Backing up your WhatsApp messages is crucial, especially if they contain valuable memories or important information. Here are some methods and considerations based on user discussions:
Exporting Chats
One straightforward method to back up your chats is by exporting them. On both Android and iOS, you can export individual chats by going to the chat, tapping on the contact's name, and selecting "Export Chat." You have the option to include media or not, and you can send the exported file via email or save it to a cloud service [3:3]. This method creates a .txt file for the chat history and saves media separately
[1:1].
Local Backups
For Android users, creating a local backup is possible. You can back up your WhatsApp data locally on your device instead of Google Drive. This involves using third-party tools like Syncthing to sync the WhatsApp folder to your computer or server [2:3]. Additionally, there are scripts available that allow you to extract and decrypt the message database from your phone
[2:2].
Cloud Backups
WhatsApp allows you to back up your messages to Google Drive (Android) or iCloud (iOS). However, these backups are stored in hidden folders and are primarily for disaster recovery rather than archival purposes [3:2]. It's essential to ensure that your Google account or Apple ID is secure and accessible to restore these backups.
Cross-Platform Transfers
Transferring WhatsApp messages between Android and iPhone can be challenging due to platform restrictions. A workaround is to use Telegram as an intermediary. Export your WhatsApp messages to Telegram on your Android device, then access them on your iPhone through Telegram [4:1]. While this method doesn't integrate the messages into WhatsApp on the new device, it provides a way to retain access to your chats.
Considerations and Recommendations
By following these methods, you can safeguard your WhatsApp messages and maintain access to them across devices and platforms.
Hey, so I’m not very technical whatsoever. Apologies in advance.
I have years worth of chats and media with my dad who sadly passed away. It’s been just over a year and now his profile photo has disappeared so I’m guessing his provider has cancelled his number? Which is strange because my mum has continued to make the monthly payments ? I’m assuming it’s because it’s been completely out of action. Not really WhatsApp related but if anyone can shed any light on this point while we’re at it, bonus.
I’m worried our conversations are going to disappear or somethings going to go wrong. I can see an “export chat” option but I’ve no idea where to export it to, all sorts of different options come up (iphone).
I just want them backed up. The chats are definitely backed up to my iCloud so am I just covered as I am??
Will they disappear eventually from my main WhatsApp?
It would break me if I lost these, we were very close and messaged every day. They’re pretty much my go to to read through when I’m missing him.
Note I don’t have a laptop or any other apple device, just my phone.
Any help would be very appreciated
I suggest you to do a local encrypted backup and save it in an external disk drive to have it as a checkpoint saved safely.
Believe me, it works.
WhatsApp will delete the account after 120 days of inactivity or if the SIM gets canceled. When you export it's saved as a .txt file 40,000 messages without media and 10,000 messages with media.
You would have to save them to your phone and/or to your cloud account.
I wouldn't just rely on WhatsApp backup i would export them and save them.
Goodevening all, I dont have enough knowledge so please bear with me. I want to backup the chat history including media but the option to store locally is not visible or i am too dumb to see.
As whatsapp is changing the terms so i want to delete whatsapp. The data consist of emotional value as few people i talked to are no more. Please help. How can i save my chat histories.
I download from my Google Drive backup with https://github.com/B16f00t/whapa.
The media was unencrypted but the message database is.
I had to use https://github.com/EliteAndroidApps/WhatsApp-Key-DB-Extractor to install an older version which let's toy backup and extract the key.
I then used whapa again and used the key from above to decrypt the message database.
All done without root.
I had to make changes to get the extractor to work. I suggest avoiding the bat version if you're on Windows and using the power shell version.
This is brilliant, gonna try this! Thank ypu very much
Make sure you run a Google drive backup first.
The script uses adb to uninstall WhatsApp and install an older version which has the key locally rather than hidden in the protected 'data' directory.
It reinstalls it afterwards and I had no problems but worth a go.
With the key extractor I have to recompile 'abe.jar' - the Java app that converts the backup to a tar file to remove a version check (it may depend on the version of Android uses so if you're phone is older you may not need this)
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If you are on Android, do the backup in the phone, not to Google Drive. Sync the Whatsapp folder with Syncthing to your server.
Wont the chat be encrypted?
Yes, sorry, I skipped that part. Send the chat by email is your best bet, I guess.
It is encrypted, yes. There's no sensible way to open them.
I understand now they're in the news with the TOS change and everything but do we need to have this asked every hour when the answer didn't change for many years?
It worked every time I use it, and I changed the ROM of my smartphone very frequently some time ago. Always on Android, I don't know if that changes anything.
I'd also like to know. There seem to be paid programms like "copytrans" that can do it. But a free option would be much appreciated.
It goes into one of the "hidden" folders in Google Drive that you can't normally access - so it's probably fine for disaster recovery in case you lose your phone (as long as you also replace it with an Android because you can't restore messages cross-platform). But as a usable backup for archival purposes, not really.
Is the storage free for this?
For WhatsApp backups on Google Drive? No, why would it be?
Yes, everything needs to work flawlessly to recover that backup: registering your number again with Whatsapp, logging in to Google, and the whole workflow in the new phone to download everything (which can be many GBs or even tens of GBs if you've been at it for many years and are in groups that send lots of media). Of course, many things can go wrong with both your Google Account and your Whatsapp/phone number especially if your phone and SIM were stolen.
It is ironic that in this sub of all places I've had two (possibly more but two big) kerfuffles with people who actually were pushing this idea that it's GOOD that users aren't in control of their own backups but anyone else is (case in point: Google and Facebook) it's perfectly fine and desirable! In this sub of all places!
In any case to give something actionable for the OP (that you can also read independently of any other service or accounts): for now you CAN have an independent backup for Whatsapp Android, see here. You need to use the hex option and of course save the key in a good way and to make from time to time a copy of the mentioned directory (which is accessible without shenanigans). And to use a third party program from github to decrypt your stuff (that might not work anymore next time Whatsapp changes something, but for now and all the backups you'r have since you changed to the hex key encryption it would work).
At least on iOS, you can export messages. You do have to do it one "chat" at a time though. Go to the chat, tap on the person's name to pull up their profile, and scroll to the bottom and there's a "export chat" button. It'll zip it up (you have the option of with or without media) and can then get options of where/how to send it to. Another app, etc. I airdrop it to one of my macs and then from there it gets copied to my NAS.
It's not automated but it's still far more straightforward so it's what I use.
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64 digit key unless your pass is longer
I spent a few days looking for ways to move my WhatsApp messages from Android to iPhone, turns out there was no easy solution until Now! You can now move all your chats + media in a few minutes
The solution is very simple
NOTE: you can't move these messages from telegram back to WhatsApp on your iPhone but all these messages will be available for you to see on your telegram
You're welcome
This isn't a solution, just a trick to download Telegram ��
Nope! I coudn't care less about telegram but I found no other solution. WhatsApp Doesn't let me move my messages from my android to Iphone this is the best way to save my messages.
You can export messages to your email without downloading Telegram or use the WhatsApp migrator app (paid)
cant u just use the inbuilt whatsapp backup? like genuinely asking, i always assumed you could.
No unfortunately you can't
well this changes my plans!@ @@
There's a service out there that does that. I'm just surprised whatsapp themselves haven't done it considering how easy it should be for them.
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A while back I had uploaded the history of my talk to a contact and when I downloaded it I realized not even half of the messages were there. This was my girlfriend's contact at the time and we talked a lot. It saved only the most recent messages. It was okay in the past but now I want to save my history from beginning to end, with not even one message left out.
Note: I don't want to make a backup to recover on whatsapp later, I want to save the text and put it on a pendrive to later read without whatsapp.
Select contact>Tap on the dots>more>export chat
Yeah, that's what I do, but it doesn't save all messages. The oldest message I got from the file with this method was one of december of 2017, I started the conversation in november, so a month-worth of messages weren't included.
Yes man, I too realised that later. Sorry I couldn't delete my reply.
If you lost your WhatsApp messages — due to a phone change, accidental deletion, or a banned account — and don’t have a cloud backup, don’t lose hope just yet.
There’s one powerful, often overlooked option:
👉 Ask friends or group members to export their chats with you.
You can then import these exports into the Chat Archive app and view the conversation history — beautifully preserved, even if it’s not from your own device.
Ask a trusted contact to:
.zip
file to you directlyThe export comes as a .zip
file containing:
.txt
file with the full message historyThis format is universal and doesn't depend on the original device or account. It works even if your number is no longer active.
Step 2: Import the File into Chat Archive Save the .zip file to your iPhone (e.g., via AirDrop or Files) Open Chat Archive and tap “Import Chat” Select the .zip file Done! The full conversation is now available to browse and search You’ll see:
The entire conversation exactly as it appeared Senders, timestamps, and media in the right place Voice notes with optional transcription A clean, private, offline view of your lost chat
A Note on Privacy Your chats are stored only on your device. Chat Archive doesn’t collect or upload any data. You can even use it without internet access.
Final Thoughts While this isn’t a full account restore, it’s often enough to:
Recover key memories, photos, or documents Get your group chat history back Find voice notes or addresses you thought were gone forever If you’re missing a critical message, try this — and get a little piece of your history back.
Where in whatsapp do i import the zip file?
As this gets asked often here, here's a quick tutorial on how to backup your chats (both root and non root)
You'll need:
Enough internet to upload your backup to your Google Drive (Chats only)
A linux/mac/windows/android device capable of running python3 with gui.
Patience
Instructions:
Download python3.7 (recommended) on your device. On android use termux with gui if you know how to. On Linux/Mac/Windows you can search google how to install it. Version 3.7 and 3.8 is recommended for less trouble.
Check "Install pip" during installation.
Download https://github.com/B16f00t/whapa/archive/master.zip. It's a open-source tool that fetches your google drive backups for you. If you're interested you can look into the code too. (It's not my code)
Unzip the folder and go inside the folder. Open a terminal/command shell/powershell inside the folder and run pip install -r ./doc/requirements.txt
Edit the config.cfg inside cfg folder with your data.
Now run the gui by typing python whapa-gui.py
or run the bat file if on windows.
A gui window should pop and you can now go to the Ghadori tab
You can now download your chat backups from google drive
This tool will allow you to view the chats as well. The database file is your chat backup and you should now keep it safe. Cloud storage like mega is recommended.
Method 1:
Required:
Titanium backup for android or OandBackup
Patience
Instructions:
Install Titanium backup / Oandbackup
Search for whatsapp
Backup
It should create a backup archive (zip/tar.gz file). Extract it to obtain your key and unencrypted messages database.
Method 2:
Required:
A File manager that supports root (FX, and Xplore suggested)
Patience
Instructions:
Open the file manager and grant root permissions.
Open /data/data/com.whatsapp
root folder
Copy all files there / zip it to sdcard (internal storage).
The files should contain key and unencrypted message database.
Hope this helps anyone who searches for it :)
I just backup the existing WhatsApp folder via a network sync over night. No root, just termux. I've been able to restore it by just copying that back to the phone before reinstalling WhatsApp.
But those are encrypted databases, how do you decrypt them?
I don't, I'm basically just following https://faq.whatsapp.com/android/chats/how-to-restore-your-chat-history/?lang=en but automated.
Nice write up. Do you think we can extend this to iPhone? It is crazy that WhatsApp lets their uses transfer from iPhone to Samsung but not the other way around!
I am sorry to report that as I was fearing google drive stores only an encrypted db of the chats (Databases/msgstore.db.crypt12), just as the external/normal storage WhatsApp from the Android phones (which is fully accessible and you can just copy via a USB cable or any app like foldersync or even the rsync/rclone from termux, etc.).
So you still need a rooted phone for Android (to get either the key or the db in plain text), no other way. I've read that for iPhone you can do local backups which you can explore and find the key/db there but I have no experience with that.
I heard that it's unencrypted in the drive backups. Hm. I think I'd have to look into this. Thanks for correcting btw. I'll do a check.
You should write that this is not possible for ios devices as they don't support google drive backups.
Hm. Interesting. Does it backup to icloud? Then there could be a tool that authenticates with icloud and downloads the unencrypted backup.
As far as I know it does backup to iCloud.
If you have a Mac you can see this by opening your terminal in
/Applications/Utilities
and do
cd ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/ find *whatsapp*
unfortunately, the chats are encrypted.
Does the Google drive backup really include everything in a chat?
Messages yes
Media no unless it was enabled
wow I did not know that, I thought google backups were as limited as google backups
I am replacing my iphone 7 to OnePlus 7 pro and I need to have my old WhatsApp in my new phone. Its crazy that there does not seem to be a straight forward way to do this. I am sure lots of people had this need. What is the most elegant solution?
u are basically rip, cuz apple only allows icloud as for the backup. when i changed from iphone to op i had the same problem. i really tried many things but some Software that promised to help were behind paywalls and i didnt really bother too much after 6 hours and gave a fuck and said good bye to the chats :D
So basically the above comments saying stuff about google drive does not work right:(
on ios u are not able to use any other cloud service than apple to backup ur stuff in whatsapp. dont be sad, chats arent worth to be kept for ever. Also, u should anyway use telegram and WhatsApp :D
you can backup your whatsapp to your google drive and then just do a restore. settings > chats > chat backup . it will backup chat history and pictures but not video
Backup via whatsapp, upload to Dropbox/googledrive/etc, download on new phone, restore?
I'm assuming that an IOS WhatsApp backup is compatible with Android WhatsApp of course.....
On iOS whatsapp the only choice for backing up is to iCloud
Ahh, the Android version lets you backup to the device as an option. Can you not access iCloud from a PC, download the backup and then manually upload it to something else (Dropbox etc) so you could download it to your new phone??
Backup Trans is the way to go. But it is a paid solution :)
So recently, I transferred my messages from my old phone to my new phone and I didn't know it would override all my new messages so now I've lost all my new messages. I tried backing up all my messages by clicking "back up" in settings thinking it would bring back all my previous messages but I later learned it just saved all my new messages. I then deleted and re-downloaded WhatsApp but now it doesn't work. What should I do? Please help me asap.
You can’t merge new chats from your new phone and old chats from your old phone.
I don't necessarily want to merge my chats, I just want all the chats from my new phone back
If you didn't do a save of your new chats before deleting WhatsApp then they are gone.
how to backup whatsapp messages
Here are key considerations for backing up WhatsApp messages:
Backup Method:
Backup Frequency:
Storage Space:
End-to-End Encryption:
Restoration Process:
Steps to Backup WhatsApp Messages:
Recommendation: Regularly check your backup settings to ensure they are functioning correctly, and consider manually backing up before switching devices or reinstalling the app. This way, you can avoid losing important conversations.
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