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I've discovered lot of issues with Whatsapp especially after Google backup restore including missing attachments, files dated incorrectly, and wrongly named documents beginning with 'Doc...".



It's May 2025 so I don't know if it is Whatsapp App update issue or many of these issues have been there for long.



What is not acceptable to me is missing Sent documents after WhatsApp Google Backup restore. One only sees the file name in chats e.g. name.pdf but one cannot open it (like a thumbnail). Also the name of changed by WA to "Doc..." under Sent/WhatsApp Documents folder.



To get round I found a work around and wanted to share. It works like this.



On the phone where WA is stored when one needs to send a file don't use the WA app. Instead log in to WA web using say Chrome browser on the same phone. Change the webpage setting to desktop site. Then log in using phone number. Then when wanting to send a document like a PDF for example tap on the + icon next to chat message. It will bring up list of documents, media... You may need to pinch and zoom the webpage to bring up the options to attach before tapping on the + icon.



By this way one can attach documents including PDFs from phone and they would be properly named by WhatsApp (not Doc...).

I ran into the same problem and started using the whatsapp api to send files directly from a custom interface. That way, I could control the file name being sent, and it didn’t get changed. It’s a bit technical to set up, but once it's running, sending the exact file with the right name is way easier.