About Google Drive backups
The easiest way to transfer your WhatsApp data to a new phone is by using Google Drive. Google Drive is offered, developed, and operated by Google. We recommend connecting your phone to Wi-Fi prior to backing up your chats to Google Drive, as backup files can vary in size and consume mobile data, causing additional charges. Beginning April 19, 2022, you will need to backup to Google Drive every 5 months to avoid the loss of deletion.
Note:
- WhatsApp backups do not count against your Google Drive storage quota.
- WhatsApp backups are tied to the phone number and Google account they were created on.
- WhatsApp backups that haven't been updated in 5 months may automatically be deleted by Google. To avoid the loss of any backups, we recommend backing up your WhatsApp data often.
- The first backup might take a while to complete. We recommend leaving your phone connected to a power source.
- Every time you create a Google Drive backup using the same Google account, the previous backup will be overwritten by Google. There's no way to restore an older Google Drive backup.
- Media and messages you back up aren't protected by WhatsApp end-to-end encryption while in Google Drive unless you choose to turn on end-to-end encrypted backups.
Please refer back to this help center article regularly for updates.