How to Backup and Restore your WhatsApp Data

WhatsApp is an incredibly popular app which is used around the world. If you don’t know what it is, then perhaps you won’t be reading this post, but on the off-chance you do use the Internet but just don’t use WhatsApp, then I’ll explain.

WhatsApp is a communication app which lets you connect with and speak to people all over the world. It’s free, and as long as you have a data connection of Wi-Fi, you can contact anybody as often as you like (providing you have their mobile number).

This post is aimed at those of us who regularly use WhatsApp and encounter the problem of getting a new phone and not knowing how to keep all of our conversations (or transfer them over) to our new device. That’s where we come in. We’re going to explain to you how to transfer your WhatsApp conversations over to a new device.

Google Drive

If you have a newer version of WhatsApp installed on your Android, then you will find this nifty little feature which automatically creates a backup to your Google Drive account. In theory, almost everyone will be using a new version as you have to update the app after “X” amount of days otherwise you can no longer continue using it.

So what do you do?

1) You’ll find three dots in the top left hand corner of the main screen (the screen which lists all of your chats). Tap them.

2) Then navigate to “Settings” –> “Chats” –> “Chat Backup” and select either “backup manually” or “automatic backup”. The automatic one can be set to happen at regular time intervals (for example, every two weeks or every month).

When you reinstall WhatsApp to your new device, you’ll get a prompt to recover your old chats and media from Google Drive. If you accept this prompt then everything will get poured back onto your new Android.