How to Download Multiple Photos or Videos From a Telegram Chat

To download many photos or videos from a Telegram chat, open the chat's shared media, long-press one item to start selecting, tap the others, and save them together. For a whole chat's worth of media, use Telegram Desktop's export option, which saves every photo and video into a folder on your computer in one go.

Which method fits depends on how many files you need and which device you are on. This guide covers both, plus the limits that stop some media from saving at all.

Before you start

A few checks avoid half-finished downloads.

1. Check free space. A busy group can hold far more video than your phone can store. Look at your free storage first, and use a computer for big jobs.
2. Use Wi-Fi. Bulk downloads use a lot of data.
3. Update Telegram. Selection and saving options change between versions. An up-to-date app shows the current ones.
4. Check whether the chat allows saving. Channels and groups can turn on content protection. If they have, there is no way to save their media, one at a time or in bulk. More on this below.
5. Respect the content. Saving media for your own use is one thing; republishing other people's photos or paid course videos is another. Only reuse what you have the right to.

Method 1: Select several items in shared media (phone)

This is the quickest way to save a handful or a few dozen items.

Android

1. Open the chat, group or channel.
2. Tap its name at the top to open the info page.
3. Scroll to the shared media section and open the Media tab. Photos and videos appear in a grid, newest first.
4. Long-press the first item. It gets a tick and selection mode starts.
5. Tap every other item you want.
6. Open the menu at the top and choose to save the selection to your gallery or downloads. The exact wording depends on your version.
7. Wait for the downloads to finish. Telegram downloads each item first, then copies it to your phone.

iPhone

1. Open the chat and tap its name or picture at the top to open the info page.
2. Open the Media tab in the shared media section.
3. Tap Select, or long-press an item, to start selecting.
4. Tap the items you want.
5. Use the share or save option at the bottom. Saving to Photos copies the selected items to your photo library. If Telegram asks for photo access, allow it, ideally full access rather than limited.
6. Keep Telegram open until saving finishes. Large videos can take a while.

Tips for long selections

• Scroll slowly. The grid loads thumbnails as you go. Selecting items that have not loaded yet still works, but downloading them takes longer.
• Work in batches. If you need hundreds of items, save fifty or so at a time. If something fails, you lose less progress and can see where you stopped.
• Use the Files tab for documents. Photos and videos sent "as a file" to keep full quality appear under Files, not Media. Select and save them there the same way.

Method 2: Save a whole album from the chat

When someone sends several photos together, Telegram groups them into an album.

1. In the chat, long-press the album, or tap the selection circle beside it.
2. Check whether the whole album is selected. On some versions you can select the album as one item; on others you select each photo.
3. Choose to save to gallery or downloads from the menu.

You can also open the album, swipe through it, and save from each item's menu. That is slower but lets you skip the photos you do not want.

Method 3: Turn on automatic saving for a chat (phone)

If you want every future photo or video from a chat saved automatically, change the save settings instead of selecting by hand.

1. Open Telegram's settings, then data and storage.
2. Find the option to save media to your gallery or photos.
3. Turn it on for private chats, groups or channels as you need. Recent versions let you add exceptions for single chats, so you can save from one family group without saving from every channel.
4. Set a maximum video size if you do not want long videos filling the phone.

This affects media Telegram downloads from now on. It does not usually go back and save everything already in the chat. For older media, use Method 1 or Method 4.

Method 4: Export all media with Telegram Desktop

For a full chat, or for years of photos in a family group, the export tool on Telegram Desktop is the reliable way. It works chat by chat and writes everything to a folder.

1. Install Telegram Desktop on a Windows, Mac or Linux computer and log in.
2. Open the chat you want.
3. Open the chat's menu (the three dots at the top right) and choose the option to export chat history.
4. In the export window, choose what to include. Tick photos and videos, and files if you want documents too. Untick anything you do not need.
5. Set a size limit for videos and files. Raise it if you want large videos.
6. Choose a date range if you only want part of the history.
7. Choose the folder where the export should go, and the format. The readable HTML format lets you browse the messages with their pictures; the machine-readable format suits people who want to process the data.
8. Start the export and leave Telegram Desktop open until it finishes.

When it is done, open the folder. Photos and videos sit in their own subfolders, and you can copy them anywhere.

Our guide to exporting Telegram chat history covers every export option in more detail, including exporting your whole account.

Why the export is the better tool for big jobs

• It is designed to run for a long time without you watching it.
• It keeps going through thousands of items, which a phone selection does not handle well.
• It saves the media with its folder structure, so you can see which chat each item came from.
• It does not fill your phone's storage.

The trade-off is that you need a computer, and the export is per chat. For several chats, run several exports.

Method 5: Selecting messages on Telegram Desktop

For a smaller set on a computer, you can work inside the chat.

1. Open the chat in Telegram Desktop.
2. Right-click a message with media and choose to select it, or click the selection circle beside it.
3. Click the other messages you want.
4. Use the option to forward them to Saved Messages, which collects them in one place, and then save from there.

Each media item on Desktop also has a "save as" option in its right-click menu, which saves one file to a folder you choose. For more than a few files, the export in Method 4 is faster.

What about Telegram Web?

Telegram Web in a browser can save single photos and videos, but it is not built for bulk downloads. Browsers also handle many simultaneous downloads poorly. For anything beyond a few files, use the phone or Desktop app.

When media will not save

The chat has content protection

If there is no save option, no forward option and screenshots show black, the owner has restricted saving content. Bulk methods and the export tool do not get around this. The protection is the owner's decision; if you need copies, ask them. Owners can learn how it works in our guide to restricting saving content.

Items stay at zero or fail

If files will not download at all, the cause is usually a connection, a data saver or full storage. Work through Telegram not downloading media and try again.

Saved items are not where you expected

Telegram stores downloads in its own cache first, and only copies them to your gallery or Downloads folder when you save them. If you cannot find saved files, see where Telegram downloads go.

Photos look lower quality than the original

Photos sent as photos are compressed by Telegram. Saving them gives you the compressed version, because that is all Telegram has. If you need originals, ask the sender to resend them as files. Our guide to sending photos and videos in full quality explains how.

Worked examples

These are illustrations of which method to pick.

Example: twenty holiday photos from a friend

Nadia's friend sent twenty photos across a few albums. On her iPhone she opens the chat's Media tab, taps Select, picks the twenty and saves them to Photos. It takes a minute.

Example: five years of a family group

Omar wants every photo and video from his family group since it started. That is thousands of items. He uses Telegram Desktop's export on his laptop, ticks photos and videos, raises the video size limit, leaves it running in the evening, and has a folder of everything by the morning.

Example: only new photos from one group

Ines wants photos from her climbing club's group to land in her gallery automatically, but not from the news channels she follows. She turns on saving to gallery and adds the climbing group as an exception rather than turning it on for all groups.

Common mistakes

• Trying to select thousands of items on a phone. It is slow and fragile. Use the Desktop export for whole chats.
• Forgetting the Files tab. Media sent as files does not appear under Media.
• Leaving the app during a big save. Phones pause background work. Keep Telegram open until saving finishes.
• Expecting automatic saving to fetch old media. It applies to media downloaded from now on.
• Running out of space halfway. Check storage before a big save and use a computer for large exports.
• Looking for a way around content protection. There is none in Telegram, and the owner chose it deliberately.

FAQ

Can I download all photos from a Telegram chat at once?

On a phone, select them in the chat's shared media and save the selection. For an entire chat, use Telegram Desktop's export chat history option, which saves every photo and video into a folder.

Does exporting a chat delete anything?

No. Exporting copies the chat's messages and media to your computer. Nothing changes in Telegram.

Can I bulk-download from a channel?

Yes, if the channel allows saving. Use the shared media selection on a phone or the export option on Desktop. If the channel has content protection on, saving is disabled.

Why are my saved photos smaller than the originals?

Telegram compresses photos sent as photos. Only files sent as documents keep the original quality.

Can I download multiple files on Telegram Web?

Only one at a time, practically. Use the phone or Desktop app for bulk downloads.

Summary

For a few dozen photos or videos, open the chat's shared media on your phone, long-press to select, tap the rest and save them together. For new media from chosen chats, turn on automatic saving with exceptions. For whole chats, use Telegram Desktop's export chat history, choose photos and videos, set a size limit and let it run. Check storage and use Wi-Fi first, look under Files for media sent as documents, and remember that chats with content protection cannot be saved by any method. For more about getting Telegram onto a computer, see Telegram on desktop and web.