WhatsApp media sharing down globally: photos, videos affected on Aug 10
Synopsis
WhatsApp's media-sharing layer went down globally on 10 August, leaving users across India, the UK, Brazil and five other countries unable to send photos, videos or stickers — while text messages kept working. With no statement from Meta and troubleshooting steps failing, the outage pointed squarely at a server-side fault in WhatsApp's multimedia infrastructure.
Key Takeaways
WhatsApp suffered a media-sharing outage on Monday, 10 August , affecting photos, videos, stickers, and GIFs.
According to Downdetector , 41% of complaints were about messaging, 40% about the app, and 13% about notifications.
The disruption was reported in at least 8 countries including India , the UK , Brazil , France , and Canada .
Text messaging continued to work for many users, while multimedia uploads remained stuck or failed entirely.
Standard troubleshooting — restarting devices, switching networks, reinstalling the app — did not resolve the issue for most users.
WhatsApp had not issued any official statement on the disruption as of Monday.
WhatsApp users across multiple countries reported widespread difficulties sharing media files on Monday, 10 August, with the disruption affecting photos, videos, stickers, GIFs, and other multimedia content on the Meta-owned messaging platform. Text messaging continued to function for many users, but multimedia uploads were either stuck, delayed, or failing entirely.
What Users Experienced
According to outage-tracking platform Downdetector, reports began flooding in early Monday morning. Of the complaints logged, 41% were related to messaging, 40% to the app itself, and 13% to notifications.
Many users reported that while text messages sent and received normally, photos and videos remained stuck during the upload process. In several cases, images appeared within conversations but displayed loading icons or prompted users to retry. Stickers and GIFs were also reportedly affected, pointing to a disruption specific to WhatsApp's multimedia infrastructure. Larger media files either failed to upload altogether or experienced significant delays.
Geographic Spread of the Outage
The disruption was not confined to a single region. Complaints were reported from India, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Spain, and Colombia, among others. The geographic breadth of reports suggested the issue was systemic rather than localised to a specific network or device type. However, the exact number of affected users was not immediately clear.
Troubleshooting Steps Failed for Many
Users attempted standard fixes — restarting devices, toggling between Wi-Fi and mobile data, and reinstalling the application. Several reported that none of these steps resolved the problem, particularly when trying to send photos and videos. This pointed to a server-side issue rather than a client-side one.
No Statement from WhatsApp
As of Monday, WhatsApp had not issued any official statement acknowledging the disruption. Notably, Downdetector data also showed a separate cluster of service issue reports on the preceding Sunday, suggesting the platform may have been experiencing intermittent instability over the weekend. With no communication from the company, users were left without a timeline for resolution.
Point of View
Fuelling misinformation about causes and fixes. This is not the first such episode: WhatsApp has a pattern of server-side media failures that the company neither pre-empts nor promptly communicates. As regulators in the EU and India tighten platform accountability norms, the absence of a service-status page or timely incident communication is an increasingly untenable position for the world's most-used messaging app.
NationPress
10 Aug 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What was the WhatsApp outage on 10 August about?
On 10 August, WhatsApp users globally reported being unable to send or receive photos, videos, stickers, and GIFs, while text messaging continued to work for most. The disruption was tracked by Downdetector and affected users across at least eight countries.
Which countries were affected by the WhatsApp media outage?
Reports came in from India, the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Spain, and Colombia, indicating the outage was global rather than limited to one region.
Did WhatsApp issue any statement about the outage?
No. As of Monday, 10 August, WhatsApp had not released any official statement acknowledging the disruption or providing a timeline for resolution.
Why did standard troubleshooting not fix the WhatsApp media issue?
Because the problem appeared to be server-side rather than device- or network-specific, steps like restarting phones, switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data, or reinstalling the app did not resolve the issue for most affected users.
Had WhatsApp experienced similar issues before this outage?
Yes. Downdetector data showed a separate cluster of service issue reports on the Sunday preceding the Monday outage, suggesting WhatsApp had been experiencing intermittent instability over at least two consecutive days.
