How to restore your WhatsApp messages

What do you do if you accidentally delete an important WhatsApp message? This guide will show you proven ways how to restore deleted WhatsApp messages without backup on iPhone and Android phones.

When WhatsApp messages are lost on your device, you can first restore WhatsApp from Google Drive to Android, or restore it from iCloud to iPhone. However, many users may never make any backup, or cannot create or restore WhatsApp from Google Drive.

Indeed, there are tools available and steps to follow for you to handle WhatsApp chat recovery without backup. Let’s discuss these options thoroughly in this guide.

Note: Before proceeding, remember that if you delete a message and then back up your archive those deleted messages will then be wiped in that backup. At that point, the messages will be unrecoverable. So if you have deleted a message you need to recover, make sure any automated backups are immediately canceled and don’t back up anything manually!

How to restore deleted whatsApp messages on Android

First, delete WhatsApp from your phone, then reinstall it.
You will have to do the whole setup again with your phone number and verify the number. You must also have your two-step authentication number ready if you had that set up with the previous installation.
Once you have verified your number, it will tell you if it has detected a backup on Google Drive. If it has, it will invite you to restore it. If you tap SKIP, bear in mind that you will not be able to restore from Google Drive without uninstalling and reinstalling again. But you can select SKIP if you intend to restore from a local backup.
Your backup will now be downloaded to your phone and restored.
Once the backup has been completed, you’ll be asked to fill in your display name and enter your two-factor authentication code again. Then your messages will appear on the screen.

Restoring from a local backup

If you have backed up your WhatsApp archive to your device’s local storage, or an SD card, this is how you can restore it.

Use a file manager like Google Files to access your phone’s internal storage.
Find the WhatsApp folder.
When you find the folder, go to Databases
Find the file in that folder that you want to restore (likely the most recently dated one) and change its name to the previous file. In this case, it would be msgstore.db.crypt14.And chanege it to msgstore_BACKUP.db.crypt14.
Now uninstall WhatsApp, reinstall it, and go through the initial setup again.
When it comes time to restore a backup, since there’s no Google Drive backup to detect, it will detect the local storage version instead.
Select Restore.

How to recover deleted messages on iPhone

Since an iPhone doesn’t support SD cards or restoring from local storage, the only way is through an iCloud backup. In many ways, this greatly simplifies the whole process.

It is the same as restoring an Android phone from Google Drive. Uninstall and reinstall WhatsApp on the iPhone. Set up and verify your number again. Select Restore, and it will detect your iCloud backup, where you can reset everything.