I have a SD card (not used as additional internal storage) and I’d like WhatsApp to save pictures that I send and receive on the card instead of in internal storage.
On my previous phone I could move apps from internal storage to the SD card. There doesn’t seem to be a setting for that, either in WhatsApp or in Settings -> Apps. Is this even possible? Am I missing something?
Generally this is possible as it is a common Android feature. I can speak for Lollipop and Marshmallow (depending here on if your sd card is used/formated as internal or external memory).
Your app info at settings->apps->whatsapp should show if moving to sd card is possible for this app or not. If the button “move to sd card” is active you may move the app to the sd card and back again if you like. If it´s greyed out it won´t work. Just for validation also look into the app info of other apps for this button to be active. If you cannot find any with active button then maybe (for Marshmallow) you have your sd card in use as internal memory.
But as I am not on whatsapp I cannot tell you for sure if it will let you move it to the sd card. Also it´s not sure if it then will automatically save its entire data in the same memory area which keeps the app. Therefore I again would expect an app specific setting maybe.
Judging by what is true for my apps that want to store data, this setting comes with the App and is not part of the system. As I have no whatsapp, I don’t have a clue, if and where such a setting might be to find.
I did some searching on ecosia.org and happened to find this information (my own translation):
"Unfortunately, there is no WhatsApp setting on Android to store data like pictures and videos on a SD-card."
This german article explains what to do on a rooted phone, to achieve this goal anyway:
https://praxistipps.chip.de/whatsapp-daten-auf-der-sd-karte-speichern_12941
Therefore: No root, no storing on SD-card.
(Information valid as of March 2nd 2018.)
Or maybe some of the tips given on the following page are for you.
There seem to be solutions even for non rooted phones.
https://www.quora.com/How-can-I-make-my-SD-card-as-a-default-storage-for-the-WhatsApp-media
or this one (seems the answers are pretty much alike):
https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-let-WhatsApp-store-data-directly-to-a-micro-SD-card
At least you are not alone.
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Thank you.
I looked up WhatsApp FAQ and they stated that currently, you can’t move the app to external storage. Which I guess explains why you can’t save media on there, either. Nothing to be done there. 
This may refer to whatsapp but is no general rule for Android.
There are many apps out there which do allow you to save data on a different storage than the app itself is installed on.
I have all of my apps installed on internal storage, but for some I do prefer and have set them to save data to my external sd card storage (e.g. standard sound recorder).
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