How to fix Whatsapp "Failed. Out of memory. Please try again later." error?

WhatsApp has been showing the nasty "Failed. Out of memory. Please try again later." error message whenever I send multiple photos to a group or any of my content. After getting annoyed for a few minutes and after a few unsuccessful attempts at sending the photos I did the following steps for troubleshooting -
  • Ensure that the phone's SD card and external SD card has enough storage left.
  • Clean up the entire photos and video collection in the 'WhatsApp' folder inside 'Pictures'
  • Also deleted photos and random videos from the group I am administering.
Result: The out of memory error continues.

I did some research on the Internet and found out that this indeed is a common issue with WhatsApp and it indeed is memory related as indicated by the error message. I also found out that this message has been discussed multiple times on several forums and most of the advice posted is WRONG. You do not have to reset your phone, uninstall the app and install it again or format your SD card. The fix is rather very simple. I did find the fix and thought of sharing it with our fellow engineers. So here we go!

The Magic Fix

What worked for me is simply clearing the history of the apps opened. Just long-press the physical button on your Samsung phone or take an equivalent action on your phone and open the history of apps that you've opened. Then clear the list (Samsung provides a quick way to do it on all their galaxy phones). Doing this simple thing made the photos transmit to the entire group like it does always. Give it a try.

The BOSS Fix

The BOSS fix is all about restarting your phone if you get the out of memory error. It did work for me; because I suspect that the dormant processes were killed and memory was freed up. If you don't know how to clear the history of apps opened, try this method.

The RAM Fix

This is reported to have worked for a lot of people. If WhatsApp shows the error - all you need to do is clear the RAM in your phone. On Samsung phones, long press the physical button (home button), then select the 'pie chart' icon at the bottom left, then go to RAM tab at the top and tap on 'Clear Memory' link. This should fix the problem by freeing up some memory in your phone.

The Active Apps Fix

Follow the same steps as mentioned in above paragraph and then instead of hitting the RAM tab, go to Active Apps section and shut down all the apps. This should free up some of the RAM and WhatsApp should let you transmit your photos to your friends or groups.

Other Miscellaneous Fixes: Other suggested tricks are to clean up the whatsApp pictures, unmounting and re-mounting your SD card, reducing the resolution of your photos (you really have the time to do that?) etc. But give them a try when all of the above suggested fixes fail.

I hope this works for you. If you know any definitive fix for the issue; share it below. Let me know which fix worked for you. Happy WhatsApping!

Replies

  • Ankita Katdare
    Ankita Katdare
    Hey, I just tried the Magic Fix, the Active Apps fix as well as the BOSS fix, none of them is working. The stupid error keeps coming back. I wish there was a sure shot fix on this issue.
  • Ankita Katdare
    Ankita Katdare
    Okay, looks like the "unmounting and re-mounting your SD card" bit worked for me. Anyone else here getting this error? What do you do to fix it?
  • Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran
    Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran
    no error for me.
  • lal
    lal
    Making space on phone memory helps on symbian phones.

    In symbian, whatsapp stores auto backup of messages at c:/data/wa/

    Usually there are three copies there MsgStore.bak.1, 2 and 3. Delete everything except MsgStore.bak.1. From what I have understood, MsgStore.bak.1 is the most recent copy of backup that whatsapp makes by itselves and other two are a bit older ones. So it is safe to delete. I delete all the three files anyway!
  • Kaustubh Katdare
    Kaustubh Katdare
    The issue seems to be RAM related than storage. Most of the users could get this solved by just killing memory eating programs or apps. I'm also wondering if this issue occurs on Android phones only or has been reported on iOS and Windows devices as well.
  • Vikram P
    Vikram P
    Just do update. If not works fine do re-install (Remember to restore the data, while re-installing).
  • Vijay V
    Vijay V
    Magic fix worked for me, thanks!
  • Ankita Katdare
    Ankita Katdare
    I guess the error has been taken care of in subsequent updates to WhatsApp on Android. ๐Ÿ‘
  • Jeff Bahati
    Jeff Bahati
    nothing is working for me

You are reading an archived discussion.

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