## Overview

Every file captured automatically by the **Media Library** now records **which kind of chat it came
from**: status, group, community, channel or direct chat. That information shows up on the file's detail
panel and becomes a filter in the Library.

Before this, every captured file simply said "Captured from a conversation" — a status photo and a photo
a customer deliberately sent you looked exactly the same. The volume explains why it matters: in one
real account we analyzed, **355 of 577 files (61.5%) came from status**. Most of the library was material
nobody sent to your team.

With the source type recorded, one click separates real conversation content from passing posts.

## Prerequisites

- The **Media Library** module enabled and access to it.
- Nothing to configure: the classification is **automatic** on every new capture.
- Files captured **before** this change only show the information after the platform operator runs the
  retroactive fill. Until then, they stay without the field.

## Step by step

### See a file's source

1. Open the **Media Library**.
2. Click a file to open its **detail panel**.
3. Find the **Source type** row. It shows one of five values: **Status**, **Group**, **Community**,
   **Channel** or **Direct chat**.
4. On the same panel, the **Connection** field tells you which connection the file came from (WhatsApp,
   Instagram, Facebook and so on).

### Filter by source type

1. On the **Library** page, open the **Filters** popover.
2. Choose the **Source type** selector.
3. Pick the value you want — the grid then shows only files from that source.
4. The same selector is available in the **media picker** used by other modules, so you can filter right
   when choosing a file to send.

## Settings & options

The five possible values:

| Source type | When it appears |
|---|---|
| **Status** | Status posts and stories — including Instagram and Facebook stories. |
| **Group** | Group conversations. |
| **Community** | Conversations tied to a community. |
| **Channel** | Broadcast channels. |
| **Direct chat** | One-to-one conversation. It is also the value used when the connection emits none of these signals — email, API and the website widget, for example. |

Two important reading rules:

- **Direct chat is the floor, not a guess.** When the connection reports nothing about the kind of chat,
  the file is recorded as a direct chat because that is what it is: a one-to-one conversation.
- **Absence means unknown.** Files with no conversation at all — a manual upload, an ad creative —
  simply **do not show** the **Source type** row. The platform never invents an origin.

Nothing moves: **folders and your existing organization stay exactly as they are**. Source type is extra
information about the file, not a reorganization of your library.

## Use cases

- Quickly find the photo a customer **deliberately sent**, without wading through dozens of statuses.
- Run a deliberate **cleanup**: review status material in bulk before archiving or deleting it.
- Separate what came from **groups and communities** when putting together internal reference material.
- In the **media picker**, filter by **Direct chat** to reuse only support-conversation files.
- Understand what your library is actually made of before discussing storage quota with the operator.

## Tips, limits & best practices

- Status is usually the largest slice of the library — it's the first filter to check when the Library
  feels too full.
- An **Instagram** or **Facebook** story is filed as **Status**. To know which network it came from,
  look at the **Connection** field, not the source type.
- **Direct chat** doesn't mean "WhatsApp": email, API and the widget also land on that value.
- A file **without** the **Source type** row is not an error — it's a file that never had a conversation.
- Combine the source filter with **folders**: the source says where it came from; the folder says where
  you filed it.

## Troubleshooting

- **The file doesn't show a "Source type" row**: either it was captured before this change (wait for the
  operator's retroactive fill), or it has no conversation attached — such as a manual upload.
- **Almost everything shows as "Direct chat"**: that's expected when the account's connections emit no
  status, group, community or channel signal, such as email, API and the website widget.
- **An Instagram story shows as "Status"**: that's the correct behavior. Use the **Connection** field to
  identify the source network.
- **The filter didn't return files I expected**: files with no source type don't belong to any of the
  five values, so they don't appear when you filter by one of them.

## See also

- [Media Library overview](/hc/ajuda/articles/media-overview-en)
- [Library: folders, trash and storage meter](/hc/ajuda/articles/media-biblioteca-pastas-lixeira-medidor-en)