Fix for WhatsApp PDF Warning: ‘This Document Might Be Harmful for Your Device’
If WhatsApp shows 'This document might be harmful for your device' when you send a PDF made on Overleaf, here's why I switched to a local LaTeX setup—and how you can too.
We all love LaTeX (at least I do!).
It helps me create and edit my resume without making a mess.
What’s better? I can maintain it in Git—create branches, roll back if needed—way better than fiddling with Word documents.
I can even send it to GPT for a review.
in.
Have you ever sent a PDF via WhatsApp and seen this warning?
This document might be harmful for your device. Make sure you trust the sender before you open it.
This happened to me when I sent my resume, generated on Overleaf, to a hiring manager. It was a clean file—no malware, no scripts—but WhatsApp flagged it anyway.
Apparently, Overleaf PDFs trigger something in WhatsApp’s automated filters.
I found a temporary workaround using Google Docs, but it wasn’t a clean or dependable fix for this. That’s when I decided to move away from Overleaf and build a local LaTeX setup that wouldn’t trigger warnings—and would give me more control in the long run.
In this post, I’ll share my LaTeX setup and how switching to a local compiler solved the issue.
My Local LaTeX Setup (Ubuntu)
I use Ubuntu, so the commands and package names below might vary depending on your OS or distro.
Here’s what I use:
- LaTeX Engine:
texlive-fullwithpdflatex - Editor: Mostly VIM, sometimes VS Code with the LaTeX Workshop extension
Installation
There are many packages available for compiling LaTeX to PDF, but I found this one to be the most reliable and comprehensive.
Other minimal packages often miss important dependencies like color packages, styles, and fonts—which you’ll likely need anyway.
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sudo apt install texlive-full pdflatex
⚠️ Note: This package is big—around a gigabyte—but it’ll save you a ton of headache later by including everything you might need.
Usage
To compile a .tex file to PDF, use the command below:
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pdflatex filename.tex
This command creates a filename.pdf and a .log file with detailed output. Unlike the Overleaf version, this locally compiled PDF no longer triggers WhatsApp’s “This document might be harmful” warning. 🎉