The file you picked was not a photo”. To solve this error you will need to grant the required permissions in your phone settings under permissions.

If this is the case, the problem will most likely show up after installing a new instance of Whatsapp or after adjusting phone settings. If your phone has previously worked well and you have not changed settings this is most likely not the cause of the error.

Lack Of Space

The most common cause of the Whatsapp error – The file you picked was not a photo is lack of space.

Whatsapp is used to send photos and videos. These consume a bit of disk space. cumulatively and over time, if you do not delete some or back up on another drive, your phone will soon have no space to function normally.

This is especially true if your phone has internal memory of less than 12GB. Over time it will fill up.

If you are a member of very active Whatsapp groups that often send many videos and images and you have set permission to automatically download media then you will reach the limit rather faster.

Once you run out of space, the phone may have no space to “play with” to perform certain functions hence that Whatsapp error of “The file you picked was not a photo”.

If you have previously used Whatsapp to send media and it worked well and all of a sudden this error shows up, this could be the cause.

To get rid of the error, simply use your gallery app and delete a substantial amount of videos and pictures or copy and move them to an external disk and Whatsapp should be able to work well.

Bad File Format.

This is specifically true with iPhone users. If you took pictures with your iPhone and copied them over to android, it’s possible that the phone did not save them in a readable format.

You may end up with the Whatsapp error The file you picked was not a photo. In this case you will need to convert your images to jpeg format so that your Android phone can correctly read them as images.

ALSO READ: WhatsApp Receives Messages BUT Does Not Send

Other Possible Causes

According to the Official Whatsapp FAQ, Common issues that can cause problems downloading or sending photos, videos include:
-Your phone might be having connectivity problems.
-Your phone’s date and time are set incorrectly.
-There is an issue with your SD card:
-There is not enough space on the SD card.
-The SD card is set to read-only mode.
-The SD card is corrupted.

Editors Note: If these tips do not help you solve the Whatsapp error – The file you picked was not a photo, contact us with the specific situation and we will see how best to help you.