How to restore your chat history

Android
iPhone
To restore your chat history, you’ll need to confirm that a backup already exists. If you don’t have a backup, please follow the steps below to create one on your Google Drive.
  1. Open WhatsApp > More options
    > Settings > Chats > Chat Backup.
  2. Choose the Google Account that you want your chats backed up to.
    Note:
    • You can enable automatic chat history backups to Google Drive on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
    • You can also create a local backup on your device.
  3. Tap BACK UP.
Restore from a Google Drive backup
To successfully restore a Google Drive backup, use the same phone number and Google account used to create it. To maintain a copy of your chat history on Google Drive, you can enable the automatic backup feature for your chats and select its frequency as daily, weekly, or monthly. If you install WhatsApp without a prior Google Drive backup, WhatsApp will automatically restore from your local backup file.
To restore your backup:
  1. Install and open WhatsApp, then verify your number.
  2. Tap RESTORE when prompted to restore your chats and media from Google Drive.
  3. After the restoration has completed, tap NEXT. Your chats will be displayed once initialization is complete. WhatsApp will continue restoring your media files after your chats are restored.
Restore from the most recent local backup
To restore a local backup, you'll need a computer, file explorer, or SD Card to transfer the files to your phone.
To restore your backup:
  1. Download a file manager app.
  2. If your data isn't stored on an SD card, you might see "internal storage" or "main storage". Copy the most recent backup to the local storage “Databases” folder on your new phone.
  3. Install and open WhatsApp, then verify your number.
  4. Tap RESTORE when prompted to restore your chats and media from the local backup.
Note:
  • Your phone will store the last seven days of local backups.
  • Local backups are automatically created daily at 2:00 AM.
  • If your data isn't stored in the /sdcard/WhatsApp/ folder, you might see "internal storage" or "main storage" folders.
Restore from an older local backup
If you want to restore an older local backup, you'll need to do the following:
  1. Download a file manager app.
  2. In the file manager app, navigate to your local storage or sdcard > WhatsApp > Databases. If your data isn't stored on the SD card, you might see "internal storage" or "main storage" instead.
  3. Rename the backup file you want to restore from msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt12 to msgstore.db.crypt12. It's possible that an earlier backup might be on an earlier protocol, such as crypt9 or crypt10. Don't change the number of the crypt extension.
  4. Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.
  5. Tap RESTORE when prompted.
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