If you love using WhatsApp just like us, and want to take a complete backup of your chats, then you are in the right place. We will tell you exactly how you can take backup of your account in simplest way possible. So let’s get started.
Taking backup of everything you do has become a need of time. Let it be your work-related project or your social media chats. If you are concerned about the conversation you had with your friends, family or loves ones, and don’t want to lose them. Then you should definitely know about the WhatsApp Backup feature and how to set it up. It is easy to set up the backup process and doesn’t even take much time. And you can even restore whenever you want.
Where will My WhatsApp’s Backup be stored?
You can take the backup of WhatsApp chats by either Google Drive or iCloud. The method depends on the operating system you use. If you have an Android smartphone, then your backup will be stored on Google Drive. On the other hand, if you use your iPhone, your backup will be sent to Apple’s iCloud.
There’s another method that works only on Android smartphones. If you have one then, you can store past 7 days WhatsApp chats locally without internet connection on your device and restore it whenever you want.
Let’s learn how to take Backup of WhatsApp chats on Android devices first, then we will move to the iPhones.
1. How to Backup WhatsApp on Android smartphones using Google Drive?
If you have an Android device, then all your data will be stored in Google Drive. Google Drive if you don’t know is the storage solution offered by Google for anyone who uses an Android device.
You get 15 GB of Free space for every Google Account that can be used for storing your files on the cloud. These files might include anything such as photos, videos, text files, PDF’s, presentation and literally any other format.
WhatsApp comes with an in-built option for Android devices that takes backup and stores your data on Google Drive automatically.
Prerequisite- But before moving on, make sure you
- have enough free storage on Google Drive.
- have a stable internet connection for the backup.
- a Google account is also required, but since you are using an Android device, you would have already been using one.
Follow these steps to take WhatsApp Backup on Android device.
- First of all open WhatsApp. Go to Settings > Chats > Chat backup. You will see Chat backup options like this.
2. Now, click on the Green Back Up button.
3. The backup process will start then. In the first step, WhatsApp Backup will be saved to your phone’s internal storage.
4. Once the local backup is completed, the online backup process will start. All your messages will now be backed up to Google Drive.
You can either take backup manually or automatically. Learn more about various options while backing up WhatsApp.
1.1. Google Drive Settings Explained
When you take backup online on WhatsApp, you will come across some settings. We will tell you what each thing means and how to use it to take backup efficiently.
- Backup Frequency- In this option, you are allowed to select the time interval between the two backups. There are basically 5 options.
Never- WhatsApp will never back up your chats to Google Drive.
Only when I tap “Back up”- Backup will take place only when you click on the green Back up button above.
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
If you select Daily, weekly and monthly options, your WhatsApp chats/ conversations will be backed up automatically. So make sure you have enough space for the backup on Google Drive as well as the preferred Google account selected for backup.
- Choose Google Account for Backup- Here you will have to assign a Google account in order to back up WhatsApp on Google Drive. If you have multiple Google account you will be asked to choose a Google account you want to back up WhatsApp chats to.
Note- If you change your Google account, your existing backup will be lost.
- Choose Wi-Fi or cellular connection for backup- You can choose either Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi & Cellular both. We recommend you to take backup over Wi-Fi only as the backup sizes might be bigger in the size.
- Include Videos- This feature is included for those who want to take backup of the videos as well. If you select this, the backup size will be huge. We recommend you to take backup of the Videos locally using SD Card or share them to another device when you migrate. This will help you cut down backup size.
1.4. How much data does WhatsApp local Backup store?
WhatsApp will take the backup of your chats up to the last 7 days. This means you have got hold of your last week’s chats always. Basically, you don’t have to worry about online backup because all your past 7 days will be stored locally and can be restored anytime—Just make sure you don’t lose the files stored on your device locally.
The size of the data would be around 1.5 GB to 1.8 GB for 7 days according to your WhatsApp usage.
2. How to Restore WhatsApp Chats on Android?
Android offers two ways to restore your chats. One is being the most obvious that is restoring from a Google Drive backup and another is to restore offline from the internal storage of the device.
2.1. How to restore from a Google Drive Backup (Online Method)
You must use the same WhatsApp number you used to back up on Google Drive. You should also be logged in to the same Google account when you created the backup.
The restore process is quite simple for both Android and iPhones.
1. When you reinstall WhatsApp on a new/ another smartphone, it will ask you if you want to restore WhatsApp backup from Google Drive.
2. Tap on the restore button and all your messages will be restored automatically.
3. Once all your chats are loaded up, your media will start to restore if you backed it up.
Note: If you have the backup files already on your device, WhatsApp will restore your chats locally. A message will be shown below: No data needs to be downloaded.
3. How to Backup WhatsApp on iPhone using iCloud?
Now let’s see, how we can take a WhatsApp backup on iPhone device running iOS.
We all know that iCloud is Apple’s cloud storage service and you get 5 GB of free storage when you purchase any of their Apple devices.
Prerequisite–
- You should be signed in to your Apple ID to be able to backup to iCloud.
- You should have the iCloud backup turned on in settings.
- Make sure you are running iOS 9 or later. Older versions don’t support the iCloud backup feature.
- You should have an ample amount of free space on your iCloud to be able to backup properly.
- You should always have at least 2x more data on your device as well as on iCloud storage before moving on.
Follow these steps to take WhatsApp Backup on iPhone.
- Open your WhatsApp, go to Settings > Chats > Chat Backup.
2. Tap on the Back Up Now button to start taking back up manually.
3. Choose the period like daily, weekly or monthly according to your needs to set up automatic backup.
Refer to the Android section for more information about Backup options. We won’t repeat the same things again as the rest of the options are pretty much the same in both Android and iOS devices.
4. How to Restore WhatsApp Chats on iPhone?
Restoring WhatsApp chat on the iPhone is also very simple. Make sure you have the following things:
- You must be logged in using the same Apple ID you used for backup.
- Make sure iCloud and iCloud Drive are turned on the settings of iPhone.
- While restoring, you should verify the same phone number you used for backup.
- Check first if the backup you took is available to restore in your WhatsApp under Chat backup.
- Install and open WhatsApp on the device you want to restore WhatsApp chats.
- Upon opening, you will be asked to verify your mobile number. Verify your number to continue.
- After that, you will be asked whether if you want to restore WhatsApp chats. Tap on the Green Restore button to continue.
- WhatsApp will search for backup in your iCloud, if found any, it will automatically restore all your chats.
5. How to Backup WhatsApp Messages Locally on Android?
5.1. Take Backup Offline
The local Backup feature is exclusive only to Android devices. If you have an Android device, WhatsApp will create a local backup of your chats and store them on your device’s internal storage every day. The local backup process is automatically carried out at 2:00 AM every day.
Note: Local Backup doesn’t require an internet connection to work. Also, Local backup doesn’t include media.
5.2. How to restore WhatsApp Chats locally from phone’s storage (Offline)
If you don’t want your older chats to be restored, you can easily restore your last 7 days messages with the offline restore method.
You will need to transfer data from one device to another if you are planning to use WhatsApp on another Android device. You can also use this method, If you want to clear all the chats before 1 week and just want to restore WhatsApp messages of the last 7 days.
1. Go to your internal storage or SD Card storage where WhatsApp is installed. Most of the time it is internal storage.
2. Now go to WhatsApp/Databases. There you will see files and copy those files from an old device to the new device.
3. Now, all you have to do is to verify the number on the new device and tap on the Restore button. A message would appear as: No data needs to be downloaded.
6. How to Export an individual or a Group Chat? (Works on both Android & iOS)
What if you want to just take backup of an individual chat only. Well, we have got you covered. If you don’t to take full WhatsApp Backup, you can always export any chat you want and save it to a multitude of platforms.
- The chat will be exported in the .txt extension also known as text file.
- You can also include media if you want to take backup of it as well.
This offers you flexibility while saving/ exporting your chats. The export option lets you create an individual or group chat backup. This chat file then can be sent to various locations such as Google Drive, Email, Social media apps, WhatsApp.
Wrapping Up
It doesn’t matter which device you use, taking backup of your WhatsApp chats is easier than never before. It is always recommended to take backup weekly. If that’s not possible then at least once a month to avoid losing your messages. So these were all things you needed to know in order to safely backup and restore WhatsApp messages. Follow us for more awesome WhatsApp tips and tricks and how-to guides.