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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.
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.
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.
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.
Choose “chat backup” from the “chats” page.
Go into your chat backup settings.
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.
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.
Choose “settings” from the dropdown list.
Choose “settings” from the dropdown menu.
In WhatsApp’s settings, tap “chats” to get access to your conversation settings.
Go into your “chats” settings.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
Once you’ve restored your WhatsApp chats from the backup, tap “next” to finish setting it up.
Tap “next” and finish setting up 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.
Computers and smartphones have given us an incredible ability to go back through old memories. Whether it's all the digital pictures you've taken over the years, ghosts waiting in old video games, or chats with friends and family, it's easy to get nostalgic.
But technology isn't perfect and you can lose all those memories if you don't back them up regularly. WhatsApp chats are no different. If you're not backed up and something happens to your iPhone, all those memories could be gone forever.
Let's look at how to backup WhatsApp so your chats are safe from unexpected problems.
There are 4 ways to back up your WhatsApp messages:
These each have varying degrees of usefulness so let's go through the details about how each of them works.
iCloud Drive backup is a built-in feature on all iPhones. It lets you back up the information on your phone to your iCloud account, storing everything in the "cloud". Most iPhone apps, including WhatsApp, have an option to backup their information this way.
These backups happen in the background automatically so you don't have to remember to do a backup. To set up iCloud Drive backup for WhatsApp, follow these steps:
Once your messages are backup in iCloud, you can restore them if something happens to your phone or you replace it with a new device. You can't work with individual messages though, it's all or nothing.
Backing up your iPhone with iTunes on your Mac or PC is another option but this one is even less specific than the first method. Instead of only backing up your WhatsApp messages, this will back up everything on your iPhone.
There's no way to restore only WhatsApp.
If something goes wrong and you restore from this backup, your iPhone would be back to where it was when you did the backup. Email, photos, WhatsApp, and everything else will go back to that "snapshot."
To back up your iPhone with iTunes, follow these steps:
This will save a complete backup on your computer.
If you want to save conversations in a way that lets you read them individually, exporting them from the WhatsApp app does the trick. You can export your messages to other apps on your iPhone, such as Messages, Notes, or Mail.
The text of the conversation will be sent to the other app, where you can save it to read back through or send it to someone else.
You can only do this with one conversation at a time and there's no way to organize the messages within the conversation. You'll get one long document with all the messages.
To export conversations from WhatsApp, these are the steps to follow:
If you want to export several conversations, you'll need to follow this process for each of them separately.
The Keepster app lets you back up your WhatsApp messages but once they're backed up, you can search for specific messages by keyword, sender, or date. You can also create folders and organize your messages in any way you want. This backup system gives you the most flexibility to work with your messages once they're saved.
Keepster also lets you create printed books from your conversations so you can turn them into gifts and keepsakes. There are versions available for macOS and Windows 10 so you can run it from any modern PC.
It works with more than just WhatsApp as well. Keepster supports several different messaging platforms, including:
If you use different apps to chat with different people, it's the perfect way to back everything up in one place.
First, download and install the app on your computer. Once it's installed, open the app and create a Keepster account. Make sure you choose a strong password to keep your messages safe.
Keepster takes your privacy extremely seriously. Your message backup is fully private and secure, stored locally on your computer.
Keepster has no access to your data and doesn't read any of the messages saved in the app. You can read more about the privacy and security of the app here.
Once the app is installed and you've created your account, you're ready to do your first backup. Keep in mind that you need enough free storage space on your computer to save all the messages. If you don't have enough space, you'll get a message when you start the backup process.
Connect your iPhone to your computer using a Lightning cable and accept any trust notifications that pop up. Click on the Backup tab in the Keepster app then on the Create New Backup button at the bottom.
If you use a Mac, you'll have to provide Keepster with full disk access the first time you run it. This is a security feature of macOS to ensure only apps that you've authorized have access to your data.
To provide access, click the Open System Preferences button in Keepster. This opens the Full Disk Access settings page in preferences.
Click the lock icon at the bottom left and enter your system password.
Next, click the + button, find Keepster in the list of installed apps, and double-click on it. If you get a message asking if you want to quit Keepster, click later.
Switch back to Keepster and click the blue Finish button at the bottom to restart the app.
To back up your messages in Keepster, click the Backup tab and then the Create New Backup button at the bottom. Click the button that says "Click here to open iTunes" and when iTunes opens, click on the iPhone device icon at the top left.
Click the Back Up Now button in the center of the iTunes window. If your iPhone is encrypted, you'll need to enter your encryption password to start the backup. Once iTunes has finished backing up your phone, you can disconnect it from your computer.
Next, switch back to the Keepster app and click on the Backup tab again. There should a new button with the details of the backup you just did in iTunes.
Click on that button to start the backup process in Keepster.
Keepster will back up all your WhatsApp messages and the time it takes will depend on how many messages you have. Once it's finished, you'll be able to use Keepster to search them, organize them, and order printed books from them if you wish.
Once the backup is finished, click the "hamburger" menu in Keepster and log out to keep your messages safe from anyone else who uses the same computer.
Check out our getting started with Keepster video to see this process in action. And take a look at our other how-to videos to learn more about all of Keepster's features.
Any backup is better than none at all so using any of these four methods is a step in the right direction. But if you want to know how to backup WhatsApp messages so you can search them, organize them, and even print them, there's only one option - Keepster.
Having your WhatsApp messages saved in Keepster will let you rest easy and not worry that you're going to lose important memories to an unexpected iPhone emergency. And if you want to be extra careful, there's no reason you shouldn't use any or all of the other backup methods we've covered here as well.
Your memories are too important to leave to chance, aren't they? Make sure you have them safely backed up before it's too late.
In the default settings of the messenger, the option "Create a backup daily" is set. You can change this setting to save data to the vault weekly or monthly. But where is the backup copy of all available information from whatsapp stored on android smartphones and how to restore it?
Whatsapp's secret weapon: Hipolink multilink!
Sometimes automatic copying is disabled and information is not saved. To avoid losing important correspondence on WhatsApp, you should create and save backup copies of your account manually (you need to regularly check whether everything is backed up properly).
Then they can always be downloaded from the server when changing the device.
Whatsapp is known for protecting user privacy and high level of data encryption. WhatsApp policy involves storing messages in the device's memory for a short period, and then the messages are deleted from memory, remaining only on the cloud after copying the data.
All chats and files copied manually or automatically to android are stored on:
- Cloud (google drive).
— On the smartphone (in the internal memory).
- On the memory card inserted in the device.
Outdated files and chats are deleted first, so it is important to take care of regularly saving information from WhatsApp, so all data will be saved. It is recommended to set up saving copies to a memory card, so it will be faster to download the saved information if necessary.
Important! The Hipolink service makes it possible to combine WhatsApp and other instant messengers with any social networks.
So where is the whatsapp backup stored on smartphones? You can find the account backup folder at /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases (you should look for it in the device's file manager). All saved chat files can be found by connecting the phone to a computer. You should find this folder through the explorer. It stores messages (voice too), photos and other files that have been received and sent.
Many users save all data from correspondence on the cloud (the most common program is Google Drive). This program has a Manage Apps menu. Whatsapp is located in the menu, the necessary photos and multimedia files are downloaded from there.
Attention! In order for the existing dialogs and all data from chats to be saved on the google drive, the smartphone must be synchronized with this service.
Open Google Drive and sign in to your account, if you don't already have one, sign up. Not only messages and files from WhatsApp, but also other important information will be stored on the cloud.
Photos and all sent and received media are stored in the root folder of the Databases application. It is stored in the sdcard, in the Whatsapp - Media folder. If saving was configured through the cloud, then you can only recreate lost files using a computer.
WhatsApp is one of the most popular instant messengers, in which hundreds of thousands of users exchange messages every day. If the smartphone fails or is lost, there is a need to restore incoming and outgoing messages. You can do this by logging into your previously used account using your personal phone number.
But a natural question arises - where is the correspondence stored? Dialogues can be stored in your device's memory or on a removable memory card. To know for sure where the dialogs are, you need to check this information in the default settings in Explorer or the file manager.
Keep in mind that phone memory is not suitable for storing information in the long term.
To do this, it is better to use a removable drive or keep the information on a personal computer.
Read also: Whatsapp message history: messenger backups
If you need to get data that has been deleted within the last 7 days, then just delete the application and reinstall it. In this case, the system will offer to restore chats saved in the system and messages deleted from the device will again be displayed in the application.
If you need to download older data, you can do this using a computer and a third-party program. To do this, you need to download a program for recovering deleted data (for example, Hetman Partition Recovery).
To carry out this operation, connect your phone or memory card to your PC and open the selected data recovery program. Find the "Restore" function, select the folder with the required date and instruct the program to restore it.
In order to always have access to the transmitted and received information, it is recommended to manually create backup copies, not hoping that the messenger will do it on its own instead of the user.
This is a normal application and may crash or settings may not be set correctly.
To create a backup, follow the instructions below:
- Go to the application.
- Go to the settings menu.
- Select the "Chats" option.
- Select the Extra Copy option.
- Click "Back Up".
- Wait for the copying of information to finish.
Done, all currently stored data and messages have been successfully copied to the Google Drive cloud, from where they can be downloaded at any time. The google drive application is a system one and is automatically installed on the phone. If the cloud was not installed automatically, then this can be done manually. Go to google play and download it manually.
Attention! All the necessary information about WhatsApp can be found in the "Applications" section, which contains the saved information from the messenger. To open this archive, you will need advanced features and the use of third-party applications, this option is available to more advanced users.
Restoring correspondence and deleted data seems difficult, but almost all deleted or lost information from whatsapp can be recovered. Recent data is easier to recover, but older data will have to be messed with.
Related videos:
Accidentally deleted the desired message/correspondence and want to see the deleted data? Let's figure out how to quickly find and view the saved backup copy of Whatsapp conversations. We look at what to do if copying has not been configured in the account. We offer a list of instructions with which you can restore and view the WhatsApp backup.
Whatsapp is one of the most popular instant messengers, with thousands of correspondence for work, business, friends/family. In chats, SMS, video, audio, important documents are sent, and deleting a message or dialogue can bring problems due to data loss.
To prevent this from happening, it is important to always have a configured backup - so all incoming and outgoing information will be saved on the server, from where it can be easily downloaded after.
If you need to link Whatsapp with other instant messengers, use the convenient multilink service on Hypolink. Registration by clicking on the link is free.
By default, Whatsapp saves backups to Google Drive, on some smartphones it is possible to save to a memory card, Gmail mail, other servers. To see a copy of the information from the messenger, you need to search for it manually on the cloud. But there is another, easier way. Things to do:
1. Open the Play Store/AppStore.
2. Remove Whatsapp.
3. Download the messenger again.
4. Authenticate with a phone number.
5. The system will prompt you to load the previous data, click "Restore".
6. After the restore procedure, click "Next".
After restoring messages, downloading of media files will start. Thus, files, messages are restored on their own, after the end you can see them. It is important to note that Whatsapp will only return the data that was saved during the last backup. If the last save was performed a month ago, then the data for the past month will be lost. It is recommended to set up a daily backup, so the risk of data loss is minimized.
To restore and view Whatsapp information, you need to use the same phone number and mailing address that are associated with the account. Without access to this data, information cannot be viewed.
When using Whatsapp, all messages and incoming/outgoing files are also saved on the phone. If there is no backup on the cloud, some information can be viewed from the memory card / storage of the device. It is important to understand that the local backup contains data for the last 7 days. It is stored in the "/sdcard/WhatsApp/" folder.
Everything that was / sent and sent from a mobile device is stored there.
Go to the folder and see all the necessary data. For greater convenience, you can transfer dad to your computer.
Read also how to view deleted messages in Whatsapp https://hipolink.net/ru/blog/kak-mozhno-uvidet-i-prochest-udalennye-soobshcheniya-v-vatsap.
If you need to restore an earlier backup, use third-party software/mobile apps. Detailed instruction:
- Download/open a file manager.
- Find the "sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases" folder.
- Rename the root folder to "msgstore.db.crypt12".
- Uninstall Whatsapp, reinstall it.
Authenticate in the messenger, restore the backup when prompted by the system. After reinstalling the application, the earlier information should be restored and become available. You can then watch it from your phone or computer.
If the previous device was lost or completely out of order, you can restore and view the Whatsapp backup by downloading data from the cloud to the new phone.
If backup was not configured on the previous phone, then there is no way to view messages and files. The data is stored on the cloud and on the device, if neither of them is accessed, the data may be lost forever.
There is only one last chance to return all messages and files - contact directly the interlocutors with whom you need to restore the correspondence. Perhaps if you explain the situation to them and ask for help, they will agree to forward the entire dialogue. In this case, the second participant in the correspondence must store information on the device/cloud.
To always be able to see copies of Whatsapp, set up automatic saving in the messenger. How to do it:
- Open Whatsapp.
- Click on the three dots/three bars in the upper right corner.
- Click "Settings".
- Select "Chats".
- Go to "Backing up chats".
- Open Google Drive Backup.
- Select one of the options listed.
It is recommended to set up a daily backup.
If you often have to give your contacts to employees, business partners, friends, clients, we recommend combining them into one multi-link. This will help simplify the process of transferring contacts - you will only need to send one pre-generated link that will accommodate as many instant messengers and social networks as you need. To create such a multilink, use the Hypolink service. Registration and use of its basic functions is free, and paid accounts will provide a more extensive list of opportunities for business and website creation.
In addition to creating multilinks, the constructor offers the following features:
— Creating a one-page/landing page.
— Creation from scratch and design of an online store/website.
- Use of a selection of ready-made templates.
— Design of a business card mini site.
