How to backup old messages on whatsapp
How To Backup and Restore WhatsApp Chat History in 2022
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Table of Contents
- How to Backup WhatsApp on iPhone
- How to Backup WhatsApp on Android
- Store Your WhatsApp Backup in the Cloud
- 1. Sync.com
- 2. pCloud
- 3. Icedrive
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Unless you manually backup WhatsApp, you can easily lose access to important conversations, or worse, your contacts themselves. Here's how to backup WhatsApp to ensure that doesn't happen.
By Robin Barber (Associate Editor)
— Last Updated: 2022-03-02T15:28:24+00:00
Whether you’re about to move to a new device or just worried about losing your conversations, there are many reasons why you should backup your data. Helpfully, some apps — including WhatsApp — have ways to backup your data automatically. In this article, we’ll show you how to backup WhatsApp messages and attachments on your phone.
Key Takeaways:
- You can backup WhatsApp messages from within the app.
- By default, Android devices use Google Drive and iOS devices use iCloud for the backup.
- There are other services that can store the backup you create.
- You can recover your WhatsApp chats during the installation process.
Although you can create a local backup on your phone, you can’t easily use it to move conversations to a new device and it won’t protect anything from most cybercrime or physical damage. Instead, you should keep a copy in the cloud. Luckily, it only takes a few taps to save all your WhatsApp data to either Google Drive or iCloud.
The easiest way to backup WhatsApp is with the built-in feature that lets you save your chats to either iCloud or Google Drive — on iOS or Android, respectively.
Simply go into “settings,” “chats” then “chat backup.” Here, there will be a backup button and an auto-backup feature that you can set up.When you install WhatsApp on your phone, it will ask you if it should restore chat histories. Make sure that your backup is on your device or your connected cloud storage — either Google Drive or iCloud — before downloading it, and then choose that option when it appears.
Simply follow the method to backup your WhatsApp data either locally or to the cloud, and then you can download that data file to your new device. However, if you’ve connected your phone to your iCloud or Google account, you should be able to restore your data without downloading it first.
How to Backup WhatsApp on iPhone
For most Apple device users, you’ll want to backup your WhatsApp chats to your iCloud storage — and you can read more on this service in our full iCloud review. You could backup everything on your iPhone, but the best way to backup just WhatsApp is to use the backup feature that’s built into the app, which is a simple four-step process.
- Tap “Settings”
When you open WhatsApp from your home screen, you’ll notice five buttons along the bottom. Select the option on the far right, labeled “settings.”
In WhatsApp, tap the “settings” icon in the bottom-right corner.
- Select “Chat Backup”
Choose “chat backup” from the “chats” page.
Go into your chat backup settings.
- Tap “Back Up Now”
You can either tap “back up now” to start the backup process or select “auto backup” and change your backup frequency.
Tap “back up now” to start creating a backup.
How to Backup WhatsApp on Android
Although the process is similar, WhatsApp puts its buttons in slightly different places on Android devices. It’ll also save everything to your Google Drive account. Note that with this service, you give up some privacy and security in return for high speeds and a great third-party integration — and you can find out more in our full Google Drive review.
- Tap “Settings”
Choose “settings” from the dropdown list.
Choose “settings” from the dropdown menu.
- Go Into “Chats”
In WhatsApp’s settings, tap “chats” to get access to your conversation settings.
Go into your “chats” settings.
- Select “Chat Backup”
You’ll find “chat backup” near the bottom of the page, next to an icon in the shape of a cloud.
Tap “chat backup” for your backup options.
- Tap “Back Up”
Tap on “back up” to do a manual backup or “back up to Google Drive” to set your backup frequency. If you haven’t connected your phone to a Google account, it will only create a local backup.
Start to back your messages up to your Google drive.
Store Your WhatsApp Backup in the Cloud
With neither iCloud nor Google Drive being among the best cloud storage services for security, you may be worried about the privacy of your conversations.
Luckily, you can use a more secure service by saving your backup files to your preferred remote storage app.
1. Sync.com
Sync.com’s incredible mobile app makes it one of the best.
At this point, it’s no surprise that Sync.com is our favorite cloud storage provider. Although our full Sync.com review goes into more detail, when it comes down to it, 2TB of space with high-end security for both PC and mobile devices at only $8.00 per month is practically unbeatable, plus you can get 5GB of cloud storage for free.
2. pCloud
pCloud is a solid option, especially for high-speed transfers.
Despite pCloud’s odd choice to make zero-knowledge encryption a paid add-on, pCloud and Sync.com are closely matched. If you’re looking for ease of use and speed, and you’re willing to pay extra for security, check out our full pCloud review. You can get started with 10GB of free cloud storage.
3. Icedrive
Icedrive is a young service, but it’s still one of the best.
Although it is newer to the cloud storage scene, Icedrive ties with Sync.com in our comparison. It doesn’t lack much in any category, including providing 10GB of free space — even if its customer support could be improved — and it’ll definitely keep your data safe. So if you’re willing to go for a younger service, read our full Icedrive review for more information.
How To Restore Your WhatsApp Backup
To restore WhatsApp from a backup, you’re going to need to reinstall it from an app store, such as Google Play. However, as WhatsApp limits how often you can receive verification text messages to a specific phone number, you should make sure you know what you’re doing before you begin.
- Give WhatsApp the Necessary Permissions
In order to restore your WhatsApp message history, you’ll need to allow access to your contacts, photos, media and files. Start by tapping “continue.”
You need to tap “continue” to start the process.
- Tap “Allow” on Each Permission
Make sure to allow every permission that WhatsApp asks for, or else you won’t be able to restore your messages.
Allow the permissions that WhatsApp asks for.
- Start Restoring WhatsApp
After it has found a backup file, check that it’s from the source you expected and tap “restore” to recover all of your conversations.
Check to make sure it’s recovering from the right email address and tap “restore.”
- Finish Setting Up WhatsApp
Once you’ve restored your WhatsApp chats from the backup, tap “next” to finish setting it up.
Tap “next” and finish setting up WhatsApp.
Final Thoughts: How to Backup WhatsApp
Whether you’re an iOS or an Android user, there’s no reason you can’t backup your WhatsApp chats and conversations.
You can then use this backup to quickly recover all of your messages, as well as any photos, videos and other attachments that have been part of a conversation.
If you have saved your WhatsApp data to the cloud but can’t see it in there, be sure to look in your backup folder. Providers often keep this separate, so people don’t damage their backups by accident, but you can usually still access it through the official web page on your computer.
However, if you don’t need to use this recovery feature and are limited in space, you can instead use the “export chat” option under “chat history.” This’ll create a text file of the conversation you had with one person. You can even ignore photos and videos, so it doesn’t take up too much memory.
Keep in mind that to accomplish the backup you’ll need a reliable VPN to bypass the WhatsApp ban in Dubai and other countries where WhatsApp is banned. We also have a guide on how to unblock WhatsApp in China.
If you don’t plan on using WhatsApp anymore, our guide will help you understand how to delete your WhatsApp account and this piece will help you find a WhatsApp alternative.
Plus, we also have a guide on how to recover data from a broken phone, in case you need it.
Have you tried to backup WhatsApp on your phone? Did you use one of these methods to keep your conversations safe? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. Thanks for reading.
Let us know if you liked the post. That’s the only way we can improve.
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:
- Scroll up in the chat list (swipe from top to bottom) until Archived Chats appears.
- Tap on it, then swipe from right to left on the chat you want to restore.
- Hit the Unarchive button that appears.
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To unarchive a chat on Android:
- Scroll to the bottom of the chat list and tap Archived chats (X).
- Press and hold on the chat you want to recover.
- 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:
- Open a file explorer app on your Android device.
- Navigate to /WhatsApp/Databases.
- Rename msgstore.db.crypt12 to msgstore-latest.db.crypt12.
- Rename msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12 to msgstore.db.crypt12.
- Uninstall WhatsApp.
- If Google Drive backups are enabled, open Google Drive, slide out the left menu, tap Backups, and delete the WhatsApp backup file.
- Reinstall WhatsApp.
- 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:
- 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. - 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:
- 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.
- 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.
How to recover WhatsApp conversations on iPhone using Tenorshare UltData or from 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 backup0005
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 successfully completed, 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 whole 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.
Select the "Restore from iCloud Backup" option.
Step 3. Select the appropriate iCloud backup and wait for the restore process to complete successfully. It is important to note that an internet connection is critical throughout the entire process. Therefore, make sure that the Wi-Fi network is not disabled during the process.
That's it! There are several ways to recover deleted WhatsApp messages. In this article, you will find the best ways to recover any lost WhatsApp messages, including using UltData. So, just make your choice and recover messages without much difficulty.
How do I recover deleted messages?
How to recover deleted messages?Summary
- WhatsApp automatically backs up your chats every night.
- You can start restoring chats by simply uninstalling and reinstalling WhatsApp.
- Click on Restore when prompted to restore your chats.
- Your chats should appear in WhatsApp!
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WhatsApp automatically creates backups every day at 2:00 am and places them in the WhatsApp folder on your Android.
This folder is located in the internal memory of your device or on an external SD card. Depending on your settings, WhatsApp may have backed up to Google Drive. To restore recent backups, you need to uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.
If you need to install older messages, check "Restoring Older (Not Latest) Backups".
During installation, you will be prompted to restore your message history. Select Restore to restore chats.
If you are not prompted to restore your chat history, the reason may be:
- Your SD card and/or chat history has been corrupted.
- The backup is very old. WhatsApp will not be able to restore too old backups.
- You are using a different phone number than the one you used when backing up your chats.
- There is no saved backup of your chats in your phone memory or Google Drive.
In these cases, we will not be able to restore messages for you.
Restoring older (not recent) backups
Before you try to restore messages, please note the following:
- The current chat history will be lost while restoring messages.
- You only have 7 days to back up your files.
- Any new messages received or sent after the backup was created, or deleted before the new backup was created, cannot be restored.
- If you run a manual backup, it will automatically overwrite recent backup files.
- On more modern devices, your folder is
WhatsApp/Databaseswill most likely be placed on the internal memory of the device. - You need to use the same WhatsApp phone number that you used when you backed up your chats.
We also recommend the following:
- Make sure you have a file manager. It can be useful when renaming backups. There are several options: File managers and explorers.
- If you don't want to lose your current history (recent messages), please create backups manually by going to:
WhatsApp > Menu > Settings > Chats and Calls > 9 Backup or Chats 90 010 .
