WhatsApp error 131053: Media upload error

Code 131053 means the media you attached to an outbound message could not be uploaded or processed by the platform, so the message was not sent. It most often appears when you send media by link rather than by media ID: the platform has to fetch your URL, and anything that goes wrong with that fetch (a redirect, a slow host, an authentication wall, a wrong Content-Type, or a file that is not actually the format its extension claims) surfaces as 131053. It can also appear for media IDs when the underlying file turns out to be unsupported or corrupt.

Meta's advice is practical: check error_data.details in the messages webhook, then inspect the file's real MIME type with a tool such as file -I and confirm it is on the supported list. The documentation also recommends uploading media to Meta first rather than linking, both for reliability and for higher throughput.

The recipient and window are not the problem, and the same asset will fail for everyone until it is fixed.

Upload media to Meta ahead of time and reference it by ID; reserve links for cases where hosting is unavoidable, and then test each hosting domain from outside your network. Validate MIME type and size before upload, and cache media IDs with timestamps so they are refreshed before their 30-day expiry. Size and format ceilings per media type are tabulated in the media limits table; a type-level rejection (rather than a fetch failure) surfaces as 131051.