Backing up WhatsApp is essential: keeping a copy of your conversations somewhere other than your phone protects your messages, links and photos.
If the conversations are not in a backup, they are very unlikely to be recoverable: Bot does not recover WhatsApp or Instagram messages. If the phone will not turn on, was dropped or got wet, see Bot’s phone data recovery.
That copy matters both for sentimental reasons and because conversations can serve as evidence if you ever need them in a legal matter.
That is why Bot has put together this guide on how to back up WhatsApp on Android, iPhone and Windows Phone. Read on to get all your questions answered.
What is a WhatsApp backup?
A WhatsApp backup is simply a copy of your chats and media stored outside the app. If you have to do a factory reset or switch to a new phone, you can get your conversations back easily.
Backups should be made regularly if you want your copy to stay up to date. You can back up all kinds of things, from phones and computers to games and apps such as WhatsApp. Bear in mind, though, that there are different ways of storing a backup, and the best one depends on the situation.
On computers, for example, the most common approach is to save the backup to a physical device, such as a USB flash drive or an external hard drive. In this case, the user repeats the process manually from time to time to keep the backup up to date.
Another option is a cloud backup, which you can access from anywhere over the internet, using services such as Google Drive or iCloud.
You can also install dedicated backup software, which automates the process and can even encrypt your data for extra security.
When you back up WhatsApp, where do your conversations go?
The main reason to back up WhatsApp is to get your old conversations back when you switch to a new phone.
It also ensures you don’t lose your chats if you ever have to reinstall the app, which can happen at any time.
Another advantage is that, besides your messages, the backup also saves the photos and other media shared in your chats.
So the photos you care about are kept somewhere safe: either in a local backup, which you can copy to your computer, or in a cloud backup on iCloud or Google Drive.
How do I set up WhatsApp backups?
On Android, WhatsApp automatically creates a local backup on the phone every day. On iPhone, there is no local backup: the only option is iCloud, which you have to turn on yourself.
For cloud backups, you need to set up your phone. Here is how to do it:
Android
To back up WhatsApp on an Android phone, you need a Google account with access to Google Drive, Google’s cloud storage service.
If you have never used Google Drive, simply use the Google account that is already set up on your Android phone.
Google Drive backup is sometimes already turned on, but this is not always the case, so it is best to check and set it up yourself.
Here is how to set up WhatsApp backups:
- Open WhatsApp and tap the menu button (three dots);
- Tap “Settings” and then “Chats”;
- Choose “Chat backup”;
- Tap “Back up to Google Drive” and choose how often to back up (daily, weekly or monthly);
- Select the Google account you want to use for the backup.
Your phone will now back up WhatsApp to Google Drive. If you also want to include videos, remember to turn on the “Include videos” option.
Keep in mind that videos take up cloud storage much faster than photos and chats.
Windows Phone
On Windows Phone, WhatsApp backed up conversations to the phone’s own memory every day at 4 a.m.
Because Windows Phone has not been made since 2017, WhatsApp never offered cloud backups on it, unlike Android and iOS, and it stopped supporting the platform altogether at the end of 2019.
As a result, WhatsApp backups could only be stored in the phone’s own memory. To move a backup to another device, you had to copy it manually, for example via the memory card.
If you want to make a manual backup or change the backup settings, follow these steps:
- Open WhatsApp and tap “More” (the three-dot icon);
- Go to “Settings” and then “Chat settings”.
To change the backup time, tap the option shown. To make a manual backup, tap “Backup”.
iPhone
While Android uses Google Drive for cloud backups, iOS uses iCloud, Apple’s cloud storage service.
To use it, you need an active iCloud account with enough free space, as well as enough free space on your iPhone.
Just follow the steps below:
- Open the iPhone’s Settings app, tap your name and choose “iCloud”;
- On iOS 8 or later, make sure iCloud Drive is turned on. On iOS 7, the “Documents & Data” option must also be on;
- Open WhatsApp and go to “Settings”;
- Tap “Chats” and then “Chat Backup”;
- To make a manual backup, tap “Back Up Now”;
- To schedule backups, tap “Auto Backup” and choose how often they should run.
From now on, your messages, photos, voice messages and other files will be backed up automatically.
Remember that if you want to include videos in the backup, you need to turn on the “Include Videos” option.
It is also worth checking whether iCloud is allowed to back up over mobile data, as this can eat into your data plan.
To prevent this, go to “Settings > Mobile Data” and turn off “iCloud Drive”. Backups will then only run when you are connected to Wi-Fi.
How do I restore my WhatsApp backup?
A common problem is that, with so many updates and phone changes, some of the backups we have made can get lost along the way.
Fortunately, there are ways to get your backup back. Here are the main ways to restore a WhatsApp backup:
Google Drive and iCloud
To restore a backup, you need access to the Google account (on Android) or the iCloud account (on iPhone) used to create it, and you must use the same phone number.
To restore the backup:
- Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp;
- Open WhatsApp and verify your phone number;
- When prompted, tap “Restore” to bring back your chats and media from Google Drive or iCloud;
- When the restore is finished, tap “Next” and your chats will appear once setup is complete;
- If you are looking for a particular photo or file, wait a little longer, because WhatsApp only restores media after it has restored your conversations.
On Android, if you reinstall WhatsApp without a Google Drive backup, WhatsApp will restore your conversations from the local backup, that is, the files saved on the phone itself.
Local backup
To use a local backup on a new phone, you need to transfer the backup files to it using a computer, a file manager or an SD card.
Keep in mind that Android phones only keep local backups from the last seven days. Local backups are created automatically every day at 2 a.m. and saved as a file on the phone.
If you don’t have an SD card, the /sdcard/WhatsApp/ folder will be in the phone’s internal storage (sometimes called main storage). On recent versions of Android, the backups are in Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Databases.
Restoring an older local backup
If you want to restore a local backup other than the most recent one, follow these steps:
- Install a file manager app. There are many free ones available;
- In the file manager, open the WhatsApp/Databases folder. If your data is not on an SD card, look for it in the internal storage (or main storage);
- Rename the backup you want to restore from “msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12” to “msgstore.db.crypt12”. Older backups may use a different encryption protocol, such as crypt9 or crypt10 (newer ones use crypt14 or crypt15), so don’t change the number in the crypt extension;
- Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp;
- Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp and tap “Restore” when prompted.
That’s it: you have restored an older backup!
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Conclusion
As you can see, backing up WhatsApp is now quick and easy, especially on Android and iPhone, where you can store your backup in the cloud.
Windows Phone users don’t have cloud backups, but they can still make a manual copy before switching to a new phone.
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