WhatsApp Manage Storage stuck on “Calculating…” forever + old media corrupted/unopenable (iPhone)
Has anyone experienced WhatsApp getting stuck on “Calculating…” forever in Manage Storage on iPhone?
For months now, WhatsApp → Settings → Storage and Data → Manage Storage either never finishes calculating or only partially loads. At the same time, iCloud backups freeze or fail.
What’s weird is that a lot of older media in chats still appears visually, but many files won’t actually open anymore. Some thumbnails are black, show question marks, or generic placeholders. Tapping them does nothing.
I have:
- hundreds of GB free on the iPhone
- enough iCloud storage
- latest iOS and WhatsApp updates
Already tried:
- reinstalling WhatsApp
- restarting iPhone
- switching Wi-Fi/cellular
- resetting iCloud Drive sync
Nothing helped.
This feels more like corrupted media indexing/database corruption inside WhatsApp rather than a storage issue.
Has anyone fixed this without losing chats/media?