如果您的iPhone 或 iPad(iPhone or iPad)空间不足，并决定查看哪些应用程序占用的空间最多，您可能已经注意到WhatsApp始终接近顶部。
WhatsApp很受欢迎，我认识的任何使用它的人通常都会参加至少 10 到 15 个群聊。通过所有这些聊天，他们有大量的共享视频和图片，这些加起来有很大的空间。即使您禁用将媒体保存到相机胶卷(camera roll)的选项，WhatsApp仍然可以轻松占用数GB(GBs)。
在本文中，我将向您展示如何减少WhatsApp使用的(WhatsApp)存储空间(storage space) 量，并保留您的聊天历史以供将来参考。
在 WhatsApp 中查找最大的聊天记录
首先，您应该尝试找出哪些聊天在WhatsApp中占用的空间最多。当您查看“存储(Storage)和 iCloud使用情况”屏幕时，它只会显示(Usage screen)WhatsApp占用的空间总量，而这并不是那么有用。
所以我们知道该应用程序占用了近 3 GB 的空间，但WhatsApp中的哪些聊天是空间占用者？要弄清楚这一点，请打开WhatsApp，点击右下角的设置，然后点击(Settings)数据和存储使用情况(Data and Storage Usage)。
接下来，点击底部的存储使用情况。(Storage Usage)
最后，您将获得哪些聊天（群组或个人(group or individual)）在您的手机上占用最多空间的列表。
如您所见，我的家庭群(Family group)聊正在消耗近半 GB 的数据。下面的下一个群聊也是如此。现在我们知道哪些聊天占用的空间最多，我们可以开始清除它们。
导出和清除聊天
减少WhatsApp 聊天(WhatsApp chats)内容并保留聊天记录的最佳方法是导出然后清除。在WhatsApp中，您有几个选项：清除聊天、删除聊天或存档聊天。
清除聊天将清除该聊天中的所有当前聊天历史记录，但在应用程序的“聊天(Chats)”选项卡中仍然可以看到空白聊天。这是我的聊天(Chats)对话框顶部的两个已清除聊天的示例。
请注意，当您清除聊天时，它将删除所有以前的聊天记录(chat history)，因此如果您想保留聊天记录，则需要在清除之前导出聊天记录。清除聊天后，它也会从聊天备份(chat backup)中消失到 iCloud。这些聊天中的任何新消息都将开始像往常一样保存在手机和 iCloud 中。
您可以通过在聊天中从右向左滑动然后点击更多(More)图标来清除或导出聊天。
这将在屏幕底部显示一组选项。在这里，您可以选择导出聊天( Export Chat)，首先将聊天记录(chat history)保存到第三方程序，如Notes、Google Drive、OneNote、OneDrive等。这取决于您在手机上安装了哪些应用程序。如果没有，您可以将其保存到 iCloud Drive。
清除聊天将以最快的方式为您节省最多的空间。如果你有一个大型群聊(group chat)，我建议每隔几个月清理一次，这样可以为你节省很多空间(space overall)。
请注意，归档聊天只是将其从“聊天(Chats)”选项卡中的视图中隐藏起来。如果您将所有聊天记录存档，它不会减少WhatsApp使用的空间量，因为聊天只是被隐藏而不是删除。
如果您删除聊天而不是清除聊天，它将删除所有消息历史记录(message history)，但此外，它还会从您的“聊天(Chats)”选项卡中删除该聊天。对于一个群组，如果您退出该群组，它不会自动删除该群组或聊天记录。退出群组后，您必须再次滑动，转到更多(More)，然后点击删除群组(Delete Group)。
调整聊天设置
您可以在聊天选项卡上的每个聊天中单独执行所有这些操作，或者您可以点击设置(Settings)，然后点击聊天(Chats)以对所有聊天执行操作。
您可以存档所有聊天、清除所有聊天或删除所有聊天。我真的不建议这样做，除非你真的不关心保存任何类型的聊天记录。清除所有聊天仍然是比删除更好的选择，因为您仍然可以在“聊天(Chats)”选项卡上看到聊天。
您还应该继续关闭“保存到相机胶卷”( Save to Camera Roll)选项，因为这会增加很多空间，特别是如果您处于人们一直共享图片和视频的群组之一。您不希望所有这些都堵塞您的 iCloud照片库(photo library)。
最后，如果您点击聊天备份(Chat Backup)，您可以准确查看 iCloud 中用于WhatsApp聊天历史记录的空间。就我而言，在我清除大聊天之前，我的总大小超过 1 GB，但现在只有 64 MB 左右。
因此，希望这可以帮助您清除您可能认为无法删除的 iPhone 上的一些空间。有了导出聊天的选项， WhatsApp(WhatsApp)没有理由在您的手机上占用超过几百MB的空间。(MBs)享受！
How to Reduce the Size of WhatsApp on Your iPhone
If you аre running out of spacе on yоur iPhone or iPad and have decided to see what apps are taking up the most space, you probably have noticed that WhatsApp cоnsistently is close to the very top.
WhatsApp is popular and anyone I know who uses it, usually has at least 10 to 15 group chats they are part of. With all those chats, they have tons of shared videos and pictures, which add up to a lot of space. Even if you disable the option of saving media to your camera roll, WhatsApp still can take up several GBs easily.
In this article, I’ll show you how you can reduce the amount of storage space WhatsApp is using and also keep a history of your chats for future reference.
Find the Biggest Chats in WhatsApp
First, you should try to figure out which chats are taking up the most space in WhatsApp. When you look at the Storage & iCloud Usage screen, it only shows you the total amount of space being taken up by WhatsApp, which isn’t really all that useful.
So we know the app is taking up almost 3 GB of space, but which chats inside WhatsApp are the space hoggers? To figure that out, open WhatsApp, tap on Settings at the bottom right and then tap on Data and Storage Usage.
Next, tap on Storage Usage at the bottom.
Finally, you will get a listing of which chats (group or individual) are taking up the most space on your phone.
As you can see, my Family group chat is eating up almost half a gigabyte of data. So is the next group chat right below that. Now that we know which chats are using up the most space, we can start to clear them out.
Export and Clear Chats
The best way to reduce the size of your WhatsApp chats and still keep the chat history is to export and then clear. In WhatsApp, there are a couple of options you have: clear a chat, delete a chat, or archive a chat.
Clearing a chat will clear all the current chat history from that chat, but keep the blank chat still visible in the Chats tab of the app. Here’s an example of two cleared chats at the top of my Chats dialog.
Note that when you clear a chat, it will remove all the previous chat history, so you need to export the chat before you clear it if you care to keep a history of the chat. Once you clear a chat, it will also disappear from the chat backup to iCloud. Any new messages into those chats will begin to be saved on the phone and into iCloud like normal.
You can clear or export a chat by swiping from right to left on the chat and then tapping on the More icon.
This will bring up a set of options at the bottom of the screen. Here you can choose Export Chat to first save the chat history out to a third-party program like Notes, Google Drive, OneNote, OneDrive, etc. It depends on what apps you have installed on your phone. If nothing, you can save it out to iCloud Drive.
Clearing chats will save you the most space in the quickest possible manner. If you have a large group chat, I suggest clearing it out every couple of months, which will save you a lot of space overall.
Note that archiving a chat simply hides it from view in the Chats tab. If you archive all of your chats, it will not reduce the amount of space WhatsApp is using because the chats are simply hidden, not deleted.
If you delete a chat instead of clearing the chat, it will remove all the message history, but in addition, it will remove the chat from your Chats tab. For a group, if you exit the group, it doesn’t automatically delete the group or chat history. After exiting a group, you have to swipe again, go to More and then tap on Delete Group.
Adjust Chat Settings
You can do all of this individually per chat on the chats tab or you can tap on Settings and then Chats to perform the actions on all chats.
You can archive all chats, clear all chats or delete all chats. I don’t really recommend doing this unless you really don’t care about saving any kind of chat history. Clearing all chats is still a better option than deleting because you’ll still be able to see the chats on the Chats tab.
You should also go ahead and toggle off the Save to Camera Roll option as that can add up to a lot of space, especially if you are in one of those groups where people share pics and videos all the time. You don’t want all that clogging up your iCloud photo library.
Lastly, if you tap on Chat Backup, you can see exactly how much space is being used in iCloud for WhatsApp chat history. In my case, before I cleared out the big chats, my total size was over 1 GB, but now it’s only around 64 MB.
So hopefully that helps you clear out some space on your iPhone that you might have thought couldn’t be removed. With the option to export chats too, there’s no reason WhatsApp should be taking up more than a few hundred MBs on your phone. Enjoy!
