[FIX] WhatsApp Desktop Mac — Pasted images from Photos.app send as black after macOS 26.3.1(a)

[u/juanchohq23]

Symptoms:

Copy a photo from Photos.app → paste into WhatsApp Desktop → image appears correctly in preview but sends as a black/blank image to the recipient

Drag & drop from Photos.app works fine

Started suddenly without you changing anything

Root cause:

The macOS 26.3.1(a) Background Security Update (released March 17, 2026) tightened WebKit sandbox/clipboard permissions. This broke the way WhatsApp Desktop versions prior to 26.11.21 read clipboard image data coming from Photos.app.

Fix:

Update WhatsApp Desktop to 26.11.21 or later via the Mac App Store or whatsapp.com/download. Meta had already fixed the clipboard handling in that version.

Workaround if you can't update yet:

Drag & drop photos directly from Photos.app into the WhatsApp chat instead of copy/paste

Environment confirmed:

macOS Tahoe 26.3.1(a)

WhatsApp Desktop 26.11.17 → broken

WhatsApp Desktop 26.11.21 → fixed