WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, cutting across national boundaries and cultures. The app was sought after because of its ability to send and receive photographs and make audio to friends and family within and without the country at no additional cost. The app has since updated its features to include video calls, conference calls, disappearing pictures, animated stickers and much more. No doubt, millions of people use the app on an hourly basis and use it more often than any other social media application. This translates to terabytes of data, including pictures, videos, and important information stored on the app’s servers, and losing or mistakenly deleting messages might be nerve-racking. Knowing how to retrieve this data is important.
How to recover deleted WhatsApp messages on android
Once you can master how to retrieve the messages and any shared media that you have lost, you are then able to chat more confidently and securely without the fear of losing important information. Android is an operating system similar to IOS or windows. The process of restoring data on android devices would depend on whether or not you had the information backup on your google drive (google drive is simply a cloud storage space for android devices). If you backup your data, we will be explaining how you can retrieve it; if you didn’t backup, you are in luck because we also are showing you how to retrieve those lost messages.
- Restore WhatsApp data from google drive
Android users have their chats backed up on google drive. You are usually able to determine how often your phone backs up your chats to the cloud. If you were able to have your chats backup on the cloud, you could retrieve them in these simple steps:
- Ensure that you have enough internal storage or space on your SD card to restore your chats.
- If you have the required space, go ahead and uninstall the app from your phone.
- Go to your device’s google play store, download the app and reinstall it to your device.
- Sign in to WhatsApp by putting your phone number where it is required. Do not change your number, that would mean creating a new account and you would not be able to restore your chats.
- You will be asked if you would like to restore your chats from google drive or skip the restoration process.
- Accept to allow the devices to restore your chat backup. Your messages including media and documents that were backed up will be restored as well.
- How to recover deleted or lost WhatsApp messages without backup
If you didn’t back up your chats, all is not lost. There is hope that you will be able to recover all the data you may have lost, and we are going to provide you with the solution. The solution is using the android data recovery tool, which will allow you to restore everything from chats to call logs. Here’s how to do that:
- Android data recovery is a computer program, so first, you would have to download it and install it on your device.
- Connect your cellphone to the PC using a USB cable.
- Ensure that the android data recovery program connects with your phone
- When you must have connected the phone to the program, a window will open, showing you a variety of content for you to choose from.
- Select ‘WhatsApp and attachments’ and go ahead to click on next.
- Give the program authorisation to scan your deleted texts by clicking the ‘allow’ option that will pop up on your phone.
- After the android data recovery program has scanned through your phone, it will display a list of content.
- You can choose which particular content to retrieve, and if you would like to retrieve all of the content displayed, ‘all’ and click on recover.
How to recover deleted WhatsApp messages on iPhone
It is common knowledge that the world is divided into two; half are android users, and the other half are IOS users. Whether or not this is true, we can’t say for sure. But what we do know for a fact is that IOS users and android users have the same problem of losing information on WhatsApp by either deleting it intentionally or otherwise. For IOS users, iCloud is the cloud storage where chats are backed up. You can schedule the backup dates and how frequently you back up your chats.
- Retrieve deleted or lost messages from WhatsApp iCloud backup
If you were able to back up your chats, then you will be able to retrieve your chats from your iCloud by following these easy steps:
- First, uninstall WhatsApp on your phone.
- Reinstall the app to your mobile phone and sign in to your account by keying in your phone number.
- You will be given the option to restore your chats or to skip the process. Click on restore.
- When the process to restore your chats is complete, you will be able to view all your deleted messages.
- How to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages from iTunes
If you didn’t back up your data on iCloud, you might have better luck backing them up on iTunes. This is a life-saving feature with the iPhone so that if one fails, there’s an alternative. Complete these steps to restore your chats from iTunes.
- Open the iTunes application on your device and connect your iPhone.
- Next, simply tap on the iPhone icon and then select the Restore Backup option.
- Find the file that contains the messages you would like restored, and select it.
- Hit restore and all the chats you selected would be restored to your device.
- How to Recover WhatsApp messages using IOS data recovery tools
If you want to recover your deleted messages, use alternative methods like the IOS data recovery tool. Using such a tool, you can retrieve all the messages, media, and documents you might have lost. This tool does not require that the chats should have been backed up on either iCloud or iTunes. Ensure that you get a version of the program compatible with the IOS version of your device. Below, we have provided a guide to retrieving all your lost information:
- Get the IOS data recovery program downloaded and installed on your computer.
- Get the program running on your computer.
- Then, go ahead to connect your phone to your computer.
- Select the way you would like the data to be retrieved.
- Since you did not back up on either iCloud or iTunes, select the ‘recover from IOS device’ option.
- Begin the scanning process by hitting the ‘start scan’ button and sit tight while the program runs a scan.
- When the scan is complete, choose the ‘attachment and WhatsApp’ option and a long list of all your deleted content will appear. You can choose the messages you would like recovered or;
- Choose to recover all the deleted content by clicking on the recover button.
- Then hit the confirm download button.
- You will be required to choose the destination of the files, i.e. where you would like the content saved on our computer.
- When the downloading process is completed, you will be able to have access to all your messages and content.
- How to retrieve deleted WhatsApp messages from iCloud using a third-party tool
How to use a third party to retrieve your deleted messages: assuming you don’t have your chats backup on any cloud and you cannot use the IOS data recovery program, you can use third-party tools to retrieve those messages you had deleted. For this method, there’s no need to uninstall and reinstall applications on your phone if you use a third-party application such as Tenoshare UltData.
Step 1: you can use a third-party tool such as Tenoshare UltData, and it works similarly to the IOS data recovery program. You will have to download the program and install it on your computer.
Step 2: You will be given several options to choose from; select the “Recover from iCloud Backup” option.
Step 3: go ahead and sign in to your iCloud by keying in your apple ID. Your chats that we’re in the backup will be listed out for you, including the date when it was backed up and the file size.
Step 4: Select the file that contains the information you are looking for, then select “next”. You will be given the option to choose whether or not you want that file downloaded to your computer.
Step 5: choose the “Attachments” option and then select “Next”. This will authorise the program to run a scan and provide you with a full list of files that the program has found from its search.
Step 6: you can preview the messages you would like to retrieve before downloading them to your device. This allows you to ensure that the messages you got are the ones you need. When you have done this, hit the “restore” button, and your chats will be restored to your device.
Before starting the process to restore your messages, ensure that you have enough space on your device and that your iCloud is turned on. You can ensure that your iCloud is on by doing the following:
- Go to your phone’s settings.
- Tap on iCloud and check to see if your iCloud Drive is on. If you can’t seem to find it, simply key in “iCloud” in the search bar.
- If it is not activated, slide the switch.
How to restore old chat messages.
Maybe you are feeling nostalgic and want to have one more glance at your old chats and messages with friends. Or you want to go deep into your archives and find a piece of information that is relevant to you now. Whatever your reasons are, you can easily restore those old chats by using modern technology! To restore an older backup, complete these simple steps:
- First, download an app that manages files on a device such as File Manager.
- Then, go through your external storage to find where your last backup is stored. If you cannot find it in your eternal storage, try searching through your internal storage.
- rename the backup file with msgstore.db.crypt12 but do not change the file’s crypt extension.
- For the final step, delete the WhatsApp application on your phone and reinstall it again.
- Then click on the restore button.
If you ever lost some important data or are just curious to read your old chats again, these steps are sure to make your WhatsApp experience safer and make you more comfortable with chatting freely whether you are an android user or IOS. Remember that nothing is ever truly deleted.
