How to recover WhatsApp messages

Posted by By Mike Earthling 6 Min Read March 23, 2021
MobileTrans: come trasferire WhatsApp da Android a iOS e viceversa

In today’s tutorial we find out how to recover WhatsApp messages on Android and iOS, with and without a backup

Whether you have decided to format your smartphone, buy a new one or simply need to uninstall WhatsApp, you can always restore old messages and chat media taking advantage of the restoration of online or offline backups.

I’ll also explain how to recover conversations even without a backup, even if it is the least reliable solution for the reasons you will see later.

For this reason I recommend that you back up regularly, manually or automatically, depending on your preferences.

How to recover WhatsApp messages on Android

Back up to Google Drive

To set up Google Drive backup:

  • open WhatsApp -> tap the three dots at the top right ⋮ -> ​​Settings -> Chats -> Chat backup
    • click on Backup su Google Drive and select how often to backup
      • if you want to backup manually choose Only when I tap “Back up”
  • gives Account Google select the Google account to backup to
  • gives Backup via choose whether to backup only while connected to a Wi-Fi network or also using your data connection
  • choose whether to Include videos or not

If you have chosen not to set up automatic backup, click on RUN BACKUP to run it manually.

Restore a backup from Google Drive

If you want to restore the last available backup on Google Drive:

  • uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp
  • open WhatsApp and verify the number
  • awards RESET to restore chats and media files from Google Drive
  • once the procedure is complete, touch FORWARD

After restoring the chats, WhatsApp will start restoring the media files.

If you install WhatsApp without having any previous backup on Google Drive, WhatsApp will automatically restore the backup file stored locally.

Restore a local backup

The phone automatically creates local backups for the last seven days, every day at 02:00 and they are saved in the folder sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases. Unlike the backup to Google Drive, which allows you to restore only the most recent backup, with this method you can choose which backup to restore.

If you want to restore a local backup, follow these steps:

  • download an application dedicated to file management (file manager such as Solid Explorer)
  • in the file manager, go to sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases
  • rename the backup file you want to restore from msgstore-AAAA-MM-GG.1.db.crypt12 a msgstore.db.crypt12
    • a previous backup may use a different protocol, such as crypt9 The scrypt10. Do not change the protocol number
  • copy the file to your pc
  • uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp
  • move the file previously copied on the PC to the memory of your smartphone
  • click RESET

As in the case of a restore from Google Drive, WhatsApp will begin restoring media files after restoring the chats.

How to recover WhatsApp messages on iOS

To backup chats on your iCloud you need to pay attention to:

  • logged in with the Apple ID you use to log into iCloud
  • have iOS 9 or later and iCloud Drive must be activated
  • have enough space available on both your iCloud account and your iPhone
    • the space available on your iCloud account and on the phone must be at least 2.05 times the size of the backup
  • use the same phone number for backup and restore
    • it is not possible to restore chat history from another WhatsApp account
    • backups are associated with single phone numbers, so it is possible to have backups for different WhatsApp accounts saved in the same iCloud account

Back up to iCloud

To set up automatic backup to iCloud:

  • open WhatsApp -> Settings -> Chats -> Chat backup
  • click on Automatic backup and select how often to backup
  • choose whether to Include videos or not

You can manually back up your chats at any time by going to WhatsApp -> Settings -> Chats -> Chat Backup -> Back Up Now

Restore a backup from iCloud

  • verify there is an iCloud backup in WhatsApp -> Settings -> Chat -> Chat backup
    • if you can see when the last backup was performed, uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp
  • after verifying your phone number, follow the instructions to restore your chat history

How to recover WhatsApp messages without backup on Android and iOS

There are several software, very similar to each other in interface and functionality, which allow you to recover chats and multimedia files even if you do not have a backup.

From personal experience I can tell you that these software are not 100% reliable, as the success of the recovery operation depends on several factors, such as the fact that the program is able to temporarily root the smartphone or that the portion of memory in the which files were found has been overwritten.

In any case, trying doesn’t hurt, you can try the free version of the software, which generally allow you to recover only a portion of the files and possibly buy the full license to recover everything.

Among the software available I point out Dr. Fone, Tenorshare UltData e EaseUs, all compatible with Windows and Mac for recovery from Android and iOS smartphones.