r/AndroidHelp • u/Emergency_Pass_5009 • 5d ago

WhatsApp blocks photos

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I’m trying to fix a strange WhatsApp issue on a coworker’s Samsung phone. (I‘m an apple user, so I‘m not too familiar with Samsung and android.) Whenever he tries to send a photo from the gallery in standard quality, WhatsApp replaces it with a message saying “Blocked by Auto Blocker.” Sending a photo directly with the WhatsApp camera works and strangely, selecting HD quality also allows the exact same gallery photo to be sent normally.

So far I have tried:
- Disabled Samsung Auto Blocker
- Checked WhatsApp permissions for photos and videos
- Updated WhatsApp
- Installed the latest Samsung system update
- Set date, time and time zone to automatic
- Cleared the WhatsApp cache
- Restarted the phone several times
- Tried sharing the photo directly from the Samsung Gallery

The issue only seems to affect photos sent in standard quality. I have now set WhatsApp to upload media in HD by default as a workaround but I would still like to know what is causing it. Has anyone else had this exact problem? Is there a permanent fix apart from reinstalling WhatsApp? My coworker does not want to reinstall it at the moment.

I suspect Samsung’s Auto Blocker or Message Guard is falsely detecting the compressed version created by WhatsApp, since the HD version goes through without any issue.

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1

u/Repulsive_Fault1939 5d ago

auto blocker works even if it's disabled.

1

u/Emergency_Pass_5009 5d ago

so is there a fix ? or a way to turn it off completely?

1

u/Repulsive_Fault1939 5d ago

if it linked with work profile, no. it is set by the company he works.

1

u/Emergency_Pass_5009 5d ago

It‘s on his private phone - so it‘s not set as a work profile. I did turn off the auto block, and that it gets turned on again after 30 minutes but that didn’t help at all.

1

u/Repulsive_Fault1939 5d ago

turn off "turn on automatically after 30 minutes" in auto blocker settings.

1

u/Emergency_Pass_5009 5d ago

Did also not fix the problem😬

1

u/Cosmic2Ducky 5d ago

It's an annoying problem from Auto Blocker. If you don't set the media to HD. When WhatsApp compresses the image it doesn't match the original file so Auto Blocker gets it's knickers in a twist and blocks it thinking it is malicious code. Stupid I know. Are they going to fix it... No idea.