How to recover open once photo on whatsapp?

That sinking feeling when you accidentally close a "View Once" photo is the worst! The short answer is, officially, you can't recover it once it has been opened and you've closed the media viewer. WhatsApp deletes the media file immediately after that single viewing session to maintain the privacy feature. However, people have come up with a few workarounds, but they are preventive rather than recovery methods for a photo you've already closed: 1. The Best Bet: Just Ask the Sender! This is the simplest and most ethical solution. Send a polite message to the person and ask them to resend it, explaining you accidentally closed it or needed to reference it again. 2. Screen Recording/Second Device (Preventive for Next Time): For future "View Once" media, before you tap to open it, start your phone's built-in screen recording feature. If screen recording is blocked by WhatsApp (which it is on some devices), the only other option is to use a second device (like another phone or camera) to take a photo of your screen while the media is open. Warning about Third-Party Tools: You'll see tools online claiming they can recover or save View Once photos, but these often require you to download third-party software or extensions. They can be risky and may violate WhatsApp's terms of service, potentially compromising your account security. I'd stick to asking the sender.

I’ve also been there! As the other user pointed out, the feature is designed to make recovery impossible once viewed. That's the core security of the "View Once" feature. A technical (but still preventive and tricky) method I've heard people mention involves restoring from a WhatsApp Backup, but you need perfect timing: * The Backup Restore Trick: 1. You must NOT have opened the "View Once" message yet. 2. Force-uninstall WhatsApp. 3. Reinstall WhatsApp and choose to Restore from your last Google Drive/iCloud backup. 4. If your last backup was before the message was sent or received, it might restore the chat to a state where the View Once message is still unread. This is a major hassle and only works if you catch it before you tap it, and even then, there's no guarantee the message will come back unread. Honestly, save yourself the trouble. Just contact the sender—it’s always the easiest fix! If you are ever curious about what data might be stored, you can find videos on YouTube about how to check the storage, but it is not a direct recovery method: How To Recover WhatsApp View Once Photo?.