I went to OP's account, he replied inside the thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/rxtl22/whatsapp_just_downloaded_12k_photos_of_other/hr

I went to OP's account, he replied inside the thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/rxtl22/whatsapp_just_downloaded_12k_photos_of_other/hrnwnjs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/rxtl22/w... TL; DR: photos were from a loaner phone that was never wiped that OP backed up, and then restored onto his new phone.