Whatsapp images showing different image content when viewed from PC

It looks weird, could be a thumbnail error when you looked at the same folder on your PC.

Copy that file to your PC's harddisc and see if that photo is still showing the error.

And on the phone, if you open the file from Gallery, it showed woman and baby?

It's a weird problem but glad you got this resolved.

Oh man, Even I have the same problem. Finally I found someone reporting the same issue. I have no clue why it happens. Well, as you mentioned in replies about finding a way using winRAR, I will try that myself too. Please let me know if you have out the real issue or a better solution.

Thanks brother, specially for the quick reply .

I have found out other ways, which I think are more convenient than winrar method.

Before trying winrar method, I just tried alternate ways to see if they work and to my surprise it worked.

1. Using shareit : Directly sending files via Shareit is working fine (without replacing actual content of the pic), but the issue here is you can send only 100 files at one time. So this can be cumbersome when you are dealing with large number of files. (You need to have Shareit app both on your mobile and PC, which most probably everyone has)

2. Directly copying files into Pendrive:
   I have a pendrive with mini-usb pin, so I just copied watsapp folder from Mobile into Pendrive and from Pendrive to PC. This is the best and simple solution according to me. If you dont have Pendrive with mini usb pin, you can use OTG cable and it should work.

Hope you find this useful .

I am having the same problem. I have a picture that I sent to a contact on whatsapp. The picture can be opened with google photos or my note 2's default gallery app and it shows me that it is located in "/storage/emulated/0/WhatsApp/Media/WhatsApp Images/Sent/IMG-20160713-WA0002.JPG" on my phone's internal storage.

When I connect my phone to my laptop and search for the same filename in windows 10 explorer, the image is completely different. It is of another picture with the same filename! i dont understand!

Also, with other pictures, the filename AND the image completely changes as well. I have cleared WhatsApp cache in application manager as well. I do not understand why android is unable to find the correct picture in windows explorer. If anyone knows why, please suggest so

does anyone have a clear answer to this yet ? thanks

Unfortunately, I noticed the issue a few days before I copied the files, and the phone was already formatted... I lost a lot of pictures

I believe that is a driver issue, and will pay more attention next time.

BTW, do someone tried to sync with Google Photos, and then sync back to do the restore.

I have the same problem. Whatsapp image sent to me is different when viewed on PC. It happens on 3 different PCs, 2 windows 7 pros and 1 windows 10 home. I used google drive to upload the pictures and then downloaded them to the pc I wanted so I was able to transfer the correct images. I realised 'wrong' pictures that were superimposing over the 'right' pictures when connected to the pc were deleted images. Then I decided to go back to the sender to see what I could discover. I saw some were deleted and some not, so I deleted them from message and and the media and voila! No more 'wrong' pictures super imposed over 'right picutres'. I believe it how the whatapp is treating the deleted pictures. Or not treating them as the case may be. This particular message was from a family group which I can't close, so I suspect that the media got corrupted or only partially deleted...

The problem is caused by a "filename collision", where multiple files (pictures) have the same name. The Android file system handles this situation differently than Windows, so you see different photos. For example Windows might show the first colliding photo while Android shows the last one. 
The main cause of collisions is the simplistic way Whatsapp names pictures: using the date and then a sequence number e.g. 20180423-WA0000 for the first Whatsapp picture of 2018-4-23 (April 23, 2018). On everyone's phone in the entire world, the first picture of the day will have the same filename. If two people send your their first picture of a given day, both pictures will obviously have the same file name. The second picture will end with 0001, then 0002, etc. Where Whatsapp screwed up was in leaving out the TIME of a picture. Practically every camera app in existence uses the date AND the time to name pictures, e.g. something like 20180423-174355, where the time is 17:43:55, or 5:43:55 pm. It's far more unlikely to get a file collision this way, because pictures would have to be taken at the exact same time, down to the second. 
The solution? The colliding files have to be renamed. Use your phone's photo app to find those photos that don't appear on your computer. These are the collisions. Rename those photos, perhaps just adding an "A" to the filename. Download the pictures to your computer and the renamed pictures will be there. If some pictures are still missing, it means there were more than two colliding pictures using the same filename. Find the missing ones again on your phone and add a "B" to the filename, then download them. 
The more people send you pictures via Whatsapp, the greater the likelihood of filename collisions. 
At some point i would hope Facebook fixes Whatsapp. The filename naming convention used is incredibly naive for a company with over a billion members.

Ted Faison

The problem is caused by a "filename collision", where multiple files (pictures) have the same name. The Android file system handles this situation differently than Windows, so you see different photos. For example Windows might show the first colliding photo while Android shows the last one. 
The main cause of collisions is the simplistic way Whatsapp names pictures: using the date and then a sequence number e.g. 20180423-WA0000 for the first Whatsapp picture of 2018-4-23 (April 23, 2018). On everyone's phone in the entire world, the first picture of the day will have the same filename. If two people send your their first picture of a given day, both pictures will obviously have the same file name. The second picture will end with 0001, then 0002, etc. Where Whatsapp screwed up was in leaving out the TIME of a picture. Practically every camera app in existence uses the date AND the time to name pictures, e.g. something like 20180423-174355, where the time is 17:43:55, or 5:43:55 pm. It's far more unlikely to get a file collision this way, because pictures would have to be taken at the exact same time, down to the second. 
The solution? The colliding files have to be renamed. Use your phone's photo app to find those photos that don't appear on your computer. These are the collisions. Rename those photos, perhaps just adding an "A" to the filename. Download the pictures to your computer and the renamed pictures will be there. If some pictures are still missing, it means there were more than two colliding pictures using the same filename. Find the missing ones again on your phone and add a "B" to the filename, then download them. 
The more people send you pictures via Whatsapp, the greater the likelihood of filename collisions. 
At some point i would hope Facebook fixes Whatsapp. The filename naming convention used is incredibly naive for a company with over a billion members.

It's clear.

You also want to find all the similar image and delete them, but you don't have a much time to delete them one by one - it will take more time to removing then - so how can you resolve this issue in a min???

a week ago i also seek from this problem that time i tried many free or paid tool for detecting all the similar images and remove them by pressing a key

here i would like to share my experience with you after many tools then i got the solution of this problem which help you to resolve this in a min

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I've enabled photos uploaded through WhatsApp to be saved in Google Photos, and then I have direct access to all the photos. Personally, I have not noticed any changes to the photos, which are kept in their original size. For me, this sync is very useful.