When WhatsApp prompts you to choose between Include Media and Without Media during an export, the second option is easy to overlook - it sounds like the lesser choice. But a text-only export is often the right tool for the job. It is faster, produces a much smaller file, and is fully sufficient for many use cases including legal transcripts focused on written messages. This guide explains exactly what you get and what you give up.
What "Without Media" Actually Means
A text-only export contains the complete written transcript of the conversation - every text message, every emoji, every URL, and every system event - formatted as a plain .txt file. Nothing is stripped from the text itself. What is absent is the binary media files: the actual image and audio data is not included.
Importantly, references to media are still present in the transcript. When a photo was sent, _chat.txt shows a line like: [04/03/2025, 09:41:12] Bob: <attached: IMG-20250304-WA0001.jpg>. The filename is recorded, but the actual image file is not bundled. This means the transcript tells you that a file was sent and when, but you cannot view the file itself from this export alone.
When Text-Only Export Makes Sense
There are several situations where exporting without media is the correct approach. For very long chats - particularly group conversations spanning years - a text-only export may be the only practical option because the media ZIP would be too large to handle. A text-only export for a four-year group chat might be 8 MB, while the same chat with media could exceed 20 GB.
- Legal transcripts where the written content of messages is the evidence: agreements, statements, dates, and the sequence of events can all be established from text alone.
- Quick archiving when you want a readable record without committing to long-term storage of large media files.
- Preliminary review: export without media first to check the date range and message volume, then decide whether a full media export is worth the time and storage.
- Situations where the images were already captured separately through other means and do not need to be re-exported from WhatsApp.
What You Lose Without Media
The obvious loss is visual content. Any photos, screenshots, videos, or stickers sent in the chat will not be viewable from the export. In a PDF converted from a text-only export, those messages become placeholder cards that show the original filename and a note that the media was not included in the export.
- Inline images: photos and screenshots shared in the conversation will not be embedded in the PDF.
- Voice notes: audio messages saved as .opus files are absent. The PDF will show a voice note placeholder card instead of a playable or transcribed recording.
- Documents: PDF, DOCX, or other files shared in the chat will not be bundled. Only their filenames appear in the transcript.
- Video thumbnails: video files are not included, so no thumbnail can be generated for the PDF.
The .txt vs .zip Output
When you export without media on iPhone, WhatsApp typically produces a plain .txt file rather than a .zip archive. This is because there is nothing else to bundle alongside the transcript. On Android, the behaviour varies by version - some Android builds still produce a .zip containing only the _chat.txt file, while others produce a bare .txt.
Both formats contain identical transcript data. WaChat to PDF accepts both a raw .txt file and a .zip containing a _chat.txt file, so you do not need to do anything special based on which format you received. Simply upload whatever WhatsApp gave you.
If WhatsApp gave you a file with a .txt extension but it opens as garbled characters, the encoding may have been set to something other than UTF-8. This can happen with some older Android builds when the chat contains non-Latin characters. Try opening the file in a modern text editor such as VS Code or Notepad++ and manually setting the encoding to UTF-8.
Converting a Text-Only Export to PDF
WaChat to PDF handles text-only exports in the same way as full media exports. The converter reads every message, formats it into the appropriate chat bubble layout, and produces a paginated PDF with all timestamps and sender names preserved. Where media was referenced but not included in the export, the PDF shows a clearly labelled placeholder card that records the original filename.
This approach ensures the PDF is an accurate representation of the full transcript - it does not silently omit attachment references. If you later obtain the original media files and need them embedded, you can re-export the chat with media and convert again. The two PDFs will have identical message text and timestamps, which makes comparison straightforward.
Have a text-only WhatsApp export? Upload it now - WaChat to PDF converts both .txt files and .zip archives into clean, readable PDFs in seconds.
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