Guide · updated 1 September 2026

“Media omitted”: what it means and what to do

If your transcript is full of the words media omitted, the photographs and voice notes are not hidden somewhere in the file. They were never written to it.

What the placeholder means

When WhatsApp writes an export without attachments, it replaces each one with a line of text — <Media omitted>, image omitted, audio omitted and similar, depending on version and platform. The line records that something was sent at that point in the conversation. It does not carry the file.

Two different causes

• You chose “without media”. The commonest cause, and the easy one: the attachments are still on the phone, and a fresh export with media will include them.
• The attachments are no longer on the device. Media cleared to save space, expired from cache, or never downloaded in the first place is omitted even when you ask for it. A fresh export will not bring it back.

Taking an export that includes media

On Android: open the conversation, three-dot menu, More, Export chat, then Include media. On iPhone: tap the contact or group name at the top, scroll down, Export Chat, then Attach Media. You will get a .zip rather than a bare .txt.

Two limits worth knowing. WhatsApp caps the size of an export, and a long conversation with media may be truncated from the older end — so check that the export begins where you expect. And exporting does not alter the conversation on the device; it writes out a copy.

If the media is genuinely gone

Then the record you have is a record of a conversation in which attachments were sent, and their content is not part of it. That is a real limitation, and the honest course is to state it rather than let a reader assume the transcript is complete.

A well-prepared exhibit says so on its face: how many entries refer to an attachment, how many of those attachments are actually present, and what the difference is. A court weighing the record should not have to discover the gap for itself, and an opponent who discovers it first will make more of it than it is worth.

What this means for the certificate

The hash in Part A describes the file you actually have. If that file is a media-free export, the certificate is still correct — it certifies that export. What must not happen is a certificate describing the record as complete when the transcript itself shows attachments missing.

Section63 counts the attachments the transcript names and the files actually present in the archive, reconciles them in both directions, and states the result in the exhibit. Where an export carries no media at all, the media tier is not offered, because there would be nothing to reproduce.

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This guide explains procedure and states the law as we understand it. It is not legal advice, and Aarohan Enterprises is not a law firm. Whether a court admits a particular record, and what weight it gives it, is for that court to decide. Have an advocate settle anything you intend to file.