How can i get my old conversations back on whatsapp


How to Recover Deleted or Missing WhatsApp Messages

Do you need to recover deleted or missing WhatsApp messages? It's certainly possible, depending on the situation.

Below, you'll learn how to recover deleted WhatsApp messages on your iPhone or Android device. We'll then teach you how to set up an advanced WhatsApp backup plan to ensure you never lose any of your WhatsApp messages again.

Understanding WhatsApp Chat Backups

In order to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages, you must have enabled Chat Backup in the app's settings. To reach this, tap the Settings tab. It's on the bottom bar of the iPhone app; on Android, open the three-dot menu at the top-right and choose Settings.

From there, head to Chats > Chat backup. Here (under Auto Backup on iOS and Back up to Google Drive on Android), the app offers several backup frequencies (along with the option to encrypt your WhatsApp backups):

  • Daily
  • Weekly
  • Monthly
  • Off

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On Android, WhatsApp makes a local backup every night, but this won't help you if you lose your phone. This is why cloud backups are vital.

WhatsApp deletes older backup files as you create new ones. The iPhone app only keeps the latest backup file, while the Android version keeps "up to the last seven days' worth" of backup files. Keep that in mind as you choose the right backup frequency for your needs.

By having daily auto-backups, you'll be able to easily recover WhatsApp messages soon after deleting them. On the other hand, weekly auto-backups will allow you to go further back in time to recover deleted WhatsApp messages, at the expense of losing recent chat messages.

For a more advanced backup plan for Android devices, scroll down to the "An Advanced WhatsApp Backup Strategy for Android" section below.

How to Recover Archived Chats in WhatsApp

Before we look at recovering deleted WhatsApp messages, there's a chance that you might have just archived a missing chat, not deleted it. But what's the difference?

Archiving removes the chat from your list, allowing you to hide conversations that you're done with for now. You can unarchive a chat at any time to access it again, and archiving doesn't delete anything in the chat. Conversely, deleting a chat erases its contents, so they're no longer accessible to you.

On iPhone, when you archive a chat, you can immediately reverse the archival by shaking your device and choosing Undo to recover the archived chat. But even if you miss this, it's easy to retrieve archived WhatsApp chats later.

To unarchive a WhatsApp chat on iPhone:

  1. Scroll up in the chat list (swipe from top to bottom) until Archived Chats appears.
  2. Tap on it, then swipe from right to left on the chat you want to restore.
  3. Hit the Unarchive button that appears.

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To unarchive a chat on Android:

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the chat list and tap Archived chats (X).
  2. Press and hold on the chat you want to recover.
  3. Tap the unarchive icon at the top-right, which looks like a box with an upward-facing arrow.

How to Recover Deleted WhatsApp Messages

Wondering how to get back deleted WhatsApp messages after backing them up? You can restore your WhatsApp backup by simply uninstalling and reinstalling WhatsApp on your device.

When you reinstall the app, you will be prompted to restore your message history from the backup file. Tap Restore and you'll retrieve everything from the latest backup. Make sure to do it when prompted, as you can't restore the backup file later.

This method of recovering deleted WhatsApp messages works on both Android and iPhone, as long as you have a backup. Keep in mind that you can only recover backed-up messages within your selected auto-backup frequency, however.

For instance, if you've set the app to back up daily, you can recover any deleted chats before the next daily backup occurs. But if the app has made a new backup since you deleted certain messages, they're lost for good.

How to Recover Deleted Media on WhatsApp

Hopefully, restoring your backup file allowed you to retrieve any deleted media from your chats. If that didn't work, however, read our guide to recovering deleted photos from WhatsApp.

On Android, you can simply open a file explorer app and navigate to /WhatsApp/Media. From there, simply sift through the folders until you find the deleted photos you want to recover.

On iPhone, you should have a backup copy of images saved to your device if you have the Save to Camera Roll option enabled at Settings > Chats in WhatsApp.

Check the above guide for additional methods of media recovery.

How to Recover Older Deleted Chats in WhatsApp

Getting deleted messages back after a new WhatsApp backup has run is slightly more difficult. Your success will depend on your selected auto-backup frequency.

Note that the below strategy only works on Android devices, since the OS lets you access local backup files. If you're using an iPhone, your only other method is to restore an iPhone backup that you made before deleting the WhatsApp chats. There are third-party apps that claim to help you recover WhatsApp chats, but they aren't cheap and offer no guarantees. Whether you use these is up to how much you value the missing messages.

Before we dive into the process, here's an overview of restoring older WhatsApp chats on Android:

  1. Open a file explorer app on your Android device.
  2. Navigate to /WhatsApp/Databases.
  3. Rename msgstore.db.crypt12 to msgstore-latest.db.crypt12.
  4. Rename msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12 to msgstore.db.crypt12.
  5. Uninstall WhatsApp.
  6. If Google Drive backups are enabled, open Google Drive, slide out the left menu, tap Backups, and delete the WhatsApp backup file.
  7. Reinstall WhatsApp.
  8. When prompted, restore from the backup file.

How to Restore Older Deleted WhatsApp Chats on Android

As mentioned before, WhatsApp on Android retains several days of chat backup files. One is, of course, the latest chat backup. The others, depending on your auto-backup frequency, could be one day or many days old. In addition to the Google Drive cloud backup, WhatsApp stores these backups on your device's local storage.

Open your device's file explorer app (Files by Google is a good option if you don't have one installed), and navigate to /WhatsApp/Databases. Depending on your device, the WhatsApp folder may appear under /sdcard/, /storage/, Internal Memory, or similar.

Within that WhatsApp folder, you'll find the various chat backup files. The latest one is named msgstore.db.crypt12, while the others look like msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD. 1.db.crypt12. As you'd expect, YYYY-MM-DD represents the year, month, and date (respectively) that the backup file was created.

To retrieve WhatsApp messages deleted sometime between two backups, simply do the following:

  1. Rename msgstore.db.crypt12 to msgstore-latest.db.crypt12. This changes the latest backup file, since you're about to give an older backup its name in order to restore it.
  2. Next, rename the msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12 file that you want to restore to msgstore.db.crypt12.

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After this, uninstall WhatsApp. If you've enabled Google Drive cloud backups, open the Google Drive app, slide out the left menu, and select Backups. You'll see a WhatsApp backup file with your phone number in it. Tap the three-dot Menu to the right of this and choose Delete backup to erase it.

Doing this prevents WhatsApp from using the backup file in Google Drive instead of the local file you want to restore.

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Now, reinstall WhatsApp from the Play Store. During the setup process, you'll be prompted to restore from the backup file you've just tweaked—it will show as X days old instead of the most recent backup file. Confirm restoration from this file.

That's all you have to do in order to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages from older backups. Once you've restored those messages, feel free to start using WhatsApp as normal again.

How to Export Retrieved WhatsApp Messages and Return to the Latest Backup

When you walk through the above, you'll lose any messages created since the backup you restored. If you only performed that process to restore a few deleted messages, and don't want to lose recent messages, you can export the retrieved chat messages and then restore WhatsApp to the latest backup. You'll have to run through the entire process again, but it's not difficult.

To export messages, open the chat containing the messages you want to save. Tap the three-dot Menu button at the top-right, followed by More > Export chat. If the chat has media, you'll see an option to export Without media or to Include media.

Including media will add all recent images as attachments, which obviously increases the size of the export file. You can export up to 10,000 messages with media, or 40,000 messages without media.

After you make your choice, choose an app on your phone to share the text file (and attachments, if applicable) containing your messages. You can email this to yourself, add it to cloud storage, or similar. Repeat this for any other chats with messages you want to save.

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Once you're done exporting, follow the steps in the above section again to access your WhatsApp backups. When you come to renaming the backup files, reverse the process:

  1. Rename the existing msgstore.db.crypt12 (which contains the messages you retrieved) to msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12, using today's date. In case there's already a file with today's date, use DD.2 instead.
  2. Next, rename msgstore-latest.db.crypt12 (the latest backup created when you started) back to msgstore.db.crypt12.

Uninstall WhatsApp, delete your Google Drive backup again if needed, and reinstall the app. After you restore from backup, your latest chats will reappear. The messages you exported won't appear inside WhatsApp, but you can at least see them in the text file whenever you need them.

An Advanced WhatsApp Backup Strategy for Android

Because you can easily view and edit WhatsApp chat backup files on Android, it's easy to manipulate them. Renaming them allows you to keep as many backup files as you want.

All you need to do is rename a backup in the msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12 format to something else, such as oct11.db.crypt12 or 2021-June-Backup. Because this file doesn't use WhatsApp's naming convention, it's now protected from WhatsApp overwriting it.

Consider creating your own backup file in this way once every month or so. That way, you won't lose tons of messages if you have to restore from an older backup. For even more safety, you should copy these backup files to cloud storage or your computer so that they're safe in case your phone stops working or you lose it.

Recover WhatsApp Messages to Preserve Memories

As you can see, it's fairly easy to recover deleted WhatsApp messages. However, this is only the case if you've backed up your messages ahead of time. This is why the advanced backup strategy is worth setting up if you're an Android user. iPhone owners don't have as many options.

Now that you know you won't lose any WhatsApp messages in the future, it's a good idea to discover some of WhatsApp's other cool features that aren't immediately visible.

WhatsApp: How to recover deleted WhatsApp messages – Are they gone forever?

WhatsApp: How to recover deleted WhatsApp messages – Are they gone forever? | Express.co.uk

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While difficult to do accidentally, WhatsApp users may occasionally delete a conversation. Although there are ways to recover messages from the Facebook-owned app, people may encounter some trouble depending on whether they archived or fully erased their messages. Express.co.uk has compiled a guide on how to recover deleted WhatsApp messages for both iPhone and Android users.

Understanding WhatsApp chat backups:

In order to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages, you need to enable Chat Backup in Settings.

WhatsApp offers several backup frequencies in Under Auto Backup: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Off.

Remember, WhatsApp will only retain the most recent backup file in iOS and the two latest backup files in Android.

These daily auto backups make it easy to recover messages soon after deletion.

Weekly auto backups allow you to go further back in time to recover deleted WhatsApp messages from less than seven days ago at the expense of losing recent chat messages.

Simply select the WhatsApp auto backup frequency that best suits your needs.

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WhatsApp: It is easy to recover deleted WhatsApp messages (Image: Getty)

WhatsApp: Message recovery is easy on both Android and iOS (Image: Getty)

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How to restore archived WhatsApp messages:

If your WhatsApp chats were archived, iOS users can reverse the archival by giving your iPhone a shake and choose Undo to recover the archived chat.

Even if the chat was archived a while ago, you can still recover them.

In iOS: Scroll up in the chat list until Archived Chats appears.

Tap on it, then swipe left on the chat to restore. Tap Unarchive.

In Android: Tap on Archived chats at the bottom of the chat list.

Tap and hold on the chat you would like to recover, than select the Unarchive icon.

WhatsApp: The chat app offers several backup frequencies under WhatsApp Auto Backup (Image: Getty)

How to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages:

Simply uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp. When you reinstall the app, you will be prompted to restore your message history from the backup file.

Select Restore and everything from the latest backup will be restored.

This method of recovering deleted WhatsApp messages works on both Android and iOS but it has to be within your selected auto backup frequency.

Therefore if your auto backup frequency is set to daily, then you can easily recover any deleted chats before the next backup occurs.

WhatsApp: Archived chats can be recovered very easily within WhatsApp (Image: Getty)

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How to recover older deleted WhatsApp chats in Android:

Getting deleted messages back after a backup has run is slightly more difficult.

It will depend on your selected auto backup frequency and will only work on Android devices.

Open File Explorer on your device and navigate to WhatsApp and Databases.

WhatsApp: WhatsApp is blocked in only a few coutries (Image: Express)

Rename msgstore.db.crytp12 to msgstore-latest.db.crytp12

Rename msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12 to msgstore.db.crytp12

If Google Drive backups is enabled, open Google Drive, tap on Backups, delete the WhatsApp backup file

Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp, then when prompted, restore from the backup file.

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      How to recover deleted correspondence in WhatsApp

      WhatsApp is an extremely illogical messenger. At least for those who have ever used Telegram. I don’t know what its developers were guided by, but many functions and interface elements in WhatsApp seem to be specially designed so that a minimum number of users understand them. Take at least end-to-end encryption, even editing and deleting messages, even restoring backups - in any case, you will have a lot of questions. Well, who better than us to give answers to them?

      It is possible to recover deleted messages in WhatsApp, but with a number of reservations

      Wrong date and time in WhatsApp. What to do? It would seem that where is Telegram, and where is WhatsApp ... But, apparently, users themselves understand that they are unlikely to be able to find the answer to their question on WhatsApp, but here at least there is a chance that they will help you. In general, it is.

      How to get back a deleted message in WhatsApp

      I suggest starting with the fact that WhatsApp messages are deleted in two ways. The first method (I talked about it in this article) involves direct deletion by the sender himself, who can do this only in the first hour after sending. And the second is to automatically delete all your chats when you reinstall the application, when you move to a new smartphone, or when you change the phone number to which the account is linked.

      If the message is deleted by the sender himself, there is usually no way to restore it. Unless you have time to make a backup copy before he decides to delete it. Therefore, if you suspect that the message that was sent to you can be deleted, do the following:

      • Launch WhatsApp and open the context menu;
      • Go to "Settings" and open the "Chats" section;

      Back up before deleting the message so you can restore it

      • Here, select the Chat Backup tab;
      • Click "Backup" and wait for saving.

      Your WhatsApp account may be blocked without your knowledge

      Now, if your interlocutor decides to delete one of his messages and you notice this, you will have the opportunity to return it by restoring a backup copy. Since the copy was saved when the deleted message was not yet deleted, when it is restored, it will also be restored. Another thing is that it is usually not possible to predict in advance that the interlocutor will decide to delete something from what he wrote, unless you have some particularly strong premonition.

      How to restore a backup copy in WhatsApp

      Much easier things are with restoring the entire correspondence, which is deleted when you reinstall the application or change the device. Oddly enough, the technique here is about the same, only you don’t have to predict anything in advance. The main thing is to set up automatic backup in advance by linking Google Drive storage to your WhatsApp account if you have Android, and iCloud if iOS.

      • Download WhatsApp and run it on your smartphone;
      • Enter your phone number to which the account is linked;

      You can only restore a WhatsApp backup if you reinstall the application

      • Confirm the restore from the backup and select the one you want;
      • Wait until all messages are restored and start chatting.

      The security code has changed on WhatsApp. What to do

      It is very important to enable automatic backup in advance so that you can restore all your correspondence if it becomes necessary. By default, backups include text messages, voice messages, photos, but not videos. This is done to save space in the cloud. But if you want, you can enable saving videos if you think they are important to you, or if you have an active Google Drive subscription.

      How to restore WhatsApp conversations on iPhone using Tenorshare UltData or backups

      WhatsApp is one of the largest instant messengers. Through it, people around the world communicate both at work and on personal matters. But whatever the subject of conversation, the loss of correspondence is unpleasant. However, this still happens, so it is useful to know what are the ways to recover deleted messages in WhatsApp. Here's how to do it on iPhone.

      Method 1: Restore deleted messages from WhatsApp iCloud 9 backup0067

      WhatsApp conversation history is not stored on the servers of the service itself, but you can use the backup that the application places in the iCloud cloud to backup and restore the chat history. But you need to understand that in this case it will not be possible to preview the correspondence and select the necessary elements.

      Step 1: Enable automatic backup

      First of all, you need to make sure that automatic backup is enabled. You can check that this is the case by going to WhatsApp > Settings > Chats > Chat Backup.

      Step 2: Restore your chat history

      Now uninstall WhatsApp on your iPhone and reinstall it from the App Store, then verify your phone number. After a successful login, a welcome notification will appear asking you to restore your chat history. Just select the "Restore Chat History" option and the recovery process will begin. When it completes, the number of recovered messages will be displayed.

      Method 2. Selectively recover deleted WhatsApp messages on iPhone even if there is no backup

      Tenorshare UltData is a powerful data recovery tool not only for WhatsApp but also for many other types of data. Whether it was lost due to accidental deletion or malware attack, Tenorshare UltData can perfectly recover lost data. In addition, you can recover deleted data both directly from iPhone and from iCloud and iTunes backups.

      This tool is compatible with Mac and Windows operating systems and supports more than 20 types of data, including WhatsApp deleted data.

      How to Retrieve Deleted WhatsApp Messages on iPhone with Tenorshare UltData:

      Step 1. Launch the program

      If you don't have UltData, please download and install it on your computer. Then connect your iPhone with a USB cable. Click "Recover from iOS Device" and let the program detect your iPhone. After a successful discovery, all types of data on your iPhone will be displayed on the screen.

      Step 2: Scan

      In the list of data types displayed on the screen, select "WhatsApp and attachments". At the bottom of the screen, click the "Start Scan" button.

      Step 3: Restore

      After the scanning process is completed successfully, the interface will display a list of deleted items. Tick ​​the WhatsApp related options in the left panel (messages and/or attachments) and then view those deleted messages. Select what you want to restore and click the desired Restore button at the bottom of the screen.

      Method 3: Restore deleted WhatsApp chat from iTunes backup

      This method is suitable for those who regularly back up their iPhone to iTunes. The process of restoring WhatsApp messages from iTunes backups is quite simple, but only the last three backups are available for restoration.

      Step 1. Open iTunes and connect your iPhone.

      Step 2. Click on the iPhone icon and select the "Restore from Backup" option.

      Step 3. Select the backup file containing the desired WhatsApp messages and click "Restore"

      Method 4. Restore deleted WhatsApp chat from iCloud backup for the entire iPhone

      Unlike the very first method, here we will talk about restore all iPhone data from iCloud copy. But at the same time, you will need to reset the smartphone and restore all data from the cloud.

      The first step is to make sure that these backups are created. To do this, just go to Settings > iCloud > Backup. If iCloud backup is activated, you can recover deleted WhatsApp messages as follows.

      Step 1. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.

      Step 2. Follow the on-screen instructions until the Apps & Data option appears.


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