WhatsApp Backup: A Guide To Easily Restoring Your Chats
WhatsApp harbours so many of our important chats, images, videos and documents – losing which can be a nightmare. Creating a WhatsApp data backup is absolutely crucial to prevent data loss in unexpected events like switching phones, device malfunctions, or your account being hacked. Thankfully, WhatsApp allows users to manually or automatically backup and restore their chat history to either Google Drive or iCloud. Let’s take you through the easy ways to backup and restore your WhatsApp chats.
While Android devices use Google Drive for backup purposes, iOS devices use iCloud. A WhatsApp backup contains everything from your WhatsApp messages (individual & group chats, starred messages, etc), media (images, videos, voice notes etc), emojis and attachments. Follow these simple steps to create a WhatsApp backup on your Android or iOS smartphones.
How to backup your WhatsApp on Android
To complete your WhatsApp backup on Google Drive, follow these steps:
Open WhatsApp and go to Settings.
Tap on Chats, go to Chat Backup and select ‘Back up to Google Drive’. You’ll have to select an update frequency other than ‘Never’.
Select the Google account you want to backup your chat history to. If your account isn’t connected, tap on the ‘Add account’ prompt and enter your login credentials.
Click on ‘Back up over’ to choose the network that will support the backup. You have two options: WiFi and WiFi or cellular.
Once all the settings are in place, press ‘Back up’ to perform a successful backup.
To add a layer of security to your backup, you can turn on end-to-end encryption for your Google Drive backup. Simply go to ‘Chat backup’ and turn on ‘End-to-end encrypted backup’. You can create a password or use a 64-digit encryption key. Tap ‘create’ and it’s all set!
How to backup your Whatsapp on iOS
WhatsApp uses your iCloud account to store and update backups. WhatsApp suggests having at least 2.05 times the size of the WhatsApp backup on your iCloud account as well as your iPhone for the process to be successful. Here’s what you need to do:
Go to your iPhone settings, tap on your Apple ID and then select ‘iCloud.’
Ensure that you’re signed into your iCloud account. From here, scroll down, select ‘WhatsApp’ and turn on the toggle button to green.
Go back to the WhatsApp app. In your WhatsApp settings, go to ‘Chats’ and select ‘Chat Backup’.
You can choose to include the videos as or enable automatic backups and also choose how often these backups should be running.
Tap on ‘Back up now’ and you’re good to go.
You can also enable end-to-end encryption for the iCloud backup as well, similar to how it’s done for Android.
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How to restore your WhatsApp chat history on Android
To restore a Google Drive backup, you must ensure that you’re using the same phone number and Google account used to create it. Follow these steps to restore your WhatsApp data from Google Drive:
Install and open WhatsApp and verify your number.
Select the ‘RESTORE’ prompt to restore your chats and media from Google Drive.
When the restoration is done, tap on the ‘NEXT’ option. Your chats will be displayed once the process is complete and WhatsApp will continue restoring your media files thereafter (that may take some time).
How to restore your WhatsApp chat history on iOS
iCloud backup is used to restore your WhatsApp chats to your existing iPhone or to a new iPhone. To ensure that you have a backup, go to your WhatsApp settings and visit ‘Chat Backup’. If the backup is in place, follow these steps for restoration:
Install WhatsApp on your device.
Verify your phone number and Apple ID used to create the backup.
Follow the prompts on the screen and tap on ‘Restore Chat History’. The process is complete!
Hope this guide helps you get hold of your WhatsApp data easily!
(Hero and Feature image credit: Freepik)
This story first appeared on Lifestyle Asia Hong Kong
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
How can I backup all my WhatsApp Chats?
WhatsApp allows you to manually or automatically backup your chats. The platform has a ‘Chat backup’ option in settings which allows you to keep your data safe.
How do I retrieve old WhatsApp messages on my new phone?
Make sure you have your WhatsApp backup in place before switching devices. After that, simply install WhatsApp on your new device and follow the prompts to restore your chats. Make sure you’re using the same phone number and iCloud/ Google Drive account.
How can I get my old WhatsApp account back?
To get your old WhatsApp account back, just re-register your WhatsApp account using the same mobile number.
How can I recover WhatsApp messages without backup?
To recover WhatsApp messages, you can access local backup history or use third-party recovery tools.
