If you accidentally deleted WhatsApp chat history, messages and attachments on Android phones, like Samsung galaxy phones, LG phones, HTC, Lenovo, Motorola, you can get them back. In this article, we will show you different ways to recover deleted WhatsApp data. We will introduce how to get back your recover deleted WhatsApp messages or chat history with the chat app, we will also recommend a more powerful Android data recovery which is easy to use and free to download.
#1. Recover WhatsApp Chat History from recent backups
If you have any backups of WhatsApp chat history, you will be able to recover chat history from your backups. If you deleted any Chat history or messages without backup, you can still recover lost messages, attachments from the WhatsApp automatic backups. It is because WhatsApp automatically makes backups every day at 4 AM (your local time) and stores them on your phone’s internal memory (only given that there is enough free space) or external microSD card of your Android phone. What you will need in order to recover WhatsApp messages is to uninstall the WhatsApp, then reinstall the chat app again. During the installation process, you will be prompted to restore your message history. Simply tap Restore and everything less than seven days old is restored.
#2. Recover WhatsApp Chat History from older (less recent) backups
You can follow below instructions to restore WhatsApp messages or chats from a backup:
- Uninstall WhatsApp.
- Open the WhatsApp database or backup folder. Decide which backup file you want to restore.
- Rename that file from “msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt7” to “msgstore.db.crypt7”.
- Install WhatsApp.
- When asked to restore, tap Restore.
You can find the WhatsApp backup files from /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases folder, you will see that they are saved with names like “msgstore-YYYY-MM-DD.1.db.crypt7”. Note that WhatsApp backup folder may be located in either your phone’s internal memory or external memory.
What are the disadvantages of recovering WhatsApp chat messages from backups?
- The automatic backup files of your WhatsApp chat history and messages are only valid for 7 days after last saved. Make sure you import your chat history before it expires! You can’t find or restore data from backups that are more than 7 days old.
- You will lose the newest WhatsApp messages. Current chat history that has not been backed up yet will be lost upon restoration. That is to say you will lose all of the messages that you have sent and received since the backup was created.
- You can’t restore chat messages if your SD card and/or chat history is corrupted.
- You can’t restore chat history if you have a different phone number than when you backed up your chats.
- If you run a manual backup, it will overwrite the most recent automatic backup file.
#3. How to recover recent WhatsApp chat messages without losing newest chat history?
We know that new messages sent/received after a backup, and deleted before the next backup, cannot be restored. If you want to keep a copy of the newest WhatsApp messages, you can create a manual backup from
WhatsApp > Menu Button > Settings > Chat Settings > Backup conversations.
This manual backup file will normally be saved as “msgstore.db.crypt7” in your /sdcard/WhatsApp/Databases folder. Rename this chat backup file to something like “msgstore.db.crypt7.newest” or “msgstore.db.crypt7.current”.
There’s no simple way to merge your new message with your old, recovered messages though.
hi matt..
i have lost my phone 1 year ago but i have taken the same number so how can i get my old chats on whatsap . Is there any possibilities to get them back? I dont have the same phone but i have the same number and google drive doest have backup for this so what to do ?pls tell me its very urgent
Hello
I need some help regarding my Xperia z1 compact…. i forgot the pin to enter the phone and was usable to access it for a few days, when I finally got in to it this morning everything was working fine and all my details, contacts, pictures everything were on the phone. Once i got home and it connected to WIFI it seemed to reboot itself and went back to factory settings somehow. I hadn’t even used it i just took it from my bag and it was installing updates and the next thing asked me to input language and setup etc and it’s lost everything. Numbers, pictures, videos, whatsapp. Can anyone help with this?? Is it possible to get anything back?
I’ve installed the dr.fone app but it only seems to retrieve whatever is on the phone now (which still isn’t much just default stuff) the phone is set up for debugging but i’ve no idea what to do now… or if i’m just wasting my time.
Can anyone help?
Thanks
sorry to hear about the data loss on the phone. have you enabled the advanced mode prior to scanning your phone using dr. fone? the advanced scanning mode is more powerful in finding and recovering lost data. you should give it a shot if not yet.
Also do you have a SD card installed on the phone?
Hello there, i cleared my misc files on my phone, so all those media were lost. I have never backed them up. How can i bring all those photo back?
Hi, my phone was stolen. I replaced my sim – sim swop. Is there a way I can download whatsapp on my pc and recover all my whatsapp messages without my phone?
Hi,
I would like to see my wife’s whatsapp chat history which had been deleted from her phone, no backups, & she had deleted everything from the file manager too, please help me
when no backups of WhatsApp created before, you can try the 4th WhatsApp data recovery method in above article. basically you need to download an Android mobile phone data recovery software on to your PC, connect the Android phone to PC via USB, then run the recovery software on computer and allow it to scan the attached mobile phone for WhatsApp chat history. if the free trial version can find the deleted WhatsApp messages and chat history, you can go to buy and register the software to get full version, thus export WhatsApp chat history from phone to PC.
Hi . I have not open my WhatsApp for a few month because my phone is broken .Now I got a new one and I installed WhatsApp using the same number but I lost all my group and chat .so I tried to open my old phone and installed WhatsApp to get all the old messages but the problem is when I restore the backup , it shows the last year messages and group and I want the latest one . so what can I do to get the latest group and messages ?
you can download the Android phone data recovery software on to a PC or Mac, then enable USB debugging on the old phone and connect it to your computer via USB, run the recovery software to scan your old phone see if any of the WhatsApp chats you like to get back can be found or not. Generally speaking you should be able to recover recently deleted files and data from phone before they are overwritten by new data.