Fixing problems

What "<Media omitted>" Means in Your WhatsApp Chat

When a WhatsApp text export contains a line reading <Media omitted>, an attachment was not written into the file. Here is what that means and how to get the actual photos.

Where the line comes from

A WhatsApp text export is a record of messages, not a copy of everything on the phone. When you export without media, WhatsApp writes a placeholder in place of each photo, video, sticker, document or other attachment, so the conversation still reads in the right order. The placeholder is usually <Media omitted>. Some phones and app versions write a more specific label such as image omitted, video omitted, sticker omitted or document omitted.

The exact wording varies by phone and app version, so your file may read differently from these examples. The meaning is the same in every case: something was shared at that point, and it is not in the text file.

The line is a marker, not an error. Your chat is not corrupted.

Why the attachment is missing

• The export was made with the Without media option, which leaves attachments out on purpose.
• The file was saved as a .txt, which can only hold text.
• The media was never downloaded to the phone, so there was nothing to include in the export.
• The media had been deleted from the phone or removed by a storage setting before the export was made.

How to get the actual photos

Export the chat again and choose the option that includes media. On Android, open the chat menu, choose More, then Export chat, and pick the option that attaches media. On an iPhone, open the chat info screen, choose Export Chat, and select the option to include media. Labels change over time, but the choice is always between without media and with media.

1. Open the chat and start a new export with media included.
2. Save the resulting .zip to your phone or computer.
3. Unzip it. The chat text file is usually named _chat.txt in iPhone exports, and Android exports use a name beginning with WhatsApp Chat.
4. Keep the folder together so the text file and the media sit side by side.

Upload the .zip, not just the .txt, to ChatIntoPDF. Photos are reproduced inline on a higher tier of ChatIntoPDF, and the free full preview lets you check the layout before you pay. The full PDF is paid once per chat from $1.99, and no account is needed.

When the photo is genuinely gone

If a photo was never downloaded to the phone, or was deleted before the export, WhatsApp cannot include it, and no converter can recover it from the export. Check the original device, a backup you made earlier, or the phone of someone else in the chat who may still have the file. There is no reliable way to pull a missing image back out of a text export.

Reading the placeholder in a PDF

In a text-only conversion, the placeholder stays in the PDF so the timeline still makes sense. Each placeholder shows where something was shared, which helps when you are reading a long conversation back.

You can also use the placeholders to count. Open the .txt in a text editor and search for Media omitted. The number of matches tells you how many attachments the text-only export left out, which helps you decide whether a second export with media is worth it.

Check before you convert

Before you spend time on a re-export, decide what you need. If the words are enough, the text-only file is smaller and quicker to convert. If the pictures are the point of the record, export with media and check the size first. The guide on why a media export is so large covers ways to keep that file manageable.

• Text only: export without media and convert the .txt.
• Pictures needed: export with media, unzip, and upload the .zip.
• Photo missing from the phone: it cannot be recovered from the export.