How to Backup Your WhatsApp Messages

Everyone who uses messaging apps has accidentally deleted messages at some point. These conversations, like photos, carry some precious memories, and it is indeed a tragedy if a person deletes them by mistake. WhatsApp, the world’s most popular messaging app, allows people to back up their conversation history (including media). To avoid the disaster of losing your precious WhatsApp conversations, you can create a backup as follows.

Android
By default, WhatsApp for Android automatically creates a daily conversation backup and stores it in the WhatsApp folder on your phone’s memory or microSD card. But you can also create a backup manually if you prefer. Here’s how.

1. Open WhatsApp and tap the menu button (three vertical dots in the upper right corner) > Settings > Chat Settings > Backup Conversations.
2. The file will be stored in the /WhatsApp/Databases folder on your phone as “msgstore.db.crypt7”. WhatsApp recommends that you rename this file to “msgstore.db.crypt7.current” (without the quotes) so that it can be easily found if you want to restore the backup.
3. To restore conversations from backup, uninstall WhatsApp and find the correct backup file from the WhatsApp folder. The slightly older backup is named “msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt7”. In order to restore any of them, rename the file to “msgstore.db.crypt7”.
4. Now reinstall WhatsApp. After verifying the phone number, WhatsApp will display a prompt stating that the backed up message has been found. Click Restore, select the correct backup file, and wait for the dialog to appear in the app.

iPhone

WhatsApp for iPhone uses Apple’s iCloud service to back up your conversations. This backs up everything except videos. Here’s how to use it.

1. On iPhone, go to Settings > iCloud > Documents & Data > Turn On. You need to turn this feature on to save WhatsApp conversations.
2. Now open WhatsApp and click on the “Settings” button in the lower right corner. Select Chat settings > Chat backup > Back up now.
3. In the same location, you’ll see an option called “Automatic Backup.” Click on it. By default, this setting is weekly. We recommend that you change it to “Daily” to avoid data loss.
4. To restore your backup, uninstall the app and reinstall it. Select Restore after verifying your phone number.

blackberries

Your WhatsApp conversations are backed up on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone every day. Here’s how to create backups and restores.

1. Open WhatsApp. Swipe down from the top of the screen to access the apps menu. Select Settings > Media Settings > Backup Conversation.
2. This file will be saved in the /device/misc/whatsapp/backup folder on your BlackBerry 10 smartphone as “messageStore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt”. WhatsApp recommends that you save this file as “messageStore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt.current” so you can easily find it.
3. Uninstall WhatsApp now. Make sure you know the correct backup file name.
4. Reinstall WhatsApp. After verifying your phone number, select “Restore” and select the correct backup file.
5. If you are using a BlackBerry 7 smartphone, you will need a microSD card to back up your chat history. This is because after restarting the BB7 phone, the message history will be deleted from the internal storage. If you have a microSD card in your phone, follow these steps to back up your conversations.
6. Open WhatsApp and select the Settings tab at the top.
7. Select Media Settings > Message History > Media Card. This ensures that all your messages are saved on the memory card.
8. If your chat history no longer appears in the app, uninstall WhatsApp.
9. Turn off the phone, remove and replace the battery. Restart your phone.
10. Open the BlackBerry Media folder and press the BlackBerry button > Browse.
11. Open Media Card > Database > WhatsApp and look for the “messagestore.db” file.
12. Rename it to “123messagestore.db”. This will ensure that WhatsApp restores the next latest chat history saved.

Windows Phone

Here’s how to create a chat history backup on WhatsApp for Windows Phone.

1. Open WhatsApp and tap on the three dots in the lower right corner.
2. Select Settings > Chat Settings > Backup. This will create a backup of your WhatsApp conversations.
3. If you accidentally delete your chat history, we recommend that you do not create a new backup. Instead, check the time of your last backup, which can be found under the Backup button mentioned in the previous step.
4. If this is after you receive deleted chat history, uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.
5. After verifying your phone number, WhatsApp will ask you if you want to restore your chat backup. Select Yes.

nokia feature phone

If you are using WhatsApp on your Nokia S60 phone, follow the steps below to create a backup.

1. Open WhatsApp and select Options > Chat History > Backup Chat History.
2. Now click on Yes to create backup.
3. To restore your backup, uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp.
4. Select Restore after verifying your phone number.
5. If you try to restore chat history on another Nokia S60 phone, remember to use the same microSD card you used in your previous phone.
6. Unfortunately, Nokia S40 phone cannot create chat history backup. The best thing you can do is email the conversation to your personal email account to keep a record. Even this is only possible in phones with memory cards. Here’s how to send chat backup via email.
7. Open WhatsApp and open the conversation you want to backup.
8. Select Options > Chat history > Email. Your chat history will be attached as a .txt file.

This is how to backup messages on WhatsApp. If you found this article useful, we have many more tutorials in our “How To” section.